Droid Incredible 2 review

It wasn't that long ago that we were jonesing for a Nexus One on Verizon. What HTC gave us instead was the Droid Incredible, with the same 1GHz Snapdragon CPU and gorgeous 3.7-inch AMOLED display -- not to mention a better camera (8 megapixel vs. five), 8GB of built-in flash storage, an optical trackpad, HTC's Sense UI on top of Eclair, and a dash of funky industrial design. The Incredible was an impressive phone with a lovely camera, marred only by questionable battery life and lack of supply, forcing HTC to build a Super LCD-equipped model to satisfy demand. Judging by the popularity of the Incredible, it came as no surprise that following HTC's announcement at MWC, the Incredible S eventually became Verizon's Droid Incredible 2. With a 4-inch Super LCD display, global CDMA / GSM radio, front-facing camera, updated internals (including 768 MB of RAM), trick capacitive buttons, and a Froyo-flavored serving of Sense, the Incredible 2 seems like a worthy successor to last year's Incredible. Does it live up to our expectations or is it just another fish in the crowded sea of Android? Does it significantly improve upon the original formula or is it merely a refresh? Hit the break for our review.

Droid Incredible 2 review

Hardware

There's no doubt that the Incredible 2 is an extremely handsome, if not sightly austere looking handset. It's much like the interior of a late 20th century BMW -- all class, all business, and all black. Compared to the original, it's slicker and softer, with rounder edges and much better build quality thanks mostly to the ultra-rigid machined and anodized black aluminum screen bezel. Gone are the old model's whimsical red accents, red innards, and red battery. Instead you'll find a translucent black chassis and a black battery under the hood. Even the bevel around the earpiece is finished in black. Yes, this is Darth Vader's phone, the Droid he's been looking for. The back cover features the same grippy soft-touch finish and unique layered motif as the Incredible, but instead of two "steps", there's only one this time around. Like the HTC ThunderBolt, the Incredible 2 includes contacts (missing from the Incredible S) for an optional inductive charging back, and integrates some of its antennae into the battery door. Pop the cover, and there's a Verizon / Vodafone SIM under the 1450mAh battery plus a 16GB microSD card pre-installed.

Despite the bigger screen, the new version is only marginally larger than the original, about the same weight, and actually a smidgen thinner. The layout is almost identical to its forebear -- the headphone jack and power button have swapped places, and the camera flash is now arranged horizontally instead of vertically. On the left side you'll find the volume rocker and micro-USB connector while the right side is devoid of any controls. The top edge hosts the power button, a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, plus a secondary mic, while the bottom edge hides the primary mic, along with an indent to pry the battery cover off. A sheet of Gorilla Glass protects the 4-inch display, the 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera next to the Verizon logo on top, and the four capacitive buttons at the bottom. The earpiece and notification light live in the aforementioned aluminum screen bezel above the glass. In back there's an 8 megapixel autofocus camera with dual-LED flash on top, a rather tinny sounding speaker, the embossed HTC logo, and the "with Google" stencil towards the bottom.

The 4-inch WVGA Super LCD display deserves a special mention. It's one of the best LCD-based panels we've come across -- bright without any leaks or spots, with naturally saturated colors, deep ink-like blacks, and superb viewing angles. Other than pixel density, it gives the iPhone 4's IPS screen a run for its money and even warrants a nod or two from the notoriously smug Super AMOLED crowd. We've mentioned the trick capacitive buttons before, which rotate when the handset switches between portrait and landscape for apps that support both display modes. It turns out the buttons are drawn by groups of tiny LEDs which are turned on and off based on orientation.

At first glance, the Incredible 2 specs look somewhat pedestrian in this day and age of dual-core processors, qHD displays, and LTE radios. But don't be fooled by the numbers. That 1GHz CPU is Qualcomm's latest generation MSM8655 Snapdragon SoC with Adreno 205 GPU -- it's fast, power efficient, and backed up by a generous 768 MB of RAM. Like with the Thunderbolt (which shares the same processor), we consistently recorded Quadrant scores ranging from 1500 to 1700 -- pretty remarkable for a single core device running Froyo. You'll find the usual collection of sensors on board (compass, gyroscope, accelerometer, proximity, and ambient light) along with the standard assortment of radios (WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, GPS / AGPS, and even FM) plus Qualcomm's popular MDM9600 Gobi module (also used in Verizon's iPhone 4), which supports CDMA together with quadband GSM and dual-band HSPA (2100 / 900MHz). In our tests, calls sounded great thanks to the dual noise-reducing microphone setup, and reception was problem free.

Battery life is excellent for an Android smartphone. Starting from a full charge, the Incredible 2 managed 36 hours and 40 minutes of up time before we decided to plug it back in with 7% battery life remaining. That was mostly light use -- reading email (3 accounts), checking Twitter, and occasionally replying or posting -- with all the radios (except Bluetooth) turned on. Still, this included 30 minutes spent with the handset strutting its stuff in front of the camera for our video review, 20 minutes being used as a hotspot, taking / uploading a few full-size pictures, and only 6 hours idling while we slept.

Camera

The camera on the original Incredible was no slouch. It could be coaxed into taking fantastic shots given enough care and attention. The Incredible 2 takes this formula to the next level, with a camera that's capable of producing amazingly realistic pictures without too much effort. It features HTC's next generation 8 megapixel sensor with autofocus optics (also found on the Thunderbolt) plus a dual-LED flash. Color balance and exposure are top notch. Low-light performance is impressive. Noise is kept under control without compromising detail. In fact, we're pretty sure we're dealing with a backside-illuminated sensor here. There's a certain clinical precision to the pictures captured with the Incredible 2 that we've really come to appreciate -- the camera simply gathers a tremendous amount of information, resulting in amazing shots.

Droid Incredible 2 sample shots

The Incredible 2 captures 720p (HD) video at 30fps with decent results. While it performs significantly better than its predecessor, video recording isn't as stellar as photography. The frame rate isn't quite as smooth as with some other devices (the iPhone 4 comes to mind), and sound quality leaves room for improvement. The camera interface offers a plethora of settings: there's touch-to-focus (for both stills and video), flash mode, Photo Booth-like effects, and additional options nestled within the menus (such as timer, exposure, while-balance, resolution, ISO, and face detection). The digital zoom is activated by pressing the volume rocker or by using an on-screen slider. Unfortunately, there's no dedicated 2-stage camera button, no panorama mode, and the 4-inch Super LCD display, while gorgeous, tends to wash out in direct sunlight, making it difficult to properly frame shots.

Software

While the Incredible 2's hardware is supremely refined, things are bittersweet on the software front. It's running Sense, which we've reviewed in detail alongside the Incredible S. We appreciate that it brings a polished, friendly, and consistent user experience across HTC's multitude of devices, and also provides the company with a strong brand identity, but we're just not fans. The problem is that with each revision of Sense we feel more alienated from what we came looking for in the first place, namely Android. Sense is starting to look and feel like its own OS -- Android in a parallel universe -- with almost every aspect of the user interface getting customized, and deviating significantly from the Android way. Certain changes are positive, like the cool time / weather widget, the fast boot feature, and the much improved music player. Others are frustrating, like the the convoluted dialer / call log and the poor keyboard layout (who decided to put the hide button just below the shift key?!) We realize that it's all a matter of taste, and that some people will choose to go down the rabbit hole into Sense wonderland, but we're purists. So HTC, give us a way to disable Sense, and all will be forgiven. Oh, and third-party launchers and keyboards don't count - like most people, we don't have the time or interest to customize our phones beyond installing a few apps.

Sadly, the Incredible 2 ships with Android 2.2.1 (Froyo) which, despite having stayed properly refrigerated for the past 9 months, is getting rather stale. The good news is that the Incredible S is in the process of receiving an Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) update, so Verizon's version can't be far behind. Overall, we don't have much to complain about -- Froyo still provides solid performance, especially when paired with speedy internals. The phone feels snappy and light on its feet all around. It's clear that HTC's spent time fine tuning Sense to make it highly responsive. Still, there's room for improvement in some areas like the web browser which, while loading and rendering pages briskly, falls short of matching the rest of the user interface in terms of smoothness when scrolling and zooming around heavy sites like Engadget.

The most glaring issue we have with the Incredible 2 is the criminal amount of crapware that Verizon decided to pre-load on the handset -- apps that can't be removed and will forever litter the app tray. Some of them, like Adobe Reader, Kindle, Quickoffice (basic version), Skype, and Slacker are apps you'd likely want to install anyway. Others, such as Blockbuster (a shortcut to the Market), Let's Golf 2, NFL Mobile, and NSF Shift don't have the same widespread appeal, but are passable. But it's with apps like City ID, My Verizon Mobile, V CAST Apps, V CAST Media, V CAST Music, V CAST Tones, V CAST Videos, and VZ Navigator that things become downright ludicrous. Apparently Verizon wants to lump its sexy flagship 3G Android smartphone together with its generic dumbphones by contaminating it with utterly meaningless carrier-branded apps and services. We can only hope that a few heads will roll in Verizon's marketing department after we publish this review, and that common sense prevails with a Gingerbread update that allows us to uninstall the offending apps.

Wrap up

We'll come right out and say it: the Droid Incredible 2 is the best 3G Android smartphone on Verizon today. If you live in a 3G-only area or you can forgo LTE (and the Droid Charge), the choice basically comes down to the Incredible 2 and Verizon's iPhone 4. With this device, HTC is pushing the single core Snapdragon platform to the limit, then packaging it into an attractive and beautifully finished product. It improves upon the already excellent Droid Incredible with a nicer screen, an even better camera, global roaming capability, and most importantly, amazing battery life. It's an incredibly (ahem) well rounded handset -- the perfect storm of quality, refinement, power, and efficiency -- as long as you can live with Sense. And that's the crux of it -- while we think Sense will appeal to many people, we feel that HTC is doing its core audience of passionate, tech-savvy, pure Android aficionados a disservice by not providing a way to disable it (or at least making it easier to install custom ROMs via an unlocked bootloader). This, together with the insane amount of pre-loaded crapware, are the only major issues we have with respect to the software. Of course we'd have liked to see Gingerbread available out of the gate, but this looks like it will be remedied soon. In the end, the Incredible 2 isn't a fish in the sea of Android -- it's a shark seeing Verizon red and ready to devour the competition. Considering how much of a runaway hit the original Incredible was last summer, perhaps HTC should have called this new version the Jaws 2?

Sony S1 and S2 dual-screen Honeycomb tablets get official (video)

Sony's hosting a press event in Tokyo today where it just made the first announcement: a pair of Android 3.0 tablets -- yes, the very two Honeycomb slabs we told you about exclusively back in February. The first is the Qriocity-focused 9.4-inch S1 media tablet with both front- and rear-facing cameras and a curved wrap design that resembles a folded magazine. The S1 features a Tegra 2 SoC and customized "Quick and Smooth" touch panel UI with "Swift" web browser. It can also be used as a remote control for Sony gear thanks to integrated infrared.

The second tablet is the dual-screen S2 clamshell with its pair of 5.5-inch 1,024 x 480 pixel displays, Tegra 2 SoC, and camera. While it sounds bulky, Kunimasa Suzuki just pulled the hinged tablet from his jacket pocket on stage. Sony takes advantage of the two screens with a custom book-style UI layout for its e-reader app, split keyboard and messaging displays for email, and split display and game controllers for PS One gaming. Both the S1 and S2 are PlayStation Certified, support DLNA, and are WiFi and 3G/4G "compatible" according to Sony. See the Sony tablets codenamed "S1" and "S2" in action after the break on their way to a global release in the fall -- possibly sooner in the US.

P.S. While the company isn't ready to talk prices yet, our sources told us back in February that Sony was considering a $599 MSRP on the S1 while the S2 would likely come in at $699. Still no word on the Windows 7 slider but with the other two leaks official, it's now only a matter of time.

Sony S1 and S2 dual-screen Honeycomb tablets get official

Sony S1 and S2 tablets press shots

Sony S1 and S2 tablets eyes-on

DirecTV is field testing RVU, will offer satellite TV without individual receivers in October

We've been waiting since 2009 for the RVU Alliance to deliver on its promise of TV service controlled by a main server that streams content to any screen in the home without requiring any set-top boxes and it appears DirecTV is ready to make it so. A press release issued today indicates it has started field trials of the HR34 RVU server that will be the keystone in its Home Media Center, and plans to roll the service out nationwide in October. If you want to know when to start buying HDTVs like the Samsung D6000 series, it also mentions RVU certification for those and DirecTV's own C30 Home Media Clients (check out a video demo here) is expected to be finalized in June. There's been some delays but if you were also hoping that 2011 would be the year we can get rid of the cable box, the progress is looking very promising.

Engadget

T-Mobile G2x review

It's only been a few weeks since the Optimus 2X crossed the desk of our European review bureau as the first known dual-core smartphone in the universe. Now LG's wunderkind has made its way across the pond and landed on US soil to be reborn as the G2x on T-Mobile. While the hardware remains the same elegant Tegra 2-infused slab of glass, metal and plastic, the software has been liberated from the shackles of LG's UI customizations into a serving of vanilla Froyo -- the exact same approach T-Mobile took when it introduced the Desire Z as the G2 without HTC's custom Sense skin last fall. Unlike previous G-series phones, the G2x ditches the physical keyboard for a 4-inch WVGA display with HDMI output and an 8 megapixel camera with 1080p video capture. Beyond the transition from messaging-centric device to multimedia powerhouse, what else is different about the hardware? Is plain Android a vast improvement over the lackluster software that shipped on the Optimus 2X? How does the G2x fare against T-Mobile's current flagship, the Samsung Galaxy S 4G? Find out in our full review after the break.

T-Mobile G2x review

Hardware

There aren't any major differences in hardware between the Optimus 2X and the G2x, other than the T-Mobile logo replacing the LG branding below the earpiece. Our G2x review unit came with a brown / bronze-colored battery cover instead of a matte black one like its European sibling -- that's about it. What we're looking at then, is the same elegant (if not understated) design and superb build quality as the Optimus 2X. It's clear that LG put some effort into making this a premium smartphone by focusing on the details. A glass panel with beautifully beveled sides covers the entire front of the phone, and conceals a 4-inch WVGA capacitive touchscreen, a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera, a cutout for the earpiece, the proximity and light sensors, plus the four standard Android keys (menu, home, back, and search). Strangely, these capacitive buttons take up a huge amount of real-estate below the display (almost an inch), making the G2x as tall as the HTC Thunderbolt.

The handset feels great in the hand thanks to the matte soft-touch finish and curved edges of the battery door, which takes up the entire back. It's hefty enough to be substantial without being heavy, all while maintaining a svelte 10mm profile. A tasteful strip of brushed aluminum displaying a machined "with Google" logo runs down the length of the back, inline with the camera pod which hosts an 8 megapixel sensor and a large autofocus lens behind a glass window, along with a single LED flash. Sandwiched between the front glass and battery cover, you'll find a silver / faux-gunmetal rim that traces the entire perimeter of the device. The top edge contains the power / lock key, micro-HDMI connector (behind a flap), and standard 3.5mm headphone jack. On the bottom, the G2x takes a cue from the iPhone 4 with two small meshed openings on each side of the micro-USB connector, one hiding the mono speaker (which is adequately loud) and the other protecting the microphone. There's a simple volume rocker on the right edge, and nothing on the left. As expected, the SIM and microSD card slots are located behind the battery door, along with a standard issue 1500mAh battery. No microSD card is supplied since the G2x provides 8GB of internal mass storage.

While most of the hardware in the G2x hits the spot, we're a little underwhelmed with the display. The 4-inch WVGA (800 x 480) IPS panel looks good on paper but misses the mark when compared to the competition. Sure, the colors are rich and the viewing angles are wide, but the LCD washes out more than expected in direct sunlight and suffers from a significant amount of backlight leaking out from the edges of the screen, resulting in visible "stains" on solid, dark-colored content. We're also somewhat perplexed as to why LG decided against outfitting this dual-core smartphone with a qHD (960 x 540) display, à la Motorola Atrix 4G. Obviously, we're being highly critical here -- most people will be satisfied with the G2x's display, at least until they come across one of Samsung's Super AMOLED-equipped devices. Another item that requires improvement is the screen's capacitive touch layer, which is slightly less sensitive than on most other phones. Light touches don't always register, and while this is easily remedied by applying more pressure, it's rather disconcerting -- especially for a handset that's otherwise well designed.

Under the hood, NVIDIA's 1GHz dual-core Tegra 2 SoC is the life of the party, together with 512MB or RAM and the aforementioned 8GB of built-in flash storage. It's difficult to quantify the performance improvements the dual-core silicon brings to the table -- mostly because the results also partially depend on the software -- but the G2x certainly feels snappy, especially when running tasks in the background. It also handles 1080p video recording and playback like a champ, something even low-end PCs often still struggle with. Moving beyond the Tegra 2, you'll find the usual smorgasbord of radios, including 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, quadband EDGE, and quadband HSPA+ (with future-proof support for 2100, 1900, 1700 / AWS, and 850MHz), alongside a generous sprinkling of sensors (light, proximity, accelerometer, magnetometer, and gyroscope).

Update: We've unlocked our G2x review unit and it refuses to connect to AT&T's 3G network (1900 / 850MHz). As this time we believe this is not a hardware limitation, but rather a restriction imposed by the baseband software. We're confident that, like every T-Mobile Android phone before it, the G2x supports 2100MHz 3G for Europe and Asia. We're investigating this further, and we'll keep you posted.

Update 2: T-Mobile has confirmed that the G2x is not a quadband HSPA+ device as originally advertised, and that the hardware only supports 3G bands I and IV (2100 and 1700MHz).

The G2x passed our call and reception tests with flying colors, and HSPA+ performance is on par with other T-Mobile devices like the Galaxy S 4G. Sound quality is excellent, but the audio output is quieter at maximum volume than most other handsets when paired with some headphones (such as our Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro). Battery life is pretty much what you'd expect from a high-end Android phone, providing about a day's worth of moderate use -- typically a half-hour spent on calls, a few text messages, lots of data being pushed from three email accounts and a Twitter account, plus some web browsing, picture taking, and music listening, all with WiFi / GPS enabled and Bluetooth disabled. While there's still room for improvement, we're pleased to report that the Tegra 2 SoC appears to have little (if any) negative impact on battery life. In fact, the G2x fares better in terms of power management than some single core smartphones we're recently reviewed -- yes, we're looking at you, Mr. Thunderbolt.

Camera

The camera in the G2x is a gem in the rough. As you can see in our sample shots, it takes gorgeous pictures, but we can't help but feel that the sensor and optics are being held back by the software, both in terms of image processing and user experience. The first cue that G2x might be equipped with a decent camera is the large lens opening, which allows more light to be gathered. Behind that autofocus lens you'll find an 8 megapixel sensor which, based on the impressive low-light performance we observed, is likely backside illuminated. The camera also features a bright single LED flash for those inevitable (regrettable?) nightclub moments, but sadly there's no dedicated two-stage camera button. Exposure is generally spot on, and pictures always contain a huge amount of detail even in low light, with noise rarely being an issue. Still, colors are somewhat under-saturated, and it often looks as if some of the information gathered by the camera is being unnecessarily lost during image processing -- but we're being picky here.

T-Mobile G2x sample shots

While most other handsets barely manage to record video at 720p (and often poorly at that), the G2x captures smooth 1080p video at 24fps without breaking a sweat. Sure, there's no autofocus or stereo audio during video recording, but you'll quickly gloss over this once you see the beautiful results. Despite running stock Android, the G2x ditches the default camera app for a custom app by LG, which adds a slew of useful controls such as touch-to-focus, scene modes, smile recognition and panorama mode. While this custom interface is reasonably intuitive, the overall camera user experience is somewhat marred by a few shortcomings: the autofocus is slow, the display washes out in direct sunlight, and the less sensitive touch panel sometimes interferes with the clever on-screen shutter key (hold to focus, then release to take the shot). Still, the G2x packs a great camera that leaves the door wide open for future improvements.

Software

The good news is that unlike the Optimus 2X, the G2x runs vanilla Froyo without any unwanted (and potentially rotten) toppings. While T-Mobile added its own flavor in the form of some pre-loaded apps, there are no skin or UI customizations beyond the aforementioned camera interface. The bad news is that these are Gingerbread times, yet the G2x is stuck with Android 2.2.2 for the foreseeable future. Regardless, plain Android is such a breath of fresh air that we're almost willing to forgive LG and T-Mobile for this anachronistic faux pas. Basically, you'll enjoy the same clean and uncluttered user experience as on Google's Nexus phones or the excellent G2, and you'll soon forget about Android contamination and such aberrations as MotoBLUR -- at least until you try to uninstall the bundled apps or start longing for that elusive next Android update. Speaking of pre-installed apps, the G2x ships with EA's NSF Shift, Gameloft's Nova demo, Polaris Office, T-Mobile TV (which dishes out carrier-billed live and on-demand TV programming), Tegra Zone (NVIDIA's game hub), TeleNav, Qik Video Chat, and Zinio Reader. T-Mobile also includes the Swype keyboard, WiFi calling (aka UMA) and SmartShare (LG's DLNA software), along with its My Account / My Device and rather useless AppPack / Highlight / T-Mobile Mail apps. Overall there are no major surprises here, and clutter is kept to a minimum.

Of course, the big question on everyone's mind is how the G2x performs given its Tegra 2 pedigree. As we've already mentioned, in everyday use the G2x feels snappy without any significant impact on battery life. For most tasks, you'd be hard-pressed to detect any major difference in performance compared to a known entity like Samsung's Gingerbread-equipped Nexus S without putting both devices side-by-side -- if anything, power management is better on the G2x. Basically, there is little indication that you're using a dual-core processor until you start launching multiple apps, playing games, or running benchmarks. App startup is noticeably faster on the G2x, especially when other processes are already running in the background.

While most of the games we tested were Tegra 2 optimized and designed to showcase the handset's CPU and GPU prowess, it's clear that gaming is the platform's strong suit. Ultimately we were most impressed with the Quadrant scores returned by the G2x -- typically 2200 to 2600, a full 1000 points more than the Nexus S, and inline in what we observed on the Atrix 4G. That being said, it's still possible to bring the phone to crawl by watching an embedded Flash video in the web browser while playing music in the background. We also noticed that audio playback stops when activating the camera, which is unexpected behavior for a high-end smartphone. From our perspective, it looks like Froyo and most of the Android apps out there are just scratching the surface of what Tegra 2 can achieve in terms of performance, and we're curious to see what Gingerbread brings to the table in terms of dual-core support.

Wrap-up

We were downright bedazzled by T-Mobile's G2x after our recent hands-on at CTIA, and we're even more impressed with LG's Tegra 2 handset now that we've lived with it for a few days. The Galaxy S 4G might have a better display, but there's no doubt that the G2x is T-Mobile's new flagship -- at least until the HTC Sensation becomes available. Not counting Google's Nexus phones, the G2x is the best Android handset that's graced our pockets. It strikes an impressive balance between powerful, quality hardware, and stock, undiluted software. It also speaks volumes of T-Mobile's commitment to plain Android. Sure, we'd have preferred a slightly nicer, higher resolution screen along with a more sensitive touch panel; throwing in Gingerbread from the start -- together with an easy mechanism to remove the bundled apps -- would've also been appreciated. Finally, a more polished camera user experience (one that doesn't stop our thumping house beats each time we fire it up) would be just lovely. Regardless of these quirks, we're left with a solid device today and room for future growth, something that can't be said about too many smartphones these days. Let's just hope LG delivers updates in a timely manner to unleash the G2x's full potential.