HTC Droid Incredible 2 (Verizon)
If there is any competitive company that Apple should be worried about it must be HTC. HTC is showing design and development expertise we thought only mighty Apple could muster. HTC also has demostrated partnership/relationship building skills that Apple, Microsoft, Dell, HP and most others are lacking.
We are beginning to see how versatile companies with hit devices follow up on those initial successes.
In this specific case we are beginning to learn how HTC and Verizon are following up and delivering on the success of the first iteration of the HTC Droid Incredible. The second generation Incredible is less of a drastic rebuild than useful tweaks and design upgrades and refinements like a solid unibody aluminum design with an all-black color scheme for the tactile aware It has a soft matte rubberized back that covers the back and sides. Spec enhancements are there the Incredible 2 will ship with Froyo (2.2)—not with Gingerbread (2.3). HTC promised an upgrade to 2.3. However there are some omissions like 4G. So for that reason the HTC Thunderbolt is a better option.
The Incredible 2 is a bit larger than the first version. It sports a juicy bright 4-inch display. The 800-by-480-pixel-resolution display is marketed as a “super LCD display,” which means that it provides an 800:1 contrast ratio and a viewing angle of up to 160 degrees.
It has a handsomely appointed UI and runs on Verizon’s global CDMA network
The Incredible 2 ships with Froyo (2.2)—not with Gingerbread (2.3). HTC promises an upgrade to 2.3.
The Incredible 2 provides quite a few preloaded apps including Adobe Reader, HTC Footprints, City ID, NFL Mobile, and all of Verizon’s VCast apps.
MultimediaThe Incredible 2 makes watching video a treat. Music listening also doesn’t suck due to SRS WOWHD surround sound for videos and music.
CameraThe Incredible 2 sports an 8-megapixel camera with a dual-LED flash and 720p video capture. The Incredible 2′s camera interface has built-in face-detection software.
The Incredible sports a front-facing, 1.3-megapixel camera for making video calls. Without 4G you may not choose to use video calling.
PerformanceThe Incredible 2 runs on a 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8655 Snapdragon processor, same as that the HTC Thunderbolt.
Verdict: The HTC Incredible 2 is a nice upgrade from the original Incredible. Upgrades in display, design, and specs are useful and make it worth a good look. The Incredible 2 is $50 less than the Thunderbolt which lets you switch between 3G and 4G when you need to.