A Little Follow Up:Droid Incredible 2

For the couple months, Erin and I have been using HTC's Droid Incredible 2 on Verizon. As you may remember were reviewed and loved the first Droid Incredible. And as I've mentioned in previous tech reviews, I'm no expert when it comes to tech specs, but I can perspective of someone who uses the smartphone a lot for work and leisure. I just want to know if a device is easy to use, reliable and if it'll fit nicely into my clutch when I go out.

The new Incredible 2 is definitely an improvement over the already great Incredible 1, and there are more apps available in the Android Marketplace compared to last summer. Some of the key updates and highlights of the HTC Incredible 2:

It's so fast! Almost everything felt instant, even browsing through photo albums on Facebook. Sometimes things would load quicker than I could hit the back button. A couple of my friends were so impressed they bought the Incredible 2 instead of iPhone 4 when their AT&T contracts were up.

The universal back and search buttons are handy. A few weeks ago, I saw a presentation at Ignite NYC by Whitney Hess, Design Principles: The Philosophy of UX , and in her presentation, she mentions the importance of making actions reversible. I couldn't agree more! While I love the sleekness of a touchscreen phone, it does lead to a lot of accidental taps, so a universal back button is super useful. And true to Google spirit, search is also a key button on the phone.

The GPS navigation is hard to beat. In neighborhoods like West Village in Manhattan or Queens, I rely heavily on Google Maps to show me the way. Since I walk, I don't usually find myself using GPS, but I travelled twice with the Incredible 2 and both times it was a lifesaver. I used it while driving in LA and Cincinnati, and I found that it was better than the Garmin GPS that came with the rentals.

The camera is ah-mazing! We miss the mini-optical joystick that was on the first Incredible because it made it slightly easier to snap pictures and scroll through them. But more importantly, we've been super impressed and pleased with the quality of the photos and how easy it is to upload and share straight from the phone. Many of the photos snapped at sample sales were taken on Erin's Incredible 2, which says a lot. The lighting at sample sales isn't always the best and she has to move fast in order to shop and be on her way.

Here are some of the photos I've snapped on my Incredible 2.



We're both fans of the Incredible 2 and would definitely recommend anyone looking for a new smartphone to consider it! Double rainbow!