Amazing phone July 28, 2010

Reviewer:  crusymustard 

This phone is amazing. It's highly customizable and very responsive. It definitely pushes the envelope in smartphone capability. Unfortunately, I had to return it because Verizon's service in my part of greater Charlotte is pretty bad. The return process was painless enough; Verizon's customer service was great, and Amazon's return process is easy.

Incredible in some ways, but not all May 6, 2010

Reviewer:  Lewis and Clark  (St. Louis, MO) -

My wife and I bought moved to Verizon for this new Android phone. I'll make my review of the HTC Incredible short and to the point:

Pros:
-Fast
-Responsive
-Intuitive
-Touch screen works well (my first touch screen device)

Cons:
-Battery life is simple terrible. I will be lucky to get a full day at moderate usage. I'm considering investing in a car charger because I'm afraid it will die after a work day. I'm also considering buying a more powerful battery, but that will cost around $40 based on Amazon's prices.
-Reception bars (the 4 bars at the top) fluctuates wildly - having only 1 or 2 bars even in metro areas is common. Is the antenna bad or is the way the phone interprets signal quality defective? That is not clear. My wife has had poor call quality, but I have not.
-3g notification bar rarely lights up. Again, does this mean the device isn't receiving 3g or that the way the phone interprets the signal bad? Based on speed tests, I believe 3g is working. However, if the 3g notification icon doesn't light up when there is 3g, what's the use in having it?

Hopefully, HTC and Verizon work together to fix these issues if a software fix is even possible.

****************** EDIT May 12, 2010

I've been using the phone longer and have some additional thoughts that prompted me to add 1 star to the review and temper my original con list.

BATTERY: First, the battery indicator life is misleading. On a full charge, it seems as though using the phone for 10 minutes results in 25% of the battery to discharge. However, the next 50% of the battery life seems to last the rest of the day. I've only had a "low battery" indication once so far. My previous phone was a Blackberry 9700, and the battery could last me 2-3 days on a charge. It has been surprising that I have to charge my phone every night, but I'm adjusting.

SIGNAL STRENGTH: I think the signal strength indicator is either more sensitive or just miscalibrated. I've seen full bars three times since I've had this phone, but I've had no problems with reception.

3G NOTIFICATION BAR: This was a misunderstanding on my part. I've verified this with speed tests and phone diagnostics.

The one additional comment I would make about this phone is that I miss the universal inbox feature of my Blackberry where all emails, texts, and such would appear. I'm exploring to see if there is an app that will simulate this.

e-mails don't work, flimsy design, keypad not responsive November 24, 2010

Reviewer:  matolaw "cloud"  (ct) -

after spending a long time considering and reviewing, I finally decided to give this a try.
it's a hit or miss experience. mine is awful! no matter how many people help me to set up my e-mail with one of at&t ISP, it still won't bring out my e-mail. the touch keypad didn't respond to voice message pin, after had it for less than 24 hrs, i couldn't remember how many times i was told to take the battery out. you know eventually if you have to keep the phone for 2 yrs before upgrade it's going to take a toll on the OS by doing so. i finally gave up. it's not for everybody. good luck if your life depends on it!

Great phone before the updated software was uploaded. December 11, 2010

Reviewer:  Robyn R. Ortega "BRUTALLY HONEST"  (Placentia, CA) -

I got my phone the day after it came out and it was amazing. Great battery life, and it was fast at everything and very easy to use. Then I got the first update sent to my phone and it was all down hill from there. The phone constantly froze up on me, the battery died within a few hours (even with the task killer ap installed), my pictures and videos were deleted, and I had to take it to Verizon around my 4th month of usage. They replaced my NEW phone with a used refurbished phone that had the same problems. They keep trying to trouble shoot it and nothing has helped. I guess I'll have to go back and get another non working refurbished phone.

I think i'm going back to Samsung.

My first (but not last) smart phone May 8, 2010

Reviewer:  Lisa Deluca "cpup22"  (San Francisco, CA USA) -

I got my Incredible last night and it is unbelievable. I haven't put it down since I unpacked it. I never thought I needed a smart phone since I'm literally in front of my computer 24/7. I started doing some android development for work and wanted to see it working on a real phone so I splurged and got this phone. It is better than I imagined. I can't believe how beautiful it is. You won't regret getting the Incredible.

Lots of features but lacking as a phone May 25, 2010

Reviewer:  Jaimi Rosen 

I decided to switch from T-Moblie where I was happy with my old Samsung slider phone which was small, easy to use, great voice quality and great volume to the Droid Incredible on Verizon. I've only had the phone less than 2 weeks but am ready to take it back (but I probably won't because of the expense involved.) This phone has some amazing capabilities as a hand-held computer - at least if you're in a darkened room. As mentioned by others, the GPS and camera and other "visual" features are useless in the sunlight and dangerous if you're driving. But if you can manage to use the impressive features beware - the battery drains quickly leaving you with a dead phone. Voice quality is sub par compared to my Samsung. I've had to ask callers to repeat themselves and have struggled at times to understand them, they seem to receive my voice loud and clear so the problem seems to be the speaker on the phone. I haven't gone out and bought a headset - one more expense but maybe that will help - (I've read that voice dialing won't work with a headset - not a great thing.) The voice recognition is cool, but only works went it wants to . . . it doesn't appear to recognize names that are not mainstream. The keyboard can be frustrating... why can't they have a settting similar to the appointments function for numbers and addresses???? If you're not used to it, it's easy to make lots of mistakes entering info.

I have no opinion on the camera yet, except to ask why anyone would need 8 mgs on a point and shoot camera - it would have been better to actually be able to see your subject .... maybe some kind of viewfinder can be added on???

The learning curve is steep if you're not familiar with the Verizon system. No manual is included but I'm going to try to order one. Why isn't one included in the box????

The phone has died on me at least 3 times for no apparent reason.

I'm not happy about having to buy a more powerful battery, a better headphone and maybe some sort of shield to block the sunlight so I can use it outdoors???? and to always keep it plugged in.... I'd read it had 6 days standby and 5.5 hr talk time - in what universe is that??? I was talked into a lot of accessories by the salesman which I may need to upgrade, the phone did not come with a memory card, so that was extra too. Additionally it took over 2 hours to activate my account at the Verizon store and there may be a struggle to obtain my "promised" discounts.

Maybe in time it will grow on me and I'll forget what beautiful clear sound I used to have and I'll learn to live indoors and near a power supply. Or maybe I'll just stop making phone calls .. it's fun to surf the web and listen to music and play games......

Very Bad as a Phone March 25, 2011

Reviewer:  Alexander Albrecht "ajajr"  (Chicago, Illinois) -

OK, I could give this device some credit for the other things it is that it is not bad at. For example, it is a pretty good stopwatch and gps. It replaces a bunch of gadgets I used to carry. But as a phone, it makes me scream. Why, the thing just does what it wants, not what I want. It turns the ringer off without my prompting it to do so. It calls people without me telling it to. In short, the thing has a mind of its own. I guess that makes it a robot, but what I wanted is a phone!!!

As the name "Incredible" May 19, 2010

Reviewer:  J. Au "Big J"  (NY) -

I can't use writing to describe how good of this phone, even my friends and family impress! EVEN some of them are using iPhone, they are so amazed how INCREDITBLE is! I am currently living in NY, so I have no such of calling problems, sound problem, etc. may be only people living in the may have problem. Just like no one like T-moble in NY. Since they have those problems here.

It has the same problem as the iPhone, dropped calls July 5, 2010

Reviewer:  Maurice S. Thaler  (Madison, WI USA) -

I had the HTC Incredible for about 2.5 weeks, it worked GREAT as a smart device, but it consistently dropped calls. Also, the battery life was miserable, I got about 1/2 day before it went into cardiac arrest. While it was working with WI-FI, it was extremely fast, the interface was lovely, there were many great apps, some better that the iPhone, some not so much. At any rate, as a consultant, I could not live with a phone that dropped calls whenever I was in a building. I NEVER had a phone call in a building that did not either drop or get so broken up that I had to walk outside to hear the caller. This is unusable. I went to several forums and found that it was not an isolated problem. Most users were having battery problems, and many had poor reception.
If I wanted a phone that dropped calls but had a pretty interface, I would have gotten an iPhone. My previous (and now current) phone was/is a Blackberry Curve 8330 which NEVER drops calls, and the battery lasts for at least 1.5 - 2 days with some apps running in the background. I don't love that phone, but I NEED a reliable phone. BTW, my wife has a Moto Droid, which does NOT suffer from these problems. Her phone gets over a day on a charge, and the reception is quite good indoors. I'm in wait-n-see mode here. Maybe the Samsung in August...

I gave my HTC Incredible back to Verizon before the 30 day limit and I am glad I did (although I think a restocking fee for a defective device sucks). I did not think I would be relieved to be back to my Blackberry Curve, but such is life.

Let's remember here, if I just wanted the apps, I could use an iPod Touch. I want a smart phone, and this one is not ready for prime time.

if it looks too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true October 2, 2010

Reviewer:  Mary Beth Watson-Manheim 

The Incredible is priced at $79.99 at Amazon with a new service agreement from Verizon, If you buy directly from Verizon the price is 199.99 with a new service agreement. This appears to be $120 lower price. BUT check the total price = equipment + service plan. For example, I need the 1400 minute Family Share plan. Buying directly from Verizon, the price is $89.99 for two lines; buying through Amazon, the price is $119.99 for two lines - or $30 more per month. Amazon requires you to keep this inflated service plan for 6 months or charges you $250. If it looks too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true!

What's so Incredible??? May 28, 2010

Reviewer:  Brenda Piper Stephens "BeaDaNurse"  (USA) -

If you want a phone to surf the web, get the Droid. But if you want a workhorse PHONE choose something different. I upgraded from a Palm 755P, which was several years old. Despite it's age, it beats the Droid hands down in many respects. Voice dialing on the Droid? Don't make me laugh. It always requires the use of several buttons in order to use it, and the voice recognition always makes mistakes. The Palm offers many ways to customize your calendar - the Droid has few and forces you into pre-set reminders, etc. The Palm also manages contacts better and offers pre-fil -- the Droid doesn't. The Droid is Incredible in one respect - it's incrediably power hungry. I must plug it in at least once in the middle of the day or the battery dies before the end of the day. I simply don't understand all of the awesome reviews of this product. I did discover some interesting apps -- but the hunt for a better phone continues. You can keep your Droid.

Buy the phone your friends have February 19, 2011

Reviewer:  R. Floyd "Buys Lots of Steamers"  (California) -

Why buy the phone your friends have? You'll want to be able to ask them how to do stuff!! They'll tell you in a fraction of the time it will take you to hunt through sparse documentation and poorly written material. Example: You have a yahoo mail account and want to synchronize the address book with the droid phone contacts. Good luck if your friends have iPhone's or Blackberry's. Wouldn't you rather be skiing on your day off?

Battery Life is too short to be called a cell phone September 8, 2010

Reviewer:  Shih-chi Chiang "Solo"  (Princeton, NJ, USA) -

I don't know if it is because I got a defect phone or all HTC incredible has very short battery life.

How short? The answer is 8 hour to totally dead from fully charged phone. That means you make no call/txt, turn off GPS, Wifi, Bluetooth. A fully charged phone will go dead in only 8 hour. That means your phone has to be powered all the time to be functional, that's not why I need a cell phone after all.

If rich multimedia and social is more important than battery life, then you can go for this one, otherwise, stay away from it.

Some good, some bad, some phone! May 11, 2010

Reviewer:  Ben Franklin  (Liberty,PA USA) -

A search for some real reviews after the phone came out proved fruitless, Droid fans lovefests are seriously lacking in content. I took the plunge anyway and figured I share my experience to give future buyers some real world facts to help them decide.

Pros: Awesome screen color and readability, Google Navigation, good voice quality, more than enough quality apps. While at first it is not as easy or intuitive an interface as an Iphone, with Sense UI and tweeking settings it will become YOUR personal interface. You'll constantly be fiddling with it just because you want to!

Cons: Sunlight rapidly renders it unviewable, and that's key since what good is Google navigation if one can't see the directions when driving? Yeah it speaks to you, but sometime you need to see the screen before the turn to figure out what is really coming up. Mount it up on the dash, and it gets partially washed out. Forget outdoors! This phone becomes a game of is this enough shade to read the screen??

Add the stupidity of no Bluetooth voice dialing, confirmed by Verizon themselves, and this is becoming a dud in the Big Brother hands off states and cities. If you travel a lot, being able to see the GPS screen, voice dialing and bluetooth are mandatory features.

Battery life. Are you kidding me? 1300 mAh?? With such a lightweight, why can't the phone come with a built in app to allow power management schemes??
Better yet, give us a bigger battery, HTC already makes a 1500 mAh, and a 3rd party makes 1750 mAh batteries that fit. at this price the cheap battery shows you what Verizon thinks of us (and yes we are stupid sheep who will buy the phone anyway,bah!)

Overall: Rushed to market and overhyped by Droid fans in the media, it still manages to have enough qualities to be a keeper. You'll have to figure out how to work around the washed out screen, and hope they will update the software to improve the voice recognition and bt dialing. In the meantime, do what I did and only get a one year contract on this.

Had the worst problems ever! November 5, 2010

Reviewer:  Legal Beagles "KSM"  (Milwaukee, WI, USA) -

My husband & I ordered 2 HTC Incredible phones from Verizon because it was about $50 cheaper than doing it from Verizon or Wirefly. Even tho it u r buying it thru Verizon Wireless, they are really just subcontracting with Verizon so I must put a disclaimer that all my issues I had were with Verizon & with HTC not making sure that they phones worked properly before they were released (which was a huge problem with these phones & caused them to be quasi-recalled).

I have to say on the positive side, even tho the phone came about 2 weeks later than it originally said it would, I still got it 2 MONTHS faster than I would have it I purchased it directly from Verizon. Unfortunately, the reason Verizon sold out so quickly & didn't get any phones in for such a long time was bc they had problems with the phone. I got my phones much, much sooner, but then I got phones with MAJOR problems.

They had very, very poor signal quality & were constantly dropping calls. One day alone I counted over 20 dropped calls before I became so angry & just shut the stupid phone off. Both my husband & I had to argue & argue & argue with Verizon to get new phones. We had to first go thru their protocall to make sure it's our phones & not something else. We went thru that which was a huge pain bc our phones were wiped out like 4 times & u have reload programs, contacts, etc. Also, we were told at 2 different Verizon stores they couldn't handle fixing the problem so call tech support. Call tech support & the say take it into the store! It took us 6 weeks due to all of this running around for them to determine the problems were with our phones & not their system. However, they have a 30 day return policy. We were sooo upset at first bc they were not going to replace our phones bc it was beyond the 30 day warranty & they couldn't get their money back from the manufacturer now & it would come out of their (Verizon) own pocket. However, they had it all documented that we had problems from the beginning & did exactly what they said to do & that caused it to go beyond the 30 day period. Finally, after going round & round we got new phones which work much better, but still have poor signal quality & sometimes drop phone calls. I'm an attorney & used to dealing with difficult situations & people, but this whole experience was really bad.

It's so frustrating when u pay $230 per month & u can't even use the dog gone phone. We don't have a land line either so it was not fun when we had no phone services at all. We were with US Cellular for almost 20 years before this & never, ever had these problems, tho we had normal flip phones, not smart phones. Never thought we would miss the days of being with US Cellular b/c when we were with them we weren't too happy with some problems we had & the fact that they have squat for phones. Now those problems seem so insignificant. If only we had known... :(

Wish I could actually review the phone, but here's some info to consider if you're trying to order October 27, 2010

Reviewer:  Rebecca Cardoso 

I placed my order, and provided all of my info. After getting repeated messages about my order being delayed b/c of availability, I finally got a short email saying my order was cancelled because they "couldn't get approval from Verizon" as a new customer. A phone call to Amazon customer service yielded no results, they simply said I needed to work it out with Verizon. Called Verizon, and I was approved in seconds for service (oh, and by the way, they had no record of Amazon ever sending my info over to start an account. Hmmmm.)
Also got some interesting info from Verizon about why equipment costs so much less through Amazon - not only are you signing a contract with Verizon, you are signing a contract with Amazon, and they have their own fees associated with cancellation or changes. Make sure you read the fine print on the contract you are agreeing to...

Android system as bad as Vista ever was for serious users October 26, 2010

Reviewer:  Allan Csiky  (Santa Rosa, CA) -

I really wanted to like my Droid Incredible, but it's turned out to be a piece of junk that isn't ready to support customers switching over from Apple, Blackberry or even Palm. I don't value Gmail, yet Google's Android operating system relies on Gmail to synchronize contacts and calendars. The interface for Outlook users only supports part of that program's functions, and then not very well. If you've used Outlook for years and rely on it for business, stay away from Android unless your willing to convert to apps inferior to Microsoft Outlook. HTC also told me it doesn't support versions of Outlook more recent than 2003. That's either incompetent, irresponsible or both.

The native email program drops emails regularly. I've seen them disappear from the screen right in front of my eyes, never to be found again, despite setting the instruction to save a copy on the server. Asking clients to resend emails is embarrassing. If you have more than one email account, you'll need to poll each one separately to check mail because the native email app only recognizes one account at a time. Otherwise, you'll need to go searching for an app that monitors all your accounts. Having an app store is a poor excuse for designing a product badly and letting other developers overcome the problems Google failed to solve when they released Android. Google is as evil as Microsoft ever was with its reputation for releasing products that needed patching and several updates for years before most of the bugs were worked out.

If you want to play around with 3G, spend time trying to find (and pay for!) apps that do what you thought a smart phone was supposed to do out of the box, a droid phone is your baby. If you are a business customer who depends on a reliable device that supports your work and doesn't distract you by requiring multiple calls to tech support, removing the battery frequently to perform soft resets when the device fails to synchronize, then stay with Blackberry, Palm or Apple. HTC and Google deserve two black eyes for releasing this device that's more Not Credible than Incredible. [[ASIN:B003HC8NUW HTC DROID INCREDIBLE Android Phone (Verizon Wireless)]]

Verizon Customer Service Is Terrible September 13, 2010

Reviewer:  the webmaster "USFbobFL"  (Lakeland, FL) -

I thought that I would be "upgrading" when I switched from T-Mobile to Verizon.
What a sad. sad disappointment. Not only is coverage not any better (at least for me), the call quality is choppy and if you call their customer service department, you'll be on hold for at least 10 minutes...and that's after you navigate through the IVR system.

I do so MUCH regret having switched. If you are a T-Mobile customer, do NOT switch to Verizon. You will pay MUCH MORE for MUCH LESS if you do.

The android phone? Others are correct about the poor battery life.
All I can say is bring your USB cable to work with you so you can charge it on your PC AND also get a car charger so you can charge while you're driving. Talk time REALLY eats up the battery... heck, I think I used up 50% of my battery in just one "on hold" session with Verizon Customer service.

I agree that the CityID "Trial Offer" that you can't get rid of is a pain.
Another tiny annoyance is that Verizon does not allow you to nick name your phone on their website like t-Mobile did.
We have five phones on our plan and it was always nice to see name on the billing statement instead of just numbers.

I've only had the phone for a week, but already regret the purchase.

One last thing that really bothered me is that we didn't receive our phones until like 5 days after they were ordered (labor day holiday was part of the reason), but Verizon wanted to bill me for 3 days prior to the actual receipt of the phones. How can they charge me for services that they did not provide?

Nice phone, not Incredible... yet... May 1, 2010

Reviewer:  W. T. Miller  (NYC) -

I like the phone too, but it is not Incredible!
I've had mine for 3 days now and have used it a lot (6 charges worth)

Cons: THE CAMERA SUCKS! It's fast and all but the Image Quality is horrible. I can't understand how all the reviewers are saying the camera is great. This has got to be the worst IQ that I've seen on an HTC phone. I think it may just be the jpg processing though. Also the auto focus is constantly 'off' and there is a relative blind spot between the 'normal' and 'macro' range from about 3 inches to 8 inches. Inside that area apps that use the camera are having trouble focusing (this is the 'bar-code' range.... Also not feeling the Video Quality (with lack of auto focus while recording and poor mic quality.

Look at any web reviewers pics at full size, not the 50% scale usually posted, and you will see for yourself.

Ok, now Call quality is on my crap-list too. I haven't dropped any calls but I do find myself saying 'What-did-you-say?) quite frequently. However it is not the worst call quality, my AT&T phone dropped calls and sounded like crap!

Of course the Battery...

Also a few of the Widgets lose their settings from time to time (photos and mail). And if I save scenes with certain 'live wallpapers' then swap scenes it would cause the phone to reboot.

On a positive note.... There are many, many things that I do love about this phone.... It is very fast and very smooth and it doesn't seem to get too hot. GPS is quick, wi-fi seems rock solid, screen is beautiful. Build quality doesn't feel bad, just doesn't give that 'high-end' feel. I love how the new Sense UI works....

Most of the problems I've mentioned are (I think) fix-able with software updates. (I really think that camera's problem is jpg conversion, not the camera itself)

Disappointing August 3, 2010

Reviewer:  Dan Streck  (Bend, Oregon) -

Phone generally worked reasonably well - clumsy and kind of buggy, but reasonably well - but then this morning it quit downloading emails from my server. Spent time on the phone with Verizon customer service and then they gave up and sent me to a store but no one can figure it out. I'll probably have to exchange it. Very disappointing. It took longer to get the phone than the time it worked properly.... Who needs the hassle?