Help Incredible 2 Alternatives

[BCM]

I type this post just back from Verizon and I am waiting for my 3rd replacement to my original Incredible 2. The problem with every device has been speaker issues, both the ear piece and the loud speaker (crackling). I seem to recall having a similar issue once with my original Incredible (first version) but its speaker loud speaker was much better.

I have really enjoyed everything else about the Incredible 2. It has great battery life, gingerbread, nice screen, and Sense UI which I really like. Now I'm hoping this 3rd replacement is issue free but I am starting to doubt HTC's quality control. This being said, what are my alternatives? If not the Incredible 2 then what other phone on Verizon should I consider?

I have looked at everything they have and nothing really stands out to me except maybe the iphone. I really prefer Android and would like to stay with that OS.

What do you think?

Bryan

 

[gangsterazn]

I type this post just back from Verizon and I am waiting for my 3rd replacement to my original Incredible 2. The problem with every device has been speaker issues, both the ear piece and the loud speaker (crackling). I seem to recall having a similar issue once with my original Incredible (first version) but its speaker loud speaker was much better.

I have really enjoyed everything else about the Incredible 2. It has great battery life, gingerbread, nice screen, and Sense UI which I really like. Now I'm hoping this 3rd replacement is issue free but I am starting to doubt HTC's quality control. This being said, what are my alternatives? If not the Incredible 2 then what other phone on Verizon should I consider?

I have looked at everything they have and nothing really stands out to me except maybe the iphone. I really prefer Android and would like to stay with that OS.

What do you think?

Bryan

Hey,

I don't know too much about any of the other devices since I have never had a phone with data until my Inc2 but I have not had problems with it so it might be, sadly, only you. I just saw Free Motorola Atrix, Nexus S 4G, Samsung Fascinate at Best Buy Wed. | News & Opinion | PCMag.com today and maybe it would be good for you to take a look. Once again I don't know much but hope this gives you an option.

Alvin

 

[jkmasi]

I would not recommend the Droid 3. I've had one for about a week, and I think I'm ready to sell it. I may try to wait for Motorola to release a bug fix update, but as it is now, it has lots of weird issues. I love my Incredible 2. I have not tried any of the 4g phones, so can't comment on those.

 

[KrippyKreme]

What kind of issues? I'm a fan of the Droid series, with the exception of the X.

 

[Jman42028]

honestly, the inc2 is probably the most solid phone out right now. I sell all of them, and by far the htc phones have the highest satisfaction from end users. I've messed with pretty much all of them, and the inc2 is the most stable. The crackling thing, I remember on the original incredible people were taking the speaker cover off and using a magnet to get some shavings out of the speaker, that may work, mine does that too, but I just deal with it honestly, lol.

the droid x, meh
the x2, meh, not super stable. Maybe googles impending acqusition of Motorola will fix some of the stability issues that motoblur brings. Time will tell.

The samsung phones, all of them, have some issues. The fascinate and charge have beautiful screens, and good battery life, but they are buggy, I don't know if its the touchwiz UI they use, or just something on their end with hardware, but there have been a ton of complaints and they are generally just clunky phones.

I hadn't heard anything bad about the droid 3 yet, so what I read earlier was a first, but as with any new device, there will be bug fixes. The one thing I've heard the most about hardware keyboards, is that its pretty much a waste. Most people get used to using the software keyboard and stop using the actual physical keyboard, making it a heavy and thick phone basically.

The sony xperia play is a pretty smooth phone, some of the games are cool, but it just hasn't taken off like sony expected it too. not a horrible phone, but honestly, I don't think I've sold a single one yet.

My advice, stick to the inc2, or the TB if you want to upgrade to 4g. The recent updates to the TB have made it pretty stable now and fixed some of the battery issues. Otherwise, just hold off till the fall/winter. We will see a ton of new phones coming out, including the Bionic and a new HTC superphone to replace the TB. Also, a new version of the LG Revolution all around the same time.

Hope that helped a little bit.

 

[BCM]

Thanks for the thoughtful reply! I just received my replacement yesterday and it seems to be fine. I really like the phone but those speaker issues were hard to ignore.

 

[gangsterazn]

honestly, the inc2 is probably the most solid phone out right now. I sell all of them, and by far the htc phones have the highest satisfaction from end users. I've messed with pretty much all of them, and the inc2 is the most stable. The crackling thing, I remember on the original incredible people were taking the speaker cover off and using a magnet to get some shavings out of the speaker, that may work, mine does that too, but I just deal with it honestly, lol.

the droid x, meh
the x2, meh, not super stable. Maybe googles impending acqusition of Motorola will fix some of the stability issues that motoblur brings. Time will tell.

The samsung phones, all of them, have some issues. The fascinate and charge have beautiful screens, and good battery life, but they are buggy, I don't know if its the touchwiz UI they use, or just something on their end with hardware, but there have been a ton of complaints and they are generally just clunky phones.

I hadn't heard anything bad about the droid 3 yet, so what I read earlier was a first, but as with any new device, there will be bug fixes. The one thing I've heard the most about hardware keyboards, is that its pretty much a waste. Most people get used to using the software keyboard and stop using the actual physical keyboard, making it a heavy and thick phone basically.

The sony xperia play is a pretty smooth phone, some of the games are cool, but it just hasn't taken off like sony expected it too. not a horrible phone, but honestly, I don't think I've sold a single one yet.

My advice, stick to the inc2, or the TB if you want to upgrade to 4g. The recent updates to the TB have made it pretty stable now and fixed some of the battery issues. Otherwise, just hold off till the fall/winter. We will see a ton of new phones coming out, including the Bionic and a new HTC superphone to replace the TB. Also, a new version of the LG Revolution all around the same time.

Hope that helped a little bit.

Sorry to hijack this thread but what updates are you talking about for the Thunderbolt? I got a thunderbolt right before the data plan changed (around July 6th) and the battery life was horrible. I left it at work in my locker and by lunch time the thing was already dead after a night's charge. Personally I wouldn't recommend the TB unless you want to be connected to a charger all day, but if there was a more recent update than the updates I did within the first week, then I would like to know more. (Haven't been keeping up with the Thunderbolt ever since coming to the Inc2 so I don't know).

 

[jkmasi]

What kind of issues? I'm a fan of the Droid series, with the exception of the X.

Here is what I posted in the D3 forum -

"I really like the feel of the phone, and the keyboard is great. I didn't mind the pentile screen - it looked sharp enough to me. Call quality was fine, and hardware wise, it seems like a great phone. However, like some others here and on other support sites, I have the following issues, in no particular order:

1) Blue tint to photos with flash, and overall not the best camera quality. My Inc, Droid X and Inc 2 all took better pics.

2) Occasionally can't end calls. Pressing the end call button does nothing, but if I go back to the home screen, then call is "stuck" in the notification bar, which is flashing green. I haven't had this problem since a factory reset, so maybe it's gone.

3) Phone turns itself back on after I power down. Not all of this time, but this has happened at least twice.

4) Battery drains super fast when phone is off. It went from 100% charged to 0% in a little over 24 hours, turned off, in a drawer. This is a problem for me because I spend weekends in an area with no service, so I usually just turn my phone off upon arrival. When I leave Monday mornings, I power up. All of my previous phones could hold a charge when off with out a problem.

5) GPS won't turn on every time unless I toggle off all location settings, then toggle on in a particular order.

6) lag or delay in response of touch screen. I sometimes have to tap an icon more than once to get a response."

 

[Jman42028]

Sorry to hijack this thread but what updates are you talking about for the Thunderbolt? I got a thunderbolt right before the data plan changed (around July 6th) and the battery life was horrible. I left it at work in my locker and by lunch time the thing was already dead after a night's charge. Personally I wouldn't recommend the TB unless you want to be connected to a charger all day, but if there was a more recent update than the updates I did within the first week, then I would like to know more. (Haven't been keeping up with the Thunderbolt ever since coming to the Inc2 so I don't know).

VZW did another OTA update in the middle of july I believe. I think, if I remember correctly they did 2 or 3 updates to the phone in the month of july, one of which put an option on the quick settings menu to turn off the 4g antenna, if you live in an area without 4g.

 

[vzwuser76]

Sorry to hijack this thread but what updates are you talking about for the Thunderbolt? I got a thunderbolt right before the data plan changed (around July 6th) and the battery life was horrible. I left it at work in my locker and by lunch time the thing was already dead after a night's charge. Personally I wouldn't recommend the TB unless you want to be connected to a charger all day, but if there was a more recent update than the updates I did within the first week, then I would like to know more. (Haven't been keeping up with the Thunderbolt ever since coming to the Inc2 so I don't know).

Just curious, was the locker you put it in metal? Does your office have horrible signal reception. If so there is your problem. Metal decreases signal reception. I have a network extender due to the fact that we have steel siding on our house and are on the edge of Verizon's coverage. Before we got the NE, the difference in reception between in house and out of house was around 10-20dBm. That's a huge loss. A metal locker is about twice as thick as the siding on my house, so the loss could be even more. There could also be materials used in the construction of your office that attenuate the reception.

The reason low signal kills batteries is because the radios in the phone (voice, 3G data, 4G data, gps, & bluetooth) will constantly be searching for a signal, which draws on the battery especially if there are multiple radios searching for signal. If you are in an extremely low signal to no service area, it can eat a battery extremely fast.

Everyone talks about how the old flip phones were much superior to smartphones as far as battery life. I was at work in the field in a low to no service area but kept my Moto flip phone on for the clock and the calculator. Starting at 6am it would be at 5% by lunch time. So when looking at battery life low signal can be a big culprit.

One thing to try is (with another cell phone) put your Thunderbolt in the locker and loce the door. Then try calling it. If it doesn't ring, you are in a low to no service area, either because of coverage or signal attenuating materials. If that's the case leaving the radios on will only serve to render your battery useless.

In that event, either shutoff the phone or put it in Airplane mode. Airplane mode will effectively sever all connections with the phone. In this state, a smartphone regardless of signal reception will last 3-4 days, maybe more. If the phone can't receive calls or texts because of the signal dampening of the locker or building, there's no reason not to shut it off or cut all connections.

 

[gangsterazn]

Just curious, was the locker you put it in metal? Does your office have horrible signal reception. If so there is your problem. Metal decreases signal reception. I have a network extender due to the fact that we have steel siding on our house and are on the edge of Verizon's coverage. Before we got the NE, the difference in reception between in house and out of house was around 10-20dBm. That's a huge loss. A metal locker is about twice as thick as the siding on my house, so the loss could be even more. There could also be materials used in the construction of your office that attenuate the reception.

The reason low signal kills batteries is because the radios in the phone (voice, 3G data, 4G data, gps, & bluetooth) will constantly be searching for a signal, which draws on the battery especially if there are multiple radios searching for signal. If you are in an extremely low signal to no service area, it can eat a battery extremely fast.

Everyone talks about how the old flip phones were much superior to smartphones as far as battery life. I was at work in the field in a low to no service area but kept my Moto flip phone on for the clock and the calculator. Starting at 6am it would be at 5% by lunch time. So when looking at battery life low signal can be a big culprit.

One thing to try is (with another cell phone) put your Thunderbolt in the locker and loce the door. Then try calling it. If it doesn't ring, you are in a low to no service area, either because of coverage or signal attenuating materials. If that's the case leaving the radios on will only serve to render your battery useless.

In that event, either shutoff the phone or put it in Airplane mode. Airplane mode will effectively sever all connections with the phone. In this state, a smartphone regardless of signal reception will last 3-4 days, maybe more. If the phone can't receive calls or texts because of the signal dampening of the locker or building, there's no reason not to shut it off or cut all connections.

Nice detailed post. I completely agree and I know where you're coming from. I indeed thought that the TB battery was trying too hard to search for both 4G and voice signals. That is why the battery died in that one particular case. But even at home, the battery could only last about 8 hours a day whereas my Inc2 now only decreases by about 10% in my locker and can easily last aobut 20 hours lying at home (no wifi always on 3g). Overall the Inc2 battery is leaps and bounds above the TB so I was telling the OP that if that was one of his concerns I'd say go with the Inc2. I liked the TB otherwise though, but the need for an extended battery or constant charging wasn't very appealing to me.

For my Inc2 however, i THINK the TB signal was better in my house although I was too busy examining the battery to look at that and remember. My Inc2 is only getting max of 2 bars very rarely at home and mostly 0-1 bars. I called in and they said they would have to send a technician out here to check that I have bad signal in order to possibly give me a network extender. That's one of the flaws of this phone that I see. The antenna is very weak but even with 0 bars I am still able to call fine in my house. I know I am in a strong service area so the possibilities of them sending me that extender for weak signal is probably unlikely (since my family's other phones, old Env3's are getting 3-4 bars at home). But other than the weak but manageable Inc2 signal, everything seems stable and I love it

 

[vzwuser76]

Nice detailed post. I completely agree and I know where you're coming from. I indeed thought that the TB battery was trying too hard to search for both 4G and voice signals. That is why the battery died in that one particular case. But even at home, the battery could only last about 8 hours a day whereas my Inc2 now only decreases by about 10% in my locker and can easily last aobut 20 hours lying at home (no wifi always on 3g). Overall the Inc2 battery is leaps and bounds above the TB so I was telling the OP that if that was one of his concerns I'd say go with the Inc2. I liked the TB otherwise though, but the need for an extended battery or constant charging wasn't very appealing to me.

For my Inc2 however, i THINK the TB signal was better in my house although I was too busy examining the battery to look at that and remember. My Inc2 is only getting max of 2 bars very rarely at home and mostly 0-1 bars. I called in and they said they would have to send a technician out here to check that I have bad signal in order to possibly give me a network extender. That's one of the flaws of this phone that I see. The antenna is very weak but even with 0 bars I am still able to call fine in my house. I know I am in a strong service area so the possibilities of them sending me that extender for weak signal is probably unlikely (since my family's other phones, old Env3's are getting 3-4 bars at home). But other than the weak but manageable Inc2 signal, everything seems stable and I love it

And I'll throw and I agree your way as well. In my experience, 2 months with the Thuderbolt & 3 months with the Incredible 2, they both have their pros and cons.

For the Tbolt the pros are 4G speed where available, better reception, larger screen, comes with a 32GB sd card, the ffc seems to work with more video chat apps, & it will probably get GB 2.3.4 which means GTalk video. It's cons are battery life, the screen though larger appears washed out, some buggy updates by Verizon causing numerous issues, & appears like it will be replaced before even getting to a year (Vigor).

For the Inc2 the pros are battery life, snappy performance, screen size in the sweet spot, screen has better colors and contrast, smooth Gingerbread update (for the most part), aluminum bezel and frame, sd card is more easily accessible, & the newer Sense UI. The cons are reception (although to me it's intermittent), 16GB sd card, the video chat options are more limited (Yahoo video chat worked on the Tbolt but not on the Inc2), which is exasterbated by only getting GB 2.3.3 so no GTalk video (the sad thing is the Inc1 is supposed to get 2.3.4 and it doesn't even have a ffc).

Other than the Yahoo video chat, I have no regrets with going to the Inc2. It's build quality, along with the Tbolt, is on par with Moto's offerings and better than those from Samsung & LG. The funny thing is the Inc2 (and the Inc1 for that matter) seem to be the overlooked stars of Verizon's lineup. They don't have the Super Amoled screens of the Sammys or the marketing and media blitz of the Motos, but they for the most part just work. Sense doesn't seem to bog them down like Blur & Touchwiz do to their respective phones, and they're right there with (and sometimes faster than) Moto in regard to updates.

I do have an upgrade coming so I may look into the Vigor and possibly the GS2, but that's not a knock on the Inc2, I'm just a tech addict. If you're in the market for a Verizon phone, and 4G & physical keyboards aren't a necessity, then IMHO the Inc2 is probably the best all around smartphone in their lineup currently. And by the looks of it the only Android smartphones that are still coming before the end of the year are going to be 4G. The issue I have with 4G phones is the price & battery usage, but hopefully time will ease them both.