HTC Incredible S - Review

After using my HTC Incredible S for successful 10 days, I thought of scribbling a quick review. I'aint going to write anything new apart from tons of review data that is already on Net. But still, as a end-user, will share few honest pros and cons of this phone.

Before getting into the review, just need to say that mobile market has changed. Days are gone where we selected mobiles based on features like dust-proof keyboard, torch light and color display. These are no more considerations now. Differentiators are now Processor Speed, Single/Dual Core, Operating System, OS version, ROM, Camera MP, display size and make.. No more mobiles, they are smart-phones..Unless one has some knowledge about what processor means, which OS is best, its very easy that they fall spending thousands on a wrong device. Whatever we spend is just for the hardware and not for software. Its like purchasing a laptop.

Lets start with Pros -

1. If your requirement is just a mobile, a Nokia 1100 is the choice. If you are thinking of a smart-phone then the second best available phone in the market is HTC brand. Needless to say IPhone tops the chart still. Samsung Galaxy S2, the  new competitor for HTC is picking up market. But it has its own limitations. The display size is big and cannot easily be handled. Cost of Samsung is also high.

2. Android - This is the only word that keeps HTC topping the chart, even overtaking Apple and Nokia counterparts. With Apple running their iOS and Nokia running Symbian, downloading gadgets for those mobiles simply mean shelling few bucks. A monopoly market.With Android, powered by  Google and millions of developers breaking their heads to publish gadgets in Android market, its now your choice on how to mend your hardware. A simple phone or a super computer..

3. Gorilla-Glass display - Chemically hardened scratch proof glass displays. Same like iPhone. With 4" display, viewing web-pages as-it-is [non mobile-version] is easy and you really dont need to strain your eyes. 

4. Sensitive Touch - The display is damn-sensitive is what i would say. Let it be single or multi pinch, the processor recognizes and does the job easily.

5. Apps - Android market is the webspace where all android OS gadgets are available for download. With tons of free Apps, you really dont need to spend anything, except if you need some really cool apps like games. Quick list of Apps loaded in my mobile

Games/Entertainment [Angry birds, Sudoku, Unblock Me, Drag racing, Talking Tom, Trashcan]

Utilities [GMail, GTalk, Mail [Microsoft exchange], YahooMail, Opera Browser, Dolphin Browser]

Others [Youtube, Facebook]

Believe me or not, there are anti-virus [AVG] apps that are available in market for download and use. I havent seen iphone market yet, but Android market has tons of useful apps.

6. Always Connected - HTC has all possible options to connect data - WiFi, Edge, USB, Internet bypass, Bluetooth etc. GPS comes along for navigation. Just enable data connection, and you are live on net. Anytime check your personal mails, publish photos/videos to facebook, chat using Gtalk or get your office mails delivered to your mobile. You really dont need a laptop. Its all there in your hands, very compact. Connect the phone to your laptop and you get a USB disk. Enable Wifi-Hotspot and transform your phone to be a internet gateway for other devices.

7. HTC Sense - This is the HTC theme (Front-end over Android) that is incharge of all GUI capabilities, be it be the multi-home capability to drag/drop/installation/removal of Apps to complete customization of your phone. Very cool GUI. IPhone 4 has comparable features like these in it. 

8. Pricing - HTC comes with a decent price compared to Samsung Galaxy or iPhone 4. Despite paying heavy price iphone lacks adobe flash support, which in my opinion is a very big drawback. 99% internet sites in this world have flash content loaded. Even some versions of Samsung phone dont support flash. However Galaxy S2 supports flash and HTC supports flash in all their models.

9. Audio Quality - HTC provides surround-system [SRS] effects when listening to audio files, and the effect is really cooool... Coupled with their branded ear phones, hearing songs is joy. But a slight disadvantage is that the audio is not loud. I have listed this in negative.

10. Multitasking - No need to exit your Internet browser, when you are addicted to angry birds. Just load the browser, type your URL, go back to phone's main window and start playing your favorite game or do any other mess while your browser still loading your data in background. The phone does effective multi-tasking. 

There are most positives to list, but no time to write.. Now, no product is complete in all aspects, atleast from a tester's view. Few negatives I observed with HTC Incredible S.

1. Pocket-Answering - This is a damn big GUI issue that many HTC users are facing [as seen on HTC blogs]. When your phone rings, you need to "drag-down" the arc-slider to answer or "drag-up" to decline the call. With sensitive touch display, when taking the phone out from your shirt/pant pocket for picking the call, the slider is either dragged up or down when it bruises inside your pocket. Most of time, I take the phone out of my pocket to see that the call is already accepted and someone at the rear saying "helllllo".. A simple solution to this issue is to go for a "slide-side-to-answer" like iphone rather "drag-to-answer". But HTC  doesnt support this swipe-slide model style. Iam planning to purchase a flap-pouch for my mobile, just to overcome this issue. "Workaround" is to purchase a new app from market supporting the slide-style costing few dollars.

2. Unicode Support - This phone doesn't directly support viewing tamil sites or checking a mail scripted in native language using Gmail, Facebook, Mail or YahooMail Apps. A very big setback I observed. Anyhow the workaround now was to use Opera browser that could transform tamil fonts as bitmaps and display it on the phone and this works for now. However, direct unicode support should have done the job. 

3. Audio volume - With our ears used to listen  "mariamma" songs in a high decibel cone tied in front of our door, this phone outputs a decent audio volume, but not enough while travelling in Indian Roads. Even with 100% volume, the traffic noise overtakes leaving no clue of the lyrics heard. But in a silent environment, even the smallest instrumentals used can be clearly noted. With audio Surround enable, you get a good theatrical effect.. Pleasant to hear. Best to use with car audio players.

4. Battery life - If used only for attending calls/SMS, the battery life is damn-good. A charge once in two days should do. But if data services are enabled [mails/gtalk/youtube/GPS/Maps], the phone turns a battery-monster eating up complete charge within a day. Though its understood, batteries needs to be more rugged.

5. Keep an Eye - If its Nokia 1100, we dont mind dropping the phone a couple of times or travelling in a crowded bus with the phone in shirt pocket. [8 years back my Nokia 1100 was pick-pocketed on the way from Teynampet-Central :( ].. But with this significant cost investment, its always pain to watch out whether the phone is still ours. Its just not the phone that gets stolen, your complete Gmail, FB , Yahoo, Outlook, Gtalk accounts are compromised. Its like losing your personal laptop where all passwords are browser-saved.

This is it for now folks. Will write sometime later if i come across any other interesting issues/updates with this phone... Till then, I  look for any comments to this blog or any other counter blogs from new blog-owners...

PS - Spl. thanks to Sarah for her wonderful pose with the Incredible HTC  in hand...