HTC Droid Incredible 2 Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on July 3, 2011 11:44 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- HTC
- Verizon
- Droid Incredible 2
- Mobile
Network & WiFi Performance
The Incredible 2 comes with single stream 72Mbps 802.11n support. In our standard test however the best we ever saw was 16Mbps to the phone over WiFi (5 feet away from the AP):
The Incredible 2 uses the same BCM4329 WiFi radio as the Sensation despite posting much lower performance.
I've never characterized Verizon's network performance in Raleigh before but it's generally pretty similar to other EVDO charts we've shown in the past:
There's a lot of clustering around 0.5 - 0.8Mbps and then again around 1.2 - 1.3Mbps. I rarely saw speeds of 2Mbps around town, my experience with the Incredible 2 (and other Verizon phones) in Raleigh had downstream performance around 0.9Mbps.
Upstream performance varies a lot more. Often times I'd see great consistency with downstream speeds only to have completely unpredictable upstream performance. I don't believe this is an issue with the Incredible 2, just how Verizon behaves in Raleigh, NC.
Signal attentuation due to normal use isn't a problem with the Incredible 2. Like all other smartphones you do attenuate the cellular signal by just holding the phone but the drop is similar to other modern phones and obviously not as bad as the AT&T iPhone 4.
Signal Attenuation Comparison in dB - Lower is Better | ||||||||
Cupping Tightly | Holding Naturally | Holding in Case | On an Open Palm | |||||
HTC Droid Incredible 2 | 14.0 | 12.0 | - | 0.0 | ||||
HTC Sensation | 15.0 | 10.0 | 8.0 | 0.0 | ||||
Samsung Droid Charge | 10.0 | 10.0 | 5.0 | 0.0 | ||||
HTC Thunderbolt - LTE | 5.3 | 2.5 | - | 4.4 | ||||
HTC THunderbolt - EVDO | 6.5 | 0.8 | - | 7.2 | ||||
Verizon iPhone 4 | 16.5 | 15.5 | 9.0 | 7.9 | ||||
LG Optimus 2X | 13.7 | 9.3 | - | 5.9 | ||||
Nexus S | 13.3 | 6.1 | - | 4.3 | ||||
Droid 2 | 11.5 | 5.1 | - | 4.5 | ||||
BlackBerry Torch | 15.9 | 7.1 | - | 3.7 | ||||
Dell Streak | 14.0 | 8.7 | - | 4.0 | ||||
Droid X | 15.0 | 5.1 | - | 4.5 | ||||
AT&T iPhone 4 | 24.6 | 19.8 | 7.2 | 9.2 | ||||
iPhone 3GS | 14.3 | 1.9 | 3.2 | 0.2 | ||||
HTC Nexus One | 17.7 | 10.7 | 7.7 | 6.7 |
47 Comments
View All Comments
Penti - Monday, July 4, 2011 - link
There are no units with Mango yet, and they don't even got their hands on development versions. That's really why. Nobody else does either so. I'm sure they'll jump on the band wagon when there is actual hardware and software to test, it's a gadget review-site after all. They did cover earlier WP just fine. As long as nothing happens there you won't see it in the news or via reviews any how.dtomilson - Tuesday, July 5, 2011 - link
SO let me get this, ignorance is bliss? Awesome. Anandtech has become boring you're so wrong. There are many sites out there that cover mobile phones that have covered Mango. I am a developer for WP7 and find it funny how android phones are covered so much here but they are actually all the same and still disgustingly slow. Dualcore and 1GB of RAM does not make a turtle fast.Anandtech will suffer the failure as other tech blogs have. Let the ignorant stick together and die together.
zhongzyk - Monday, July 4, 2011 - link
very good web,believe you will love it.
FREE SHIPPING,accept pyapal
discount including evisu jeans,watches shirts,bags,hat and the decorations and so on
trust me!
Opportunity knocks but once
az1234 - Monday, July 4, 2011 - link
Oakley Sunglasses,Versace Sunglasses,Coach Purse,Coach Outlet,Tiffany Jewelry,Tiffany Rings,Tiffany NecklaceOnline Store,Get Name Brand Fashion From 12USD Now!=====
Lv,Gucci,Prada,Coach,Chanel Women sandal is $30======
DG,JUICY,Lv,Gucci,Coach Hand-bag price is $35=====
Polo,Locaste,Levis,EdHardy,Bape,Christan Audigier AF,COOGI Tshirt price is $12====
Jeans price is $30====
Paypal accept,Door to Door services!=====
5 days arrive your home or your friends' adress by EMS,DHL,UPs=====
always best for you,my friends
NJoy - Tuesday, July 5, 2011 - link
Finally, you got the review up and i can express some of my feling about htc of late. I've been their supporter for last 6 years, each of my phones over that period been made by HTC and i enjoyed each of them. however, when my upgrade was due last august, i got stuck trying to figure what to figure what to go for - nothing really seemed to be a worthy upgrade. and what HTC had been doing for the next 6 months was just respinning old hardware in different shapes. i was still patient and decided to wait for Sensation , but it was taking forever, so i ended up getting SGS2 that first week of may. And i don't regret it, especially after comparing them side by side - Samsung is faster, lighter , smoother and got much better in-call sound quality. It's just better.You also conveniently miss out the fact that sensation is dual A8, whilst tegra and exynos are based on A9
Locked bootloader is another dealbreaker even if i don't need to root it atm.
Result is that HTC lost another faithful customer and i am sure i am not the only one.
NJoy - Tuesday, July 5, 2011 - link
Ha, how did i mess this up? it was supposed to be in sensation review commentsHxx - Tuesday, July 5, 2011 - link
You really can't go wrong with the DIncr 2. It's fast, slim, nice screen, goood battery life, excellent price (150 i think after rebate). I played with all 3g and 4g phones currently at verizon and this one was the one i liked the most. The global function is a nice plus although I know i;m never prolly gonna use it.Vepsa - Tuesday, July 5, 2011 - link
After washing my Droid R2D2 I picked up a Droid Incredible 2 Friday. I really missed Sense (I know, I'm odd) and the phone just feels faster than my R2D2 ever was, even when overclocked. As for the locked bootloader, that is being worked on ;)alent1234 - Tuesday, July 5, 2011 - link
they have radio chips that will do CDMA and GSM/UMTS/HSPA and whatever so it's not a big deal to make virtually the same phone for AT&T and VZW.but i bought my Inspire for $20 from Costco a few months ago and $199 is a huge rip off for this phone. at that price might as well get an iphone 4
sitharien - Tuesday, July 5, 2011 - link
Show us Sprint customers some review love, Anand! =)