Hardware

If you’ve used a Galaxy S, the Nexus S won’t feel all that foreign. The Samsung-made handset has a plastic body, unlike the metal of the Nexus One, and though it feels suitably tough it’s not as reassuring in the hand as its predecessor. It does make for a lightweight phone, however, and given the front is taken up with the considerable charms of a 4-inch WVGA Super AMOLED display, it’s quite an appealing slice altogether. Samsung’s screen technology remains the best mobile panel this side of Apple’s Retina Display, bright, clear and beautifully color-saturated.

The display has a slight curve to it, in a move Samsung has branded “Contour”; the company argues that makes the Nexus S easier to use with a single hand, as well as more comfortable over time. In practice, it’s perhaps too early to tell: the curve is too shallow to make an instantly noticeable difference, though it does at least keep the fascia of the Nexus S off the desk when placed face-down.

Controls are minimal – the usual four touch-sensitive keys under the display, then a volume rocker and power button on the edges – and the ports have been moved to the bottom of the handset: Samsung offers microUSB for charge/sync and a 3.5mm headphones jack. Wireless connectivity includes quadband GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSPA for T-Mobile USA or the gamut of European and Asian 3G bands; if you want AT&T 3G, you’re out of luck. Otherwise there’s WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1 – though not, as with the Galaxy S, Bluetooth 3.0 – along with Bluetooth, GPS, a digital compass and accelerometer.

GPS performance has been a mixed bag. The Nexus S is happily free from the glaring positioning issues that initially affected the Galaxy S range, but it does sometimes show reluctance to accept it has achieved a GPS lock. On occasions, we found Google Maps would be able to follow our position as we moved around, but Navigation refused to calculate directions claiming it was yet to get a positioning fix.

The Nexus S also debuts NFC or Near-Field Communications on an Android device, and in fact the short-range wireless technology is one of the Google phone’s flagship features. Google envisages a world where Android users can scan businesses, products and each other with their handsets and pull up information from those NFC tags, as well as making payments and exchanging data.

In its first incarnation, NFC on the Nexus S is a little more mundane: limited to reading tags, rather than writing to them or making data exchanges, it will primarily work with the Google Places Business Kits the search giant is trialling, offering business reviews and information if you scan a NFC sticker they’ve put up near their door. The results show up in the new Tags app.

Software

Star of the show is Android 2.3 Gingerbread, making its first debut on a mobile device and doing so free of Samsung’s TouchWiz UI or any other manufacturer-specific tweaks. This is Android as Google intends it, and it’s the most solid implementation to date.

Most obviously changed is the color scheme, with the greys, graduations and brighter colors of Froyo and earlier versions replaced with blacks and chips of lime green. Google says this isn’t solely an aesthetic refresh but one that aids battery life; AMOLED displays, for instance, require less power to show black than they do colors. There are also new animations, such as the retro CRT TV shut down when you lock the phone, and a subtle orange flare when you reach the end of lists.

Text entry has also had a rethink, with a new onscreen keyboard layout that trades slightly smaller keys for multitouch support. It’s an exchange we’re happy to make, though, since you can now hold down the shift or symbol keys with one finger and tap out letters and numbers with the other. Even after just a week of use, we’re faster than we are with the Froyo keyboard.

Once you’ve entered text, there are new ways to manage it as well. Tapping and holding a word selects it, and then you have easily-dragged highlight bars to select different sections. Where the new system falls short is in older apps, which are seemingly yet to be brought up to speed; on several occasions we’ve had to double-tap to select still, which leaves the OS feeling inconsistent. It’s certainly not a deal-breaker, but it’s an example of where, say, Apple’s stricter controls in iOS pay dividends for predictable user-experience.

Flash Player 10.1 was not pre-installed out of the box, but it works well once downloaded from the Android Market. Videos run smoothly, more so than on a Hummingbird-powered Galaxy S family device. Unfortunately the new version of Google Maps, complete with 3D city renders and new multitouch gestures, isn’t ready in time for the Nexus S’ release, so we’ll have to wait and see how that performs.

Performance

Samsung’s 1GHz Hummingbird processor isn’t new; it’s the same chip at the heart of the well-received Galaxy S range of smartphones, together with the Samsung Galaxy Tab slate.

What remains to be seen is how the performance of the Nexus S holds up to the various dual-core Android smartphones we’re expecting to see reach the market in 2011. LG’s Optimus 2X, for instance, will offer NVIDIA’s dual-core 1GHz Tegra 2 chipset, and it’s not going to be the only one; while the Nexus One pushed the performance envelope considerably, the Nexus S feels like it’s at the tail-end of a hardware phase.

That’s not to say the Nexus S is slow. Android 2.3 Gingerbread whips along nicely, and while on paper we’d like to see more RAM than the 512MB Samsung has installed, at no point has the phone felt sluggish or short on memory. Apps and Live Wallpapers are handled with no issues, and there’s a healthy 1GB of storage for your programs; the 16GB of user memory is treated as a memory card – albeit a particularly fast one – and you can do the usual trick of shifting apps to that storage if the software supports it.

As a phone, T-Mobile’s network proved solid and audio performance is among the best we’ve encountered on a recent Android device. Callers reported no issues with voice quality, and similarly both the earpiece and the speaker were similarly loud and clear. The front-facing camera handles video calls well – though VGA stills are murky and uninspiring – though Google’s failure to include native video chat functionality in Gingerbread is a significant shortcoming in comparison to Apple’s FaceTime.

The main camera is more successful, producing stills that are better in most cases than those from the Galaxy S range. Colors are rich and there’s decent contrast in natural daylight; more impressively, we didn’t have to reach for the LED flash quite as often as normal in low-light or indoor conditions. Conversely, video recording is underwhelming, limited to 720 x 480 resolution rather than 720p HD. There’s also no HDMI port for hooking up your HDTV, nor DLNA wireless streaming. We seldom use either of those features ourselves, but on a flagship device their omission is annoying.

Battery life exceeded our expectations, with the Nexus S readily capable of putting in a full day’s worth of use despite having push email turned on and our regular use of the browser and messaging features. Gingerbread gets a new battery display system, too: the bars showing each element of the phone’s power consumption are still there, but there’s also a graph tracking power use over time.

Wrap-Up

Gingerbread is undoubtedly the star of the show here, and that leaves the Nexus S in a potentially difficult position. Unlike the Nexus One, which had a window during which its specifications remained superlative before other devices caught up, beyond the NFC chip there’s arguably nothing special about the Nexus S’ hardware. That means, once Android 2.3 hits the Nexus One, the Galaxy S and other Android phones, the Nexus S will have lost much of its unique appeal.

That’s not to say it’s a bad device, and in fact it’s arguably the best Android smartphone on the market today (as long as you don’t want a hardware keyboard). There’s also the reassurance that Nexus S owners will likely see the first software updates for future iterations of Android, unlike manufacturer-modified versions. Hopefully the increasingly solid user-experience of out-of-the-box Android will be enough to convince other companies to put aside their adaptations, but given how much those changes – like HTC Sense and TouchWiz – are used to differentiate ostensibly similar hardware, we’re not especially hopeful that this something Google will be able to easily sway.

More promising is NFC, though at the moment its a hardware and software combination still in search of real functionality. By the time it gathers momentum, we’re expecting plenty more Android devices to include the short-range wireless chips; that’s good for Google overall, but claws away at more of the Nexus S’ unique offering.

Still, as with the Nexus One, this new Google phone isn’t really the search giant’s attempt to corner the smartphone hardware market. Instead, it’s an expensive play to guide the development of Android handsets altogether – a marketing strategy for where the open-source “use it how you wish” Android ethos falls short of convincing manufacturing partners what it is that customers will want and, undoubtedly, be persuaded by Google that they want in a new handset.

If you’re in the market for a new Android device then the Nexus S is the best around at the moment. Its window to shine will likely be short-lived, however, as dual-core Android handsets reach the market early in the new year. Critics may eventually suggest that the Nexus S missed the mark, but as long as it puts NFC on the radar, we’ve a feeling Google will consider it a success.

Unboxing Video and Gallery

To take part, all you have to do is sign up as an Android Community member and reply to this post saying why you want a Cr-48 notebook, then send out the following message via Twitter:

Google Cr-48 @androids Giveaway: http://is.gd/iJYri

Remember, Google is pushing their cloud apps in a big way with Chrome OS, and the Cr-48 is all about cutting ties and going mobile.

We’ll draw the first Android Community winner at random on Friday December 17 at midnight PST, and the second on Sunday December 19 at midnight PST. Unfortunately, due to the terms of Google’s pilot scheme, only US entrants can be accepted. Good luck!

Rules:

Competition is open to residents of the US over the age of 18. Family members of Google and SlashGear/Android Community are not permitted to enter. Competition entries are only accepted via the specified Android Community post; entries left in the comments section of any other post will not be recognized. One entry per person (and yes, we check). Winners of the Android Community Cr-48 giveaway are ineligible to win the SlashGear Cr-48 giveaway, and vice-versa.

The winners will be announced on Android Community and contacted via email or board message; they will be expected to respond within 24 hours else their prize may be forfeit and another winner selected. Editors decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. Winner agrees that their name and details of their entry may be used for promotional purposes by, but not limited to, Google and Android Community.

Prize consists of two Google Cr-48 notebooks to be shared between two winners. There is no cash alternative. Should this prize become unavailable, Android Community and Google reserve the right to substitute another prize of equal or greater value.

As we discovered in our earlier hands-on preview, the Nexus S feels a lot like Samsung’s Galaxy S family of phones. We’re fans of the Nexus One’s part-metal construction, and though the Nexus S feels – with its bowed fascia – slimmer in the hand, it also feels less resilient. Like the Galaxy S – in fact most glossy-finish devices – it also picks up fingerprints quickly, though a quick wipe and they’re gone.

Gingerbread’s speed increase on the 1GHz Hummingbird CPU is noticeable from the off, with the Nexus S booting up quickly and menus panning and scrolling with no lag. One significant usability issue is the change in button order – the Nexus S swaps the search and home buttons around from their positions on the Nexus One – though Gingerbread’s improved text-management tools mean we haven’t really missed the trackball yet. Tapping a word and using the drag-bars to highlight different portions of text, or moving the cursor around the screen are each straightforward.

We can’t argue with Samsung’s Super AMOLED screen, and while it lacks the sheer pixel density of the iPhone’s Retina Display, the bright, saturated colors and crisp text – as well as the extra half-inch – make it a solid alternative to Apple’s panel and a noticeable step up from the Nexus One. It’s also responsive, with no touchscreen lag so far.

Things might change as we load up the Nexus S with apps, and there are obviously some holes in the spec sheet. Given the first Nexus phone pushed the hardware envelope so successfully, it’s a surprise to see this new version launch with a mere 5-megapixel camera and no HDMI connectivity; the microSD card slot is another odd omission, with Samsung and Google seemingly following in the footsteps of Apple and Microsoft’s arbitrary smartphone limitations. NFC does up the geek-cred, but right now there’s not much we can do with it bar say that Google got there ahead of the iPhone.

We’ll be putting the Google Nexus S through its paces over the next few days, ahead of the full SlashGear review, and seeing if this second-gen model lives up to the game-changing Nexus One.

You may need to turn up the volume in the video – I was losing my voice today.

There’s certainly no missing the hardware. As blunt-faced as the HTC HD2 with which is shares the same 4.3-inch WVGA screen size, only a few millimetres thicker to fit in the extra connectivity and megapixels, the EVO 4G teeters on the dividing line between smartphone and MID.

Qualcomm 1GHz Snapdragon CPU
512MB RAM / 1GB ROM
microSD card slot (8GB preinstalled)
WiMAX
EVDO Rev.A / CDMA 800/1900
WiFi b/g
Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
GPS
8-megapixel autofocus camera with dual LED flash
1.3-megapixel front-facing webcam
microUSB / mini HMDI
G-sensor / proximity sensor / light sensor
FM radio
1,500mAh battery
4.8 x 2.6 x 0.5 inches / 6 oz
Android 2.1 with HTC Sense

Despite its presence during the Android keynote last week, it’s worth mentioning that the EVO 4G runs not the new OS 2.2 Froyo but the previous generation OS 2.1. That’s a limitation of HTC’s Sense interface; the company says they’re working on an update for the newest OS build, but it’s not going to be ready until the second half of 2010. You miss out, therefore, on Froyo’s extra turn of speed and Flash 10.1 support, but thanks to Sense (and some of Sprint’s own apps) you do get the full Exchange support missing on regular 2.1 devices, mobile hotspot functionality to share the 3G/4G connectivity and Flash Lite support, all wrapped up in a slick, easy to use UI.

That UI really benefits from having 4.3-inches to play with, and the screen on the EVO 4G is a real joy. Bright, crisp and responsive to touch, it obviously supports multitouch and, while the resolution may be no greater than what you’d get on a Desire or Nexus One (each with 3.7-inch panels), it’s still an altogether more immersive experience. Physical controls are limited to volume and power/lock keys on the side and top, respectively, while there are the usual Android controls running along the bottom of the display in the shape of touch-sensitive buttons. These are happily far more finger-friendly than the Nexus One’s sometimes-stubborn buttons.

Despite there being no shortage of headline features, the WiMAX connectivity of the EVO 4G still stands out from the rest. It’s the first smartphone to ship with WiMAX support – we’ve seen MIDs with WiMAX data connections, but not full voice support – and, when you’re in an area with 4G network coverage, it makes a big difference. We saw 4Mbps downlink and 1Mbps uplink rates, which put the EVO 4G more in line with what you’d expect from a domestic broadband connection rather than EVDO Rev.A performance. You can selectively toggle the WiMAX radio on and off when you’re not in coverage so as to save battery life.

Unfortunately it’s likely to spend more time shut off than it is turned on, since Sprint’s WiMAX network is still relatively sparse. The carrier has ambitious roll-out schedules, certainly, and if you’re within coverage already then the speeds are impressive, but most of the US is still going to be stuck with EVDO Rev.A at most. Early adopters are used to limitations – that’s one of the costs of being at the bleeding edge – but we’re more than a little disappointed by Sprint’s mandatory $10 WiMAX surcharge (on top of the required data package) even if you never step foot into a 4G area.

Assuming you do get a whiff of WiMAX, however, the EVO 4G’s mobile hotspot app really comes into its own. Like a standalone MiFi, the EVO 4G shares out its cellular connection to numerous WiFi clients – in this case up to eight – with support for WPA2 encryption. Obviously it works both with 3G and 4G, and if you’ve a WiFi-only tablet or netbook it’s incredibly easy to get it online through the EVO 4G. Better still, thanks to the handset’s ability to simultaneously have a 4G data connection and 3G voice connection active, you can still receive calls.

Voice performance with the EVO 4G has been mixed, falling short of what we’re used to with the Nexus One, for instance. There’s a loud speakerphone, though lacking in some clarity, and the handy pop-out kickstand on the back makes it easier to not only hear callers but to comfortably view multimedia playback. Battery life is the obvious victim to all this connectivity, and while it’s usual to have to recharge a modern smartphone daily, using the EVO 4G’s WiMAX will see you whip through a full charge in a matter of hours. We managed around 5 hours 20 minutes talktime with 4G turned on; expect that to drop by 2 hours or so if you’re using mobile hotspot.

Multimedia capabilities certainly look good on paper, with an 8-megapixel camera and a front-facing webcam for video calls. The latter relies on Qik, which is preloaded (and also lets you stream live video to the web) but unfortunately the service isn’t ready for use yet and as such we couldn’t test it. Thanks to Verizon’s exclusivity deal there’s no Skype app, either. Performance from the main camera, meanwhile, was good but not outstanding; proof once again that there’s more to decent mobile shots than blunt megapixels. Outdoor shots are reasonable, but in lower lighting conditions the autofocus has a tendency to hunt around before a lock and – even with the flash – pictures can be murky. 720p HD video recording, meanwhile, is glitchy and pales in comparison to a point-and-shoot camcorder. Notching down the quality to VGA paid dividends for smoothness, though to be fair with WiMAX both resolutions are quick and simple to upload to YouTube via the regular Android “Share” functionality.

Alternatively, there’s the mini HDMI port on the bottom of the EVO 4G (next to the regular microUSB) with which you can hook up an HDTV or monitor. The phone has Android’s basic media playback support, which means video codecs in particular are lacking. It’s a shame, as the EVO 4G’s display is perfect for mobile video consumption. Sprint’s penny-pinching also rears its head here – there’s a microUSB cable in the box, but no mini HDMI to HDMI cable – and so you’ll have to add that to your shopping list unless you already have one. Considering we’re already smarting from Sprint’s overall fees for the EVO 4G, it compounds a bad impression. Once you factor in $199.99 for the handset itself, a 24-month agreement of $79.99 per month (for Simply Everything), $10 per month WiMAX surcharge and then $30 per month for the privilege of using the mobile hotspot functionality, you’re looking at around $110 every month and $2,840 over the course of the agreement.

Our lasting concerns about the HTC EVO 4G are the WiMAX coverage and the ability of HTC to push out updates to the smartphone’s firmware. 4G is undoubtedly spreading, but if you’re not in one of Sprint’s target areas – which admittedly the carrier has been upfront about listing publicly – then you could be waiting some time to use the EVO 4G’s headline connectivity. On shakier ground, perhaps, is HTC Sense and the impact it has on Android updates. If HTC have demonstrated anything over the past twelve months, it’s that updating a custom UI when Google change the underlying OS takes more effort than they first expected; just ask HTC Hero owners for evidence of that. The company has said they plan to push out Android 2.2 with Sense sometime in the second half of this year, but it wouldn’t be the first time they’ve missed an announced deadline.

Is that enough to dissuade us from the HTC EVO 4G’s indubitable charms? Definitely not; the combination of a huge, media-loving display, brilliantly fast WiMAX and Android’s abilities – even in 2.1 form – add up to one of the stand-out handsets of 2010 so far, and it’ll take quite the device to eclipse the EVO 4G’s appeal. Those considerably outside of WiMAX range should perhaps think twice, since we wouldn’t be surprised if other large-screen Android devices follow on from this particular model, but if you’re in Sprint’s coverage – either now or in the near future – the EVO 4G is fast, capable and very, very tempting.

Until the EVO 4G arrives on Sprint later this year, the Droid Incredible is HTC’s best-specified Android handset on the market. The spec sheet may not look massively different from the Desire and the Nexus One, but in the hand the Incredible actually feels a pretty different beast. Actually slightly narrower and shorter than the Google-branded Nexus One, both phones weigh the same but – somehow – the Incredible feels lighter in the hand. Nonetheless, it feels well made and the design is pleasantly squared-off; the curiously ridged battery cover may look a little like a topographical map, but it’s certainly distinctive in among a crowd of touchscreen-centric smartphones.

As with the Nexus One and the HTC Desire, the Droid Incredible’s capacitive OLED display is bright, color saturated and crisp, though taking it outdoors can leave you forced to boost backlighting as it doesn’t handle direct sunlight as, say, the Motorola DROID’s LCD panel. It’s also possible to see what looks like the dotted tracks of the touchscreen frame if you tilt the phone and look at it askance, though in general use that’s not so visible. What we did notice more often is the extra screen accuracy in comparison to the Nexus One: no missed taps, and far better precision when it comes to hitting onscreen graphics. HTC tell us the Incredible has a tempered glass panel with a fingerprint-resilient oleophobic coating; fingerprints may slide off, however, but scratches are another matter, and in less than a day’s use (with the Incredible dropped into the same pockets as we keep our Nexus One in) the screen had already gathered a couple of scars. Usually we’d say screen protectors are a matter of personal preference, but with the Droid Incredible we almost think Verizon should have included one in the box as standard.

Underneath there are touch-sensitive buttons for Home, Menu, Back and Search – in a frustratingly different order to those on the Nexus One and Motorola DROID, though the same as the Desire – and an optical joystick, all of which work well. On the left side there’s a volume rocker and the microUSB 2.0 port, but like other HTC-made phones there’s no camera shortcut; considering the capable optics on the Incredible that seems short-sighted.

Like the Nexus One, Motorola DROID and the Europe-only HTC Desire, the Droid Incredible runs Android 2.1, Google’s latest version of the platform. That includes features such as Google Maps Navigation (though VZ Navigator is also available if you prefer Verizon’s own service) together with the usual package of Google Experience software: Gmail, the multitouch-capable browser and more. There are thousands of other titles available in the Android Market, though it’s worth noting that you can still only install them to the 512MB of ROM, not the 8GB of data memory.

Of course, what helps distinguish the Droid Incredible is its use of HTC Sense, the manufacturer’s custom UI and widget framework that turns stock Android into a far more attractive proposition out of the box. In addition to a boosted homescreen with seven rather than the usual five panes, there are HTC-made widgets for weather, social networking and settings, a preloaded Twitter client called HTC Peep, and – the most recent addition – Friend Stream. Where Sense previously pulled down Flickr, Facebook and Twitter updates to be displayed on a per-contact basis, Friend Stream pulls all three into a single timeline (complete with a desktop widget) supporting replies, comments and the ability to post your own updates to one or more networks.

Friend Stream works well, and Peep remains one of the better Twitter apps, though most existing Android users already have their own favorites for handling social networking. Sense covers fewer networking platforms than, say, Motorola’s MOTOBLUR system, but we prefer the way HTC have finessed the experience. Sense also boosts messaging support, replacing the default Mail app with a new client that boasts native Exchange support for mail, contacts and – unlike Android 2.1 normally – calendar entries. Mail handling is particularly good, with separate views for flagged, unread or VIP messages, meeting invitations, and a decent threaded “conversation” view. As for the browser, that gets Flash Lite 4.0 support (not to be confused with full Flash 10.1, but enough to allow for streaming video; still, performance varies depending on your connection and the bitrate of the content you’re watching).

Of course, the flip side of a manufacturer-customized UI is that it can add up to delays when Google push out a new version of the Android OS. As we’ve seen on previous Sense devices – all the way back to the original HTC Hero, in fact – the difficulties involved in getting a separate user experience to play nicely with the underlying platform usually adds up to a significant wait on the part of the user. HTC generally commit to releasing an updated OS version eventually, but pinning them down to a timescale is almost impossible. While Android in its bare, unadulterated form may lack the instant appeal of Sense, as we said in our HTC Desire review there’s always the reassurance that an unmodified device will see a quicker OS upgrade. Nonetheless, as we also said in our Desire piece, that caution for tomorrow does mean that users run the risk of missing out on a great experience today.

Perhaps the most obvious spec bump over the Nexus One and other recent HTC devices is the Droid Incredible’s camera. Packing 8-megapixels with autofocus and a dual-LED flash, it puts the Incredible – on paper at least – on a par with the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10. The flash is certainly brighter than the single-LED on the Nexus One, though as ever it’s not quite as useful as a proper Xenon flash.

As you’d hope, the Incredible’s still photos are, well, incredible. Packed with detail, they’re a noticeable step up from what the Nexus One is capable of; considering we’ve used the Google-branded handset for liveblog event photos (thanks to its ability to automatically upload shots to an online gallery) that’s saying something. The Droid Incredible also benefits from HTC’s enhanced camera app, which has a far greater range of settings than a regular Android phone. Like we saw on the Desire, there’s granular control over exposure, contrast, saturation and sharpness, ISO ranges from 100 to 800 and optional geotagging and face detection. Unlike the XPERIA X10 there’s no way to tie face detection into the address book, but we prefer the shots from Incredible in comparison to the Sony Ericsson handset.

Unfortunately, video isn’t quite so successful and, despite having the same megapixel count as the upcoming EVO 4G on Sprint, the Droid Incredible is limited to recording 800 x 480 footage rather than 720p HD. Of course, with no HDMI output that would’ve perhaps been overkill anyway, but given the relatively large amount of onboard storage (and the popularity of point-and-shoot camcorders) we’d have liked to have been able to fill it up with higher quality video. The clips it can record are reasonable but not outstanding, and while you can turn on the LED flash to act as a camera light you’ll still want to limit yourself to brighter scenes (and preferably outdoors in daylight).

Phone quality on the Droid Incredible is pretty much on a par with other recent smartphones, though we wish HTC had fitted the noise-cancelling microphone system as on the Nexus One. If you’ve not used that handset then you probably won’t miss the DSP, however. Verizon’s data network is a strong performer too, though given the power users we’d expect to be opting for the Incredible, leaving out global 3G/voice functionality seems incredibly short-sighted.

Our biggest concern for the Droid Incredible is its battery life. HTC reckon you’ll see up to 5.2hrs of talktime or alternatively up to six days of runtime from a full charge of the standard 1,300mAh pack, but in our experience that’s hopelessly optimistic. With push email switched on and the various social networking features regularly updating, we’re seeing under a single day’s use from the Incredible. Turning them off, of course, ekes out more runtime, but arguably at the expense of the very connectivity that likely played a significant role in your choosing the smartphone.

If HTC had offered a charging cradle – as they do for the Nexus One – then the Incredible’s thirst would’ve been easier to live with; we’ve found we’re more likely to drop the Nexus One into its dock when we’re at our desk than we are to plug similar handsets into their regular wired charger. Unfortunately, not only does the Incredible lack charging contacts on the base, for use with a cradle, HTC have also put its microUSB port on the side. That’s really not ideal for either official or third-party docks.

It’s a frustrating limitation that mars an otherwise excellent smartphone. The Droid Incredible by HTC has the speed, optics and user-friendly UI that a top-flight handset demands, but we found ourselves a little too conscious of the battery gauge for comfort. Of course, it’s not the first device to have such a problem, and at least you can switch out the battery if you have a spare. Experimentation with the wireless and data sync settings will likely be enough to balance functionality against longevity, but that’s still a hurdle to first-time users tempted in by Android’s growing software availability and HTC’s slick interface.

Put in that effort, however, and you’ll be left with a highly capable device with plenty to offer. Beyond concerns over HTC’s Android update schedule, it’s hard to imagine a reason why Verizon fans would hold out for the upcoming CDMA Nexus One, unless they were one of the (increasingly rare) people who still use their phone for voice calls and, as such, particularly valued the Google phone’s better audio quality. If you’re more interested in taking photos, having an intuitive smartphone experience out of the box and getting access to Verizon’s customer support network, the Droid Incredible by HTC seems the device to choose.

Key Specifications:

Qualcomm 1GHz Snapdragon chipset
512MB ROM, 512MB RAM
3.7-inch WVGA 480 x 800 OLED capacitive touchscreen
8-megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash
8GB internal memory & microSD card slot (32GB)
EVDO Rev.A, WiFi b/g & Bluetooth
GPS, accelerometer
Android 2.1 with HTC Sense
3.5mm headphones socket & microUSB 2.0 port
1,300mAh Li Ion battery (rated 5.2hrs talktime or six days standby)
4.63 x 2.3 x 0.47 inches / 4.59 oz

Unboxing Video & Gallery

For $45 you’d expect build quality to be high, and thankfully Google – or, more accurately, HTC, since they’re responsible for the hardware – haven’t noticeably skimped on the plastics. The dock is very stable thanks to heavy weighting in the base, and we’re pleased to see an A/C adapter is included in the box; contrast that to Palm, who don’t include a second mains adapter with their Touchstone charger and expect you to use the original. This way you can leave one adapter at work and use the powered dock at home.

The Nexus One drops into place easily, with the spring-loaded touch contacts meaning there’s no pressure required. Meanwhile around the back there’s a microUSB port (for power) and a 3.5mm audio-out jack; a cable, ending in stereo RCA plugs, is included to hook up your stereo. As soon as you dock the Nexus One the Clock mode loads automatically, with weather animations and alarms; similarly, when you plug in the audio cable the first time you’re asked whether you’d like to use it as an audio alarm/music output by default.

We’ll be testing out Bluetooth A2DP audio quality over the next few days, but right now we’re pretty pleased with the Nexus One Desktop Dock. While it’s obviously not the cheapest way to recharge your Google Phone, it does make doing so straightforward and mean you’re more likely to listen to music while at your desk (or in bed, if you’re using it on a nightstand).

Android handsets seem to be pushing the envelope in terms of styling, with the G1 being love-it-or-hate-it distinctive and the European Hero similarly eye-catching. Motorola have certainly gone angular with the DROID, but the high proportion of metal in its construction means it fits in a huge screen and non-spring-assisted slider mechanism without the heft of plastic rivals. That screen, incidentally, is one of the DROID’s best features: 3.7-inches and 854 x 480 resolution, it’s easily a match for the Samsung Moment’s AMOLED panel when it comes to brightness, color saturation and crisp edges. Meanwhile the capacitive touchscreen tech is responsive, though in US form it lacks the multitouch that the European version of the DROID – the Motorola MILESTONE – will offer.

The DROID’s keyboard, however, is a disappointment, considering we were hoping for something that could better on-screen ‘boards. HTC is arguably leading the pack in on-screen QWERTY, thanks to a clever combination of auto-correction and word prediction, but Motorola’s overly flat, tactile-free keys don’t put up much of a fight. The Samsung Moment, for all its layout faults, has better key-feel, while the fact that Motorola saw fit to leave two of the buttons blank and functionless seems plain wasteful. The D-pad ends up little more than a reminder that Android lags behind the iPhone when it comes to compelling games, and we wish Motorola had left it off altogether and instead given us a broader, easier to use keyboard.

Google claim that they’ve reworked their soft keyboard systems in Android 2.0, but there’s little difference that we can see. What makes the biggest difference is the sheer size of the display, which in landscape mode particularly inflates the keys to chunky proportions. Elsewhere, the new OS makes a number of aesthetic changes, including new animated transitions and more attractive icons. It still falls short of the consistency of, say, the iPhone 3GS, but it certainly feels less of a work-in-progress than earlier devices did.

Android 2.0 is also more social network aware, with native integration of Facebook into the contacts and the provision for more such services in future thanks to “sync adapters” which hook into the relevant apps. Google seem to have looked to HTC Sense for inspiration rather than MOTOBLUR: Facebook contacts are included in the Contacts app (and combined if there’s duplication) with status and profile photo pulled from the online service, though unlike HTC’s system there’s no Twitter or Flickr presence. Exchange support is also a core addition to 2.0, mixing corporate email with POP/IMAP and corporate address book with the Contacts; only the Exchange calendar is kept separate from the personal calendar. Strangely, despite the otherwise unified inbox, Gmail still gets its own app and own inbox, though you can now sync with multiple Gmail accounts.

The Facebook client, although official, is little changed from what’s available in the Android Market for existing Android smartphone users, which means it’s a combination of some local app provision with everything else – galleries, messaging, etc – pushing you into the mobile Facebook site. As for Universal Search, that will only query through your inboxes if you’re actually looking at them on-screen at the time; otherwise it stops at making internet, SMS/MMS, contact and media searches.

Thankfully the browser itself is fast and stable, with the DROID’s 600MHz Cortex A8 processor keeping render delay to a minimum. HTML5 support has been introduced, together with the ability to double-tap to zoom, though there’s no Flash Lite like HTC have added to their recent handsets. Instead you’ll be watching YouTube video through the bundled viewer app, which certainly works but isn’t quite as streamlined as we’d like it to be.

Striking fear into the hearts of standalone PND manufacturers is Google Maps Navigation, the company’s new turn-by-turn GPS app. Fresh – and currently exclusive – to Android 2.0, the beta offers both text-to-voice and voice control along with all the usual Google Maps features such as satellite and traffic views, a digital-compass controlled Street View and points-of-interest. It works incredibly well, considering it’s Google’s first attempt, and while it lacks some of the finesse of dedicated PND systems the fact it’s free goes a long way to encouraging forgiveness.

Among the DROID’s available accessories at line-up will be an in-car kit, designed for use with Google Maps Navigation. Like other such kits this sticks to your windshield, and when you slot the DROID into the cradle it automatically loads up a straightforward menu designed for easier use while driving. Unfortunately we didn’t have the car kit to test out; what we did get is the DROID desktop dock, a simple cradle with a microUSB connection for powering and syncing the phone. Slotting in the smartphone triggers a “hub” information page, with the time, weather, and shortcuts to multimedia; we reckon Motorola have missed a trick by not including a second battery charging slot behind, however.

Still, battery life on the DROID has been a real surprise, exceeding our expectations for a device with such a huge display and so much wireless connectivity. A full day – with Exchange turned on and regular use – is certainly possible out of the standard battery, and Android 2.0 adds a handy power management interface which shows what elements of the system drank the most juice and offering ways to tame them (backlight reduction, for instance, or switching off wireless).

Unfortunately, Motorola haven’t got everything right, and like the keyboard frustrated us there are some other shortcomings as you dig through the system. Android 2.0 makes no attempt to improve the platform’s media handling, so you’re stuck mounting the DROID as a USB drive and dragging-and-dropping new audio, video and image files across; considering Verizon are positioning the smartphone as a direct iPhone 3GS rival, it seems an incredible blind-spot when you consider Apple have iTunes to handle all their media (and app) management. The native media apps themselves are still as ugly and functional in their design as ever, and while Motorola include a 16GB microSD card in the box, the fact that it’s a Class 2 card means that the higher-resolution video files we attempted to play suffered skipping. That sounds like a basic case of cost-cutting, and it’s disappointing that for want of a few extra cents per handset Motorola have undermined what could’ve been a good selling point. It’s worth noting that there’s no hands-free kit in the box, where usually you’ll find a simple wired headset with most smartphones on the market; still, the standard 3.5mm socket means you can use your own (for better audio quality anyway) and there’s Bluetooth A2DP stereo streaming as well (along with Object Push and Phone Book Access, again fresh additions to Android 2.0).

The biggest let-down is the camera, which while capable of capturing decent video falls well short of what we’d expect from a 5-megapixel autofocus shooter in its still images. The autofocus suffers from being both slow and obdurate, periodically refusing to lock onto the foreground subject, and the end results tend towards the murky (even with the reasonably bright dual-LED flash), fuzzy and unusually color-tinged. Since we find it hard to believe that the CMOS hardware itself could be so disappointing, we’re hoping Motorola quickly respond with some updated firmware that tames the visual performance. As for video, the 720 x 480 24fps footage the DROID captures can be wobbly, but the quality is decent for a cellphone camera.

Too many smartphone reviews neglect basic phone functionality, which in the case of the DROID would be to overlook one of its major strengths. As well as proving tenacious with a CDMA signal, the DROID is loud, clear and crisp through both its earpiece and the speakerphone. The side-mounted volume keys are a little too easy to press, but the maximum output from the DROID is plenty loud enough; unfortunately, as with other CDMA devices, you can’t have an active cellular data session while on a voice call, though WiFi and GPS do still work. Business travellers who have been growing used to Verizon offering so-called World Phones – which include GSM and UMTS connectivity so that their phone doesn’t become a useless brick outside of North America – will be disappointed to hear that the DROID is CDMA-only, a decision which we reckon borders on the suicidal when you consider Motorola are targeting this phone at mobile pros.

Still, show us the “perfect smartphone” and we’ll call you a liar; no device ticks every box, and the DROID makes some very convincing arguments across the board. Android 2.0 is an OS that’s come of age, and while third-party applications may lag behind those available in the Apple App Store in terms of blunt numbers, the thriving developer community proves there’s no shortage of imagination. Those looking to replace their digital camera should look elsewhere, at least until Motorola do something to address the dire photo performance, but for those more interested in watching video, communicating via multiple accounts and accessing the web the DROID has some serious strengths. It’s probably Verizon’s best phone right now, and if you’re in the market for a smartphone checking out the DROID should be high on your list of priorities.

Want a second opinion on the Verizon DROID by Motorola? Check out Vincent’s review over at SlashGear!