Droid Incredible: Comprehensive Review and Teardown Analysis

Introduction

The Droid Incredible, our first Snapdragon device, has generated much excitement. With its powerful hardware and elegant design, this HTC-made, Verizon-locked device deserves a deep dive. This comprehensive review and teardown analysis will cover the device’s build quality, performance, and overall usability, integrating insights from both teardown and review perspectives.

Teardown Analysis

We got the go-ahead to take this device apart. We’ve been excited to do so since we first saw it. Joy of joys!

As always, HTC makes a solid phone. They’re easy to take apart, and the PCB generally builds into the overall structural composition of the device. You’ll be able to see more of that later.

Step 1: Disassembly

Removing the back cover, battery, and SD card reveals four T6 Hex screws. One is hidden under a “Warranty Void” sticker. Once the screws are removed, the red plastic frame can be carefully pried away from the screen assembly without special tools.

If you’re looking to investigate or replace a device on the PCB, the shields are easily pried away with a small knife, metal spudger, staple remover, or Dr.Wreck’s teeth.

Step 2: PCB Removal

The PCB can be removed by detaching the flex clips and two Phillips head screws. The flex clips require a prying tool to pop up the black cable locks, allowing the PCB to fall out easily.

Component Analysis

Processor: The Snapdragon QSD8650 offers robust performance with a 1GHz Scorpion core and AMD-designed Z430 GPU.

Memory: Hynix H8BE8UUU0MCR and SanDisk iNAND D1N4C2-80 provide storage.

Connectivity: The device features the QCOMM RTR6500 Transceiver, Avago FEM-7738, Triquint TQM613029 PA’s, and Broadcom BCM4329EKUBG for WiFi and Bluetooth.

Battery: A 1750mAh battery designed by Seido (BASl17HHRV), optimized by Qualcomm’s PM7540 PMIC.

Touchscreen Control: Managed by Atmel MXT224.

Overall, the Droid Incredible’s internal design is efficient, with ample space for potential upgrades.

Review

We like the Droid Incredible. It has an optical trackpad, as well as a beautifully vibrant touch-screen. Someone here at phonewreck has been using it for a few weeks. They’re away on holidays and left the phone with us and made us promise not to tear it down. With that in mind we’ll probably just gently take it apart

The HTC made and Verizon-locked device sports a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU, 8GB of internal storage, standard microSD slot, 8MP camera with dual flash and AF, and a 480×800 AMOLED capacitive touchscreen.

For those not in the know, this is an Android device through and through. This particular bit of hardware ships with 2.1 and HTC Sense as an OS overlay on board. We’ve heard the internals of this phone closely match other currently available devices. No matter, the Incredible is a beast of its own.

Software Stuff

At 5,000 ft. the software and UI respond and behave similarly to other available on-market Android devices. First to discuss is HTC Sense. As you may already know, Sense blows Samsung’s TouchWiz out of the water. This device enables 7 home screens to store icons and widgets. HTC engineers have done a phenomenal job of enabling quality and usable widgets on this device, their own widgets offer greater functionality than Google’s options. We’ve seen some comments regarding this OS being comparable to an iPhone or even the Palm Pre. In Dr.Wreck’s humble opinion, it’s a close battle but 2.1 + Sense comes in at a close 3rd.

Fortunately, this device has plenty of horsepower to charge through the weight of its OS – unfortunately, that doesn’t have the best battery. You won’t be blown away with multiple days of charge-free use. Unfortunately, that’s become a standard consideration in modern smartphones. Dr.Wreck will stick to his BlackBerry which can get him through a weekend away with medium to light use.

One thing you’ll notice is that Sense on this device is much more responsive than on the EVO. This is potentially due to the reduction in screen real estate; only a teardown will really tell – too bad we can’t do one on this device

The keyboards on these devices are bar-none the best in the touchscreen business. It’s unreal how well Dr.Wreck’s massive thumbs work on the relatively “small” screen. It’s also nice seeing alternative characters above each letter. Some will claim it’s too cluttered. The reality is that this is a device you can pick up and use, it will “just work” for you.

The browser is nothing short of incredible. Zoom in as far as you’d like on a portion of text and HTC’s software will re-flow it to make it legible. The browser is also stocked up with a lite version of flash. It’s not great – it’s not even good. That said, it’s better than gaping holes in your web experience. It’s going to take a while for the web to get its arse in gear and become cross-platform compatible. Jobs hasn’t killed flash yet; this is a temporary bandage to the problem.

Previous Android devices have become sluggish for us over time, forcing us to enable third-party memory management software. Not the case with this device.

Hardware Stuff

There’s no denying that this is a pretty cool-looking device. The size is good; it fits easily into the palm of our hand. We also like the Transformers-esque extruded shapes on the backside. Red accents or “subtle lip-gloss” around the device give it a sporty and edgy feel without being too overdone to look like your cousin’s Honda Civic.

Up-front you’ll see an array of capacitive buttons and a small trackpad. You won’t use the pad much, likely only for text or URL entry. That in mind, it’s an integral piece to this device’s success. We hate text navigation and editing in iOS; the trackpad is much more than a band-aid fix. Unfortunately, we prefer the trackpad on the BlackBerry 9650 and 9700. It’s smoother and slightly more responsive – we can’t help but feel there’s a better overall technology available though.

The display is great yet very Nexus One and not quite Galaxy i9000. It struggles with daylight visibility. An issue we might add, that RIM does not seem to have. How can one very different cell-phone manufacturer do such a good job with various elements that a giant like HTC continues to struggle with?

The camera is pretty solid. At a whopping 8MP it’s no real wonder. However, as with all smartphones, it has its drawbacks. For starters, the response time is pretty flippin’ slow, and there are lots of shooting modes you’ll never use. Thankfully, you can choose 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratio.

The quality is pretty good though (as can be seen in the following un-adulterated photo). Check out the detail in the tree bark. We also like that you need to press the trackpad to snap a photo. On-screen triggers are clumsy and block your view of the photo to be.

Video is another thing entirely. We won’t spend too much time on it, but this device does not offer HD. Everything under this sun does HD recording. This device has a bloody 8MP image sensor. What’s the deal? What the heck?

Conclusion

There’s lots to like about this phone, there’s also lots to wish were different or just a little bit better. There are better devices currently on market, but the Incredible can likely meet your demands. Will HTC support this device in the future? Probably not. Judging by the sheer volume of Android devices they pump out each quarter, the expectation will be for you to upgrade hardware before your current contract is up. Telecom woes baby.

Final Score: 7.64846879 Incredible Droids out of 10.