More on the Incredible
I’m going into week 4 with this device and think I finally have it figured out. And I have figured out the key to getting the phone to behave a little bit better. Want to know my secret?
It’s not a phone. It’s a handheld computer.
That’s right. Go ahead and read it again. And, once more until it sinks in.
Like a computer, it’s affected by bad software. Like a computer with a more mature OS, it’s affected by power. Like a computer, it has tell tale signs that something isn’t right. For example, I would have the phone powered on, all apps shut down and all hardware services (bluetooth, wifi, 3g, gps) turned off and the screen sent to the lowest brightness setting. Even after that it was still running hot, which means something was hammering the CPU pretty good. It was the task killer I was using, so I uninstalled it.
I ran it yesterday without it. And without WiFi (which I shouldn’t have done) or bluetooth or GPS. I was able to go about 5 hours with moderate use of Twitter, Facebook and taking a few photos while I was hanging around MINI of Ontario waiting for them to sort a few things out.
Or, in other words, using it like a portable computer.
That is right on par with the ASUS EeePC battery life for normal, off the juice, battery life. Not bad for a portable computer, not good, in my opinion, for a phone. Another example would be the Blackberry Tour 9630. If I would have been carrying that yesterday, using it the same as I did the Incredible, I might have used 50% power. Maybe. Still with access to Twitter and Facebook. Still taking photos. Still replying to emails. Granted the experience isn’t nearly as rich as it is with the Incredible. And that’s the trade off.
I think an up-grade to a 1700mh battery would definitely help since the current battery only has a 1300mh capacity. The 1700 fits without replacing the back cover too, which makes me wonder why HTC didn’t include that size in the first place. That, and more diligent watching of the apps and services might make this phone useable for at least 12 hours under normal use, maybe more.
Full review to follow now that I have the battery issues narrowed down.
Maybe not so Incredible
After spending a full week with this phone on the road, and 1 week off, I have some updates to my original notes.
- Battery life. I’ve had laptops that go longer on a charge than this phone does when it’s being used. During MTTS, some days I was lucky if it went 2 hours on a charge, but that was with heavy network and video use. Back at home base, I was able to completely drain the battery in less than 6 without using the camera or 3g.
- Reliability. Another minor issue is that this device decided when it will and won’t work. Sure, will work is 97% of the time, but it’s the other 3% that come up EXACTLY when I need it work.
- Crash prone. I don’t have a gazillion apps running or installed, but this phone sure gets crashy, especially when, wait for it…., it’s making phone calls. Not very cool.
- Battery charging. It would appear that the only way to effectively charge this device is by using the OEM charger. Sure it will charge over USB, but it takes, literally, over night to complete, if you are lucky.
- More about the battery. It would also appear that letting the battery go completely dead isn’t such a great thing for this device. It happened to me last week and I ended up having to do a complete factory restore to make it work again. Again, not cool.
- If I’m not mentioning it here, then it works pretty great, including the camera and the network (except in Denver)
- HTC Auto-correct. A brilliant piece of software engineering, but you really need to mind when it is putting on your screen to avoid too many Drunk Mustards.
I’m still compiling notes for a full review. I also want to get a call into tech support to see if the problems I’m having are particular to the phone or unique to me. I still think it’s an ok device but am starting to think that either I will be needing to switch back to the Blackberry for the battery life/reliability or purchase a charger for every room/car that I will be carrying the phone in as well as putting in the larger 1700mh battery.
It shouldn’t be too surprising
I have to give it to Verizon Wireless. They actually have quite an expansive Twitter presence that provides quality help and information to all that follow. Of course, with a fair bit of marketing spin and promotional materials/links too, but that’s expected. They let their Twitter folks post what they like (it would seem), so they aren’t a complete and total bore to follow.
That said, I think they might be keeping them on the short end of the information leash. This isn’t the first time I’ve gotten a response like this from them. Shocking? It was, but not really.
You see, VZW is a huge company. Like massive. And, since it is a spin off of the company that sprang from Ma Bell’s loin’s herself, there is still a little bit of what the kids like to call bureaucracy. And everyone know the best way for information to not get passed around is to turn it loose in a bureaucracy, right?
Not familiar with the Nexus One, not familiar with the HTC Incredible (idiot name, but that’s for another post), not all that up on Blackberry stuff either. Of course, this particular person is a just marketing wag…oh, wait.
I guess my point here is this. Just because a company has a Twitter/Facebook/Orkut/Pornhub presence doesn’t necessarily mean they are truly plugged in to what is going on out here in the wild west known as the Internet. I would even go so far as to guess that most Corporate Twitter Users don’t have access to sources like Engadget, Gizmodo, BGR or Crackberry. Most likely blocked by the neck bearded admins who think sites like those will crash their Novell Networks and make IE6 do crazy shit.
I’m just saying.
