Android titans clash when we pit the Motorola Droid versus HTC Droid Incredible.
With the long-rumored HTC Incredible now unmasked and headed to Verizon in just days, many early reviewers claim it may be the finest Android handset to date. But how does this darling ‘droid stack up to the last Google-powered phone to that held that disputed title – Motorola’s Droid? Wonder no longer, we’ve stacked the two head to head to find out.
Display
Winner: HTC Incredible
Both phones use 3.7-inch screens with similar resolution (the Droid has 480 x 854 and the Incredible has 480 x 800), but the victory goes to HTC for choosing an OLED screen over LCD. As Nexus One owners can attest, LCDs quite literally pale in comparison to the brightness and vibrance of a quality OLED. Unfortunately, they’re known for problems with outdoor viewability as well, but it’s a minor tradeoff in the big scheme of things.
Processor
Winner: HTC Incredible
Not many people complained about the Droid’s powerful Arm Cortex A8 processor clocked at 550MHz, but the Incredible brings a whole new level of performance to the table with a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor running at 1GHz. Early reviews suggest it’s among the most responsive Android phone out there, even with HTC’s custom Sense interface worked in. Boy Genius Report even claims it outperforms the Nexus One, which has the same chip.
Keyboard
Winner: Motorola Droid
The Droid has a keyboard, the Incredible does not. It’s as simple as that. Although Gizmodo claims the Incredible has “the most usable Android touch keyboard in existence,” we still have to hand it to the Droid for offering the option of a physical keyboard. The flat keys make it far from the best we’ve used, but many people still prefer a rather lame physical keyboard to tapping intangible keys on glass.
Camera
Winner: HTC Incredible
With an 8.0-megapixel sensor hiding underneath a bulbous red eye on the back, the Droid Incredible nearly breaks out of smartphone territory and into point-and-shoot turf. By comparison, the Droid only packs 5 megapixels. But resolution alone does not a camera make. The Droid Incredible also offers a dual-LED flash, autofocus, and on-th-fly adjustments for brightness, contrast, and ISO level, which give it the leg up on the Droid’s admittedly very competent cam.
Software
Winner: HTC Incredible
Yes, both phones run Google Android, but the Incredible comes with the Android 2.1, while the Droid comes with 2.0 and needs an update to 2.1. A small quibble, true, but the Incredible gets yet another check on its side of the ledger for HTC’s built-in Sense user interface, which adds subtle touches like a reworked home screen, OS-X-style Expose, and more.
Battery Life
Winner: Motorola Droid
We haven’t pitted both phones head to head in a scientific test (yet), but manufacturer claims aren’t typically too far off with phones, making them a useful indicator here. HTC claims up to 312 minutes of usage time and 146 hours of standby for the Incredible, while Motorola claims 385 minutes of usage and 270 hours of standby for the Droid.
Portability
Winner: HTC Incredible
Sliders make a great way to cram a full QWERTY keyboard into a touch screen phone, but let’s not forget the weight penalty. At a full 6 ounces, the Droid has always been a bit of a bruiser. Weighing only 4.59 ounces, the Incredible has a significant weight advantage. Although both phones measure about half an inch thick, the Incredible also shaves two tenths of an inch off width, making it ever so slightly more pocketable.
Memory
Winner: Motorola Droid
This seemingly clear-cut category actually a little complicated. Both phones have microSD expansion slots, but the Incredible comes with 8GB of internal memory and an empty slot, and the Droid comes with a preinstalled 16GB card. That means the Droid offers better bang for your buck out of the box, but the Incredible is easier to expand (the slot handles cards up to 16GB). At the end of the day, though, the Droid if offering twice the storage for the same price, and that matters more than potential for expansion.
Overall Winner: HTC Incredible
By the numbers, the HTC Incredible has an undeniable advantage on the current king of the mountain: Motorola’s Droid. With both phones priced at $200 on Verizon with contract, that makes the Incredible an alluring option for those Droid holdouts, come April 29. Of course, it’s hard to compare apples to apples with subjective factors like style, but we’ll leave it up to you which phones looks the best or feels nicest in the hand. Regardless of which phone you favor, Android fans should rejoice. These things just keep getting better.
Check out our other smartphone comparisons:
iPhone 4 vs. Android’s Best: Spec Face-Off
HTC Incredible vs. Apple iPhone 3GS
Check out our full Motorola Droid and HTC Droid Incredible reviews.
Showing 46 comments
RSSKey board: to me, it's a useless feature, and somewhat confusing if i'm trying to type special characters. I would gladly have it with just a soft keyboard if I could. I also feel it wiggling around when i'm just holding the phone, and I don't much like that either.
Battery Life & Charging: when using it as a GPS with Google maps for navigation, it works great, the turn by turn has been spot on..... This does however DRAIN the battery - make sure when using these features you have it plugged in. On that note, it still seems to drain the battery faster than it can be charged (which is odd) I drained the battery down all the way, and it wouldn't stay on while charging - I had to completely turn it off, let it charge for a while, then try to turn it on. IT does take quite a long time to fully charge as well.... I'm charging it off of my laptop right now, and with it turned off, it's only gone from 20% to 70% in 2+ hours.
The google connect feature: not all that usefull - my work e-mail and calendar are on an exchange server, which has everything I need, if I didn't have that, the google feature might be more enticing.
Contact aggregation: It pulled my contacts from exchange, gmail, twitter, facebok, etc. This is great. I was able to have this phone up and running in about 20 minutes - with all of my contacts ready to go.
IM/Chat/talk/text: It would be nice if the "instant messaging" features were all aggregated into one app, instead i have both messaging and talk - why both?
Coverage/Call quality: In LAX, everything has been great, no dropped calls, and good 3G coverage. All in all, fairly impressive.
Apps: the app store, in my opinion, is about as good as apple's, but I've only accessed it from the phone, haven't tried online at all.
With all of this in mind - I'm seriously considering the Nexus One, Incredible, and iPhone HD (when it comes out this summer) for my next phone upgrade.
I have a Moto Droid. Love it, except for the flat physical keyboard (seriously, that was the best they could come up with?) and the random muting it does during phone calls (this is a well-documented issue that hasn't been addressed by Motorola yet).
Got my hands on an Incredible at a Verizon store. It is much lighter than the Droid since it doesn't have the keyboard and the casing is entirely made of plastic. It had a cheap feel in my hand because of that. I think the metal case on my Droid has made it a little stronger.
http://code.google.com/p/android-wifi-tether/
sorry newbie
could you comment further on how to format the 32gb card.
I preordered the inicredible and havent bought a card yet. I
cant figure out if I should buy the 16gb or 32gb or the SD or the SDHC.
Oviously I want the 32 gb sdhc since it is bigger and faster , but only if the incredible can actually use it.
no sense in wasting money.
When Google releases support for App2Sd I'll switch. Until then I'll enjoy the functionality of the work-a-round.
What false facts? I'm not trying to 'bolster' any case. I own both the Samsung Rogue and the Moto Droid. I currently prefer the Droid's display. That may change in due course. I'd love to have a Android based phone with a large HD OLED 32 bit display.
p.s. I still use the 2.0.1 gallery. ;-)
Each screen has it's advantages, and until we see Samsung's Super OLED, I agree that LCD is superior for outdoor use. No need to spread false "facts" to bolster you're case.
The real point here is HTC has doubled the base memory making it far
easier to run multiple apps simultaneously with/without optimization and
they still service larger SD RAMS. This gives me concerns about power. I
just bought the Moto Droid and am playing with it. I was considering
taking it back in favor of the HTC. Now that I know the power it
draws......I am not so sure. HTC downsized the battery.
How can outdoor viewability (is that a word?) be a MINOR issue for a MOBILE phone intended for outdoor use? Are you nuts? LED is inferior to LCD in regular monitors, wouldn't the same be applicable to phone displays?
I'll take the internal 8GB + potential for a total of 40GB over a pre-installed 16GB. Also, since apps cannot as of yet be natively installed to SD Cards, again, the 8GB internal memory for the Incredible kills the Droid.