The original Droid Incredible by HTC was the second Android phone I ever officially reviewed. The first was Google’s Nexus One. A year ago I proudly proclaimed that the Incredible was clearly better than the Nexus One thanks to the added features HTC delivered through Sense. Since then we’ve seen Google improve Android tremendously. The OS has come so far in the past twelve months that I do wish more vendors would actually ship unaltered versions of it on their devices. HTC has kept up with Google’s evolution, at least on some of their devices. The Sensation 4G, EVO 3D and Flyer all ship with a brand new version of the Sense UI (3.0) that actually adds some pretty neat features to the OS (e.g. the ability to launch apps from the lock screen).
Unfortunately the successor to the original Incredible isn’t blessed with Sense 3.0, it’s still running version 2.0. The Incredible 2 also doesn’t ship with Gingerbread, it’s currently only available with Android 2.2.1. Qualcomm does have a working Gingerbread port, something HTC is quite familiar with as all of the devices I mentioned above ship with Gingerbread. The Incredible 2 is due for an update to Gingerbread soon but if you buy it today all you get is Froyo.
The seemingly dated software comes with similarly dated hardware, at least by today’s standards. The Incredible 2 ships with Qualcomm’s MSM8655 SoC. That’s a 45nm SoC with a single-core 1GHz Snapdragon and an Adreno 205 GPU. The chip has 768MB of memory on package. CPU performance isn’t improved compared to the original Incredible although the GPU is faster and power consumption is lower thanks to the 45nm process (the original Incredible had a 65nm QSD8650 with an Adreno 200).
While this is an upgrade from the original Incredible, HTC’s high end phones these days ship with MSM8660 SoCs: the dual-core, Adreno 220 packing successor to the 8655. In a world where the past six months have been dominated by talk of NVIDIA’s dual-core Tegra 2, shipping a high end single-core phone seems silly.
The Incredible 2 increases screen size over the original to a comfortable 4-inches. HTC went with a Super LCD display (PVA) with an 800 x 480 resolution. With Android I firmly believe that the 4-inch screen is ideal for the platform. Anything smaller and it’s too difficult to type on. Anything larger and it’s not as comfortable to carry around with you.
In your hand the Incredible 2 feels good but not perfect. It’s a few mm too wide in my opinion. The front is all glass save for a thin bezel around the sides. The bezel is raised so you can lay the phone flat without worrying about scratching the glass. The four Android buttons are capacitive touch and backlit. The Android buttons will also rotate orientation if you hold the Incredible 2 in landscape vs. portrait. They’ll always be in the same place but they’ll simply rotate 90 degrees so they’re always facing up. Like we saw on the Flyer this button rotation only works if you hold the phone in portrait mode with the Verizon logo facing up or rotate it 90 degrees counter clockwise so the buttons are to the right of you.
Anything that isn’t glass is made of soft touch plastic. Despite having a removable back the device feels solid and didn’t exhibit any squeaks or creaks when handled. My only concern about soft touch plastic like this is it tends to age really poorly and develop shiny splotches as it accumulates oils from your skin and some of the finish wears off.
The power/lock button is up top and the volume rocker is on the left side. There’s also a micro USB port on the left side for charge/sync – there is no HDMI output on the Incredible 2.
Around back is an 8MP camera sensor with dual LED flash. The speakerphone grill is to the right of the rear camera. There’s a 1.3MP front facing camera as well.
The back cover pulls off with the uncomfortable release of a few clips around the edge. I’m always afraid I’m going to break something whenever I pull off these HTC covers. Underneath the cover is the Incredible 2′s 5.36Whr battery, an upgrade from its predecessor.
Go down one more level and you’ll find a SIM card slot behind the battery. The Incredible 2 is a world phone that supports 800/1900MHz CDMA networks, 900/2100MHz UMTS/HSPA+ and 850/900/1800/1900MHz GSM/GPRS/EDGE networks. I traveled to both Abu Dhabi and Taiwan with the Incredible 2, unfortunately I didn’t tell Verizon beforehand and thus didn’t have service in either location. As a world phone you do get a number of additional plugs for the power adapter:
Keeping with recent HTC tradition, the back cover actually houses the cellular, Bluetooth and WiFi antennas. Remove the cover and you quickly lose all cellular reception on the Incredible 2. In the US, EVDO is the fastest cellular network supported – there’s no WiMAX or LTE here. The Incredible 2 supports 802.11b/g/n.
The microSD card slot is accessible without removing the battery but you still need to take off the case to get to it. Verizon sells the Incredible 2 under contract (2-year agreement) for $199 with a 16GB microSD card.
This autumn could be the most exciting few months ever for smartphone fans. Not only is the next iPhone set to make an appearance, but the fruits of Nokia and Microsoft’s partnership is also to be revealed (officially this time). To top it all off, we now have a clue as to what Google’s likely to produce as the successor to the Nexus S.
Like the Nexus S, the so-called Nexus Prime will be manufactured by Samsung, according to reports. BGR has compiled the following snippets of information from a source in the know. Here’s how the next big Android phone is shaping up.
Google Nexus Prime specs
- 1.2GHz or 1.5GHz dual-core TI OMAP4460 CPU
- “Super AMOLED HD” display with 720p resolution
- 1GB of RAM
- 5-megapixel rear camera, 1-megapixel front camera
The Nexus Prime’s reported TI OMAP 4460 CPU is quite a unit, and one that has thus far only been seen in a couple of Archos tablets. Both of those run at 1.5GHz, so it’ll be interesting to see if Samsung has to underclock it at all to achieve acceptable battery life.
By far the most intriguing part of this spec is the “Super AMOLED HD” screen, which outputs at a staggering 720p. Such terms can be confusing – you might think that smartphones have been capable of 720p video for some time, but that doesn’t relate to the resolution of the screen. A 720p screen means one with a resolution of 1280×720, which is a massive increase over the iPhone 4′s 960 x 640 Retina display.
Another interesting point to note is that 5-megapixel main camera. That might sound pretty modest on paper – indeed, the Nexus S has such a snapper – but as we’ve always said, a camera’s megapixel count has naff all to do with its quality. Sure enough, the Nexus Droid’s camera will apparently feature an advanced image sensor for “class-leading image quality,” as well as excellent low-light performance.
An image to maintain
While we’re talking about image, we should throw in the one mention of how the Nexus Prime might look. There are no pictures at present, but the report claims that the device will ditch those physical keys from the front of the device. It seems Google’s going to ‘do a Nokia‘ and tweak its Android OS to run without the need of buttons.
The Samsung Nexus Prime sounds like being a formidable device. What’s even more interesting is the suggestion that Google might be working with a number of manufacturers to get a whole suite of Nexus devices onto the market.
The strength in numbers approach has worked for Android thus far, so this isn’t the outlandish idea it might seem – especially with the next major version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich, set to be scalable across devices of all shapes and sizes. What better way for Google to show that off than to flood the market with multiple devices?
As for a release date – the report mentions autumn, though we would expect a bit of a gap (if Google knows what’s good for it) from the expected September release of the iPhone 5. Taking into consideration the January release of the Nexus One and the December release of the Nexus S, we wouldn’t be surprised if the Nexus Prime made a showing around November.
We’ll bring you more on the next Nexus device(s) as soon as we hear it.
HTC Wildfire S review: Occasional lag and performance issues masked by an excellent design and a competitive price tag
HTC’s Wildfire S offers decent value for money, but doesn’t come without compromises. However, those looking for a relatively compact and affordable smartphone are likely to be pleased with its combination of excellent build quality and intuitive software.
The original HTC Wildfire smartphone brought the Android platform to the prepaid market, and its successor opts for an evolutionary rather than revolutionary upgrade. The HTC Wildfire S has the same-sized 3.2in, capacitive touchscreen and 5-megapixel camera as the original model, but it comes equipped with a higher display resolution, a slightly faster processor, and is wrapped in a smaller and lighter frame.
HTC Wildfire S: Design and display
The HTC Wildfire S is basically a smaller, less powerful version of the now mid-range HTC Desire S. Despite targeting a young, budget-conscious audience, the Wildfire S’s build quality remains excellent. It uses HTC’s famed unibody aluminium design, which means the Wildfire S case is constructed from a single block of aluminium. The result is a smartphone that’s compact, light and a delight to hold and use.
HTC deserves credit for the Wildfire S’s design and especially for making a phone with such a minimal footprint. Despite packing a faster processor, more memory and a better display resolution than the original Wildfire, the Wildfire S is smaller and lighter than its predecessor. For users who are put off by larger phones, the Wildfire S’s compact size will be a breath of fresh air.
The HTC Wildfire S scraps the optical trackpad that was used on the original model and instead opts for the now standard four touch-sensitive keys — home, menu, back and search. The keys themselves work well, but are easy to press accidentally due to the small screen. A physical power/lock button on top, and left-mounted volume controls are easily accessible.
Cheaper Android phones usually come with some compromises that often revolve around the display, and the HTC Wildfire S is no exception. Though the increased resolution of 320×480 pixels over its predecessor’s 240×320 pixels is welcomed, the display fares poorly in direct sunlight, has mediocre viewing angles and does not render text well. Thankfully, the screen is responsive to touch and this results in a pleasing user experience, though text input is rather cramped given the small size of the screen. Haptic feedback and excellent spelling correction aid the typing experience, but it can often be a painful process entering long text.
HTC Wildfire S: Software and performance
The HTC Wildfire S runs the latest 2.3 “Gingerbread” version of Google’s Android operating system, along with the latest version of HTC’s Sense user interface. The latter consists of extras including “skins” that change the look of windows, the dock and the lock screen. There are seven home screens for widgets and shortcuts, and an app menu that can be sorted by all, frequent or downloaded. Most of the usual HTC extras are included, though the car panel (designed to be used while driving), the “My Shelf” app (for storing and reading e-books), and the Swype keyboard (for faster text entry) are notable absentees. We love the fact that Sense displays your eight most recently opened applications at the top of the notifications panel in a horizontal scroll bar, along with quick setting toggles including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi hotspot, GPS, mobile network and a link to all phone settings.
The HTC Wildfire S also has a few features that carry over from its predecessor. There’s the “next generation caller ID” function that allows you to see Facebook updates and birthday information when making or receiving a call, along with the ability to import contacts and calendar entries from your old mobile phone via Bluetooth through the setup menu.
Although the HTC Wildfire S has more memory (512MB compared to 384MB) and a slightly faster processor than the Wildfire (600MHz compared to 528MHz), there is not noticeable improvement in performance. Most tasks take a second or two longer than more powerful Android phones, and the Wildfire S can often struggle when browsing through images in the gallery, loading Web pages, playing videos and taking photos. The inclusion of HTC’s Sense UI is most likely the cause of the sluggish performance, as the company recentlydiscovered with its Desire Android phone. Sense clearly uses more system resources than most other Android UI overlays, and the result is a phone that looks slick, but which can sometimes stumble along.
HTC Wildfire S: Camera, battery life and other features
The HTC Wildfire S has a 5-megapixel camera with a single LED flash, but there is no front-facing camera for video calls. The rear camera also doubles as a standard-definition (VGA) video recorder. The flash works reasonably well in dim lighting, and video recording is of a decent quality. Like most of HTC’s other Android phones, the Wildfire S’s camera has a wealth of settings, including image effects like negative and sepia, along with the ability to adjust ISO, sharpness, saturation, contrast and exposure. We also love the fact that you can use the external volume controls as zoom keys, along with on-screen controls that rotate depending on which way you hold the phone. The lack of a physical camera shutter key is a slight annoyance. The Wildfire S has 512MB of internal memory, but comes with a microSD card slot — Telstra includes a 2GB card in the sales package.
Battery life on the HTC Wildfire S is about standard for an Android phone: it will last more a full day on most occasions, though you will obviously get more use by fine-tuning the synchronisation settings. We recommend adjusting push settings for e-mail, as well as tweaking Facebook and Twitter updates through the Sense software for the best battery life.
The HTC Wildfire S is sold exclusively through Telstra for $360 and will be available from 19 July. Strangely, this is $11 more than what the original Wildfire sold for when it was released in August last year.
