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Incredible 2 or Droid 3?

Doubledee90

Android Enthusiast
Dec 25, 2009
357
15
www.myspace.com
Im looking to use a family members upgrade and I currently have a Droid X but am getting frustrated with the 3g dropping all the time. I had my heart set on an Incredible 2, but now the Droid 3 is starting to look tempting. I used to have a OG Droid and i like keyboards, but its not really a necessity because I am pretty fast on the virtual keyboard. I absolutely love Sense but this new Motorola skin on the Droid 3 is looking really nice also. What do you guys suggest?
 
I'm not aware of a "new" skin for Motorola, but admittedly, I don't follow the Droid 3 much because I'm not looking for a new phone right now.

You basically have to ask yourself a couple of questions:
1. Which UI do I prefer? If neither, get either and install your favorite launcher.
2. Is the mod community important? Incredible 2 is now on CM7 nightlies, not sure if/when the Droid 3 will follow. Buy based on where they stand today, not where they could stand tomorrow.
3. Does hardware matter? If so, Droid 3 is the killer.
4. Does a hardware keyboard matter? (you already answered this)
5. Does screen quality and resolution matter? Moto used to kill HTC in screen quality, but in terms of these two phones, the roles have revered. However, HTC is still using 800x480 (RGB), while the Droid 3 uses 960x640 (qHD, but PenTile array). In terms of screen quality, I'd take the HTC.

There are likely more questions, but it's hard for me to speak to what's relevant to you. For me, it would be an easy choice, the Incredible 2.
 
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I just switched from a Droid X to a Droid 3, and I'm loving it. You can see the screen in direct sunlight even while it is on low brightness, and the dual cameras are a plus (even though Skype doesn't support it yet, but it will soon!).

It is incredibly fast, I played the NOVA demo that comes with it and it is amazing graphics wise. I have not seen it lag at all, even while multitasking and playing some intensive game like NOVA or X-plane.

The keyboard is amazing and I love not having to deal with the typoey virtual keyboard anymore.

Overall I'm glad so far for switching to this phone. It comes with 16gb internal memory, and you can take the SD card from your X and pop it in there for a total of 32 whopping gigabytes! :O
 
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I just switched from a Droid X to a Droid 3, and I'm loving it. You can see the screen in direct sunlight even while it is on low brightness, and the dual cameras are a plus (even though Skype doesn't support it yet, but it will soon!).

It is incredibly fast, I played the NOVA demo that comes with it and it is amazing graphics wise. I have not seen it lag at all, even while multitasking and playing some intensive game like NOVA or X-plane.

The keyboard is amazing and I love not having to deal with the typoey virtual keyboard anymore.

Overall I'm glad so far for switching to this phone. It comes with 16gb internal memory, and you can take the SD card from your X and pop it in there for a total of 32 whopping gigabytes! :O

That sounds pretty awesome. With the Droid 3 having a dual core processor it really must scream and will be more future-proof. Im guessing the Droid 3 will also have more of a potential to be upgraded to the next version of Android. How is Motos skin on that one, I can tell its pretty different than the Droid X and looks pretty smooth. what I really like about sense is the widgets, I know I can get them for LP also, but still. How are the widgets motorola uses?
 
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I never cared too much for the Droid's, but if I had to choose between the Incredible 2 and Droid 3, it would be a Droid 3. I have no need for a keyboard, but the phone itself with its dual core goodness, better screen and nice UI, I'd go with the D3. It looks like the cream of crop as far as 3G phones go on VZW.
 
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I never cared too much for the Droid's, but if I had to choose between the Incredible 2 and Droid 3, it would be a Droid 3. I have no need for a keyboard, but the phone itself with its dual core goodness, better screen and nice UI, I'd go with the D3. It looks like the cream of crop as far as 3G phones go on VZW.

That part is highly debatable, as I touched upon before. The Incredible uses an 800x480 RGB display, while the Droid 3 uses a 960x640 PenTile display.

In the past, I was a fan of Moto's screens. They weren't as flashy as the OLED screens everyone else was putting out, but their color reproduction was among the best. Now? For the Atrix, X2, Droid 3, and likely the Bionic as well, they've cheaped out. These screens are bottom of the barrel when talking about high-end mobile displays.
 
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That part is highly debatable, as I touched upon before. The Incredible uses an 800x480 RGB display, while the Droid 3 uses a 960x640 PenTile display.

In the past, I was a fan of Moto's screens. They weren't as flashy as the OLED screens everyone else was putting out, but their color reproduction was among the best. Now? For the Atrix, X2, Droid 3, and likely the Bionic as well, they've cheaped out. These screens are bottom of the barrel when talking about high-end mobile displays.

True, but I heard that it helps save battery life and works really well in the sunlight. From experiences that I read the screen looks fine from a "regular" distance ecept for some colors, but not even a big deal. Im not too worried about it but I will definitely check one out in the store before I buy it.
 
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True, but I heard that it helps save battery life and works really well in the sunlight. From experiences that I read the screen looks fine from a "regular" distance ecept for some colors, but not even a big deal. Im not too worried about it but I will definitely check one out in the store before I buy it.

Oh, don't get me wrong, the screens are more than adequate. I was just disputing the claim that it was the BETTER screen.
 
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Recently, I came from T-Mobile and the Mytouch 4G to Verizon. I got the Droid Charge, and I'm exchanging it for the Motorola Droid 3. Here's why:

BATTERY HOG

The Droid Charge is a major battery hog, probably about as bad as the Thunderbolt.

Being 4G (actually LTE), it uses a lot of battery. But even on Wifi or 3G (CDMA), it still uses a lot of battery. An application such as 2X battery saver helped somewhat, but that only helps when the phone is not in use.

The biggest battery muncher is the screen. Without question, the Charge has a big, beautiful display. But that display also drains the battery quickly, even when it's dialed down to 25%. After an hour of playing a non-intensive game (Yahtz Me), the battery went down from 100 to 77, meaning (to me) that it's not going to make it through the day if you're using the phone constantly to text, surf, watch video, etc. There are solutions for this: carry a charger, buy an extra battery, get an extended-life battery, etc. If you get the Charge and use your phone a lot away from home, I highly recommend having a charger handy and/or getting extra battery power.

LAGGY SCREENS:

There is noticeable lag when navigating the screens and even when sweeping fro one screen to another. This happened in its native TouchWiz state, AFTER I got rid of all of the widgets, although removing the many built-in widgets helped. Switching to the Go Launcher EX also helped somewhat, as did turning off extra features such as animations, but there was still lag.

Another problem is in trying to create a shortcut. This invariably involves a 5-15 second delay while the available application list opens up. This happened with the native launcher and with the Go Launcher, although it was a bit better with the latter.

BLOATWARE:

Verizon loads its phones up with Garbage-Ware. I'm told that the Droid 3, while it does have Bloatware, doesn't have as much.

SCREEN DISPLAY BUG:

The Charge has a proximity sensor that is supposed to automatically adjust the brightness level, based on the light settings (for example, the screen is supposed to dim when the phone is placed to your ear). While this sounds good in theory, it doesn't work in practice. If you're on the call screen, expect to hit the power button every few seconds to turn the screen back on , because the phone keeps turning the screen off after a couple of seconds. This can be annoying if you're trying to use the phone's number pad to navigate menus with the automated voice on the other end of the line.

The display bug isn't confined to call screens. When using some applications, the screen will dim for a couple of seconds, light back up for a few seconds, dim again, and sometimes go dark. In addition to being annoying, I would imagine that this isn't good for the battery life. While this can be avoided by going into Display Settings and unchecking "Power Saving Mode" (doing this does NOT stop the previous bug), it rather defeats the purpose of having a Power Saving mode.

FROYO: When I first turned on the phone, it asked to update. It updated to a newer version of Froyo. Days later, my phone is still running Froyo. I don't know if Gingerbread has been pushed out yet, and it might help the battery issue, but I prefer to have the latest system when possible, and I'm not into rooting my phone.

In my opinion, the Charge needs some work before it's ready for prime time. If you do get a Charge I recommend turning off the Power Saving mode (since it probably does little to save power) and having more battery power and/or a charger nearby.

As far as the Droid 3 goes, I'm not all that fond of Motorola's BLUR interface (although I'm told that this phone has a less-intrusive version). It's also supposed to have a bit less bloatware. Motorola is known for its good call reception (antenna), and as Medion said, a differnet launcher can be used to get rid of some of the BLUR features. Of course, it doesn't have 4G/LTE, but I can live with Verizon's 3G/CDMA network. Also, the Droid 3 comes with Gingerbread. The downside is, of course, that Motorola is notoriously slow in updating the Android O/S, so users may be stuck with Gingerbread for some time.

That's my opinion, and yours may vary.
 
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+Medion, yeah, there is a new UI on the Motorola phones. Anything with Gingerbread gets the new UI. All the Froyo+Motoblur phones including Atrix, Droid X and Droid X2 gets this when they will upgrade to Gingerbread. The Photon and Droid 3 gets it out of the box.

Its more than a year for my tried and trusted Droid Incredible and I'm looking to replace it. I got my GSM line for my other Androids, but I still have my business line that is on CDMA. I am also considering the Droid X2.

I am weighing the Droid 3 ahead for the Incredible 2 because:

1. In all the time I owned Androids, its been mostly HTC and Samsung and no Motorola at all. If I were to redo history, I would like a Droid, then Droid 2 and Droid 3.

2. I like the keyboard.

3. I like the dual core.

4. I like the higher resolution.

5. I like HTC Sense but at times, it has a high overhead. I like the new UI on the Motorola phones, not as intrusive.

6. Motorola tends to package a lot more internal memory than HTC, making install to SDs moot. We're like comparing 6gbs allotment vs.1gb here.

7. Motorola also packages a larger micro SD storage.
 
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I have a problem with the Samsung Droid Charge as it seems many others do. My screen display goes black after a few seconds even when I have selected to keep it lit for 10 minute radio button option. Therfore a Speaker phone call has to remain that way until you disconnect by tapping power button. Very infuriating and tech support know nothing more than I regarding fixing it. Why don't telcom businesses send bug fixes like every other satellite accessible companies (ie auto industry; Windows, Mac, and Ubuntu s/w OS; etc.) Every suggestion Verizon has is no-go. They say tap the power button lightly--it disconnects...hit the home button, blah, blah, blah...

Also display brightness defaults to no brightness arbitrarily and then of course you cannot see the screen when outside to readjust it. This phone stinks!!!

Another bug is it is supposed to be 4GL. Ha! My old straighttalk flip phone ($45/mo vs $110) was just as fast. It runs at 3GL. On this one does anyone have a workaround?
 
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