ANDROID SMARTPHONE BATTLE: HTC DROID INCREDIBLE VS. MOTOROLA DROID

When HTC Droid Incredible and Motorola Droid come face to face, there is no better way to describe the scene than how Digital Trends put it: a clash of “Android titans.”

Yes, after a long wait, the Droid Incredible–the new crown jewel of HTC’s mobile phone menu–has been officially revealed and will be coming to Verizon subscribers soon. It comes as no surprise that this much-anticipated communications gadget is now posing threats to other Android phones like the Motorola Droid that held the title of being one of the most revered Android-powered cellphone today.

So here’s the “tale of the tape” for the match-up Motorola Droid vs. HTC Droid Incredible that is nothing less than a showdown.

Design/Form Factor

No doubt, the Motorola Droid is a force to be reckoned with in this arena. It’s an attention grabber to say the least with its linear and angular exterior that gives it a sophisticated and premium look. It is notably thin even though it is composed of two major components: the glass display and the sliding full QWERTY keyboard.

Although a full QWERTY physical keyboard is absent, the HTC Droid Incredible is still a “handsome” device – just like how Engadget described it. The front face features the typical HTC trademark design with a few physical buttons. The back however is a completely different story. It has a landscape of its own with angular embossed detailing. Other small details were also added like the red accent surrounding the camera lens and the ear piece.

Display and User Interface

The Motorola Droid vs. HTC Droid Incredible face-off continues to their display. Both the Motorola Droid and HTC Droid Incredible both sport a 3.7-inch screen with almost similar resolutions: 480 x 854 pixels and 480 x 800 pixels respectively. However, the folks over at HTC decided to use AMOLED over LCD that Motorola Droid uses. It’s really up to the user’s preference when it comes to this arena. One school of thought says that AMOLED screens are too intense and perform poorly outdoors while another revere the vibrant colors this particular visual technology gives.

Complementary to these displays, the two phones use two different user interfaces: HTC Droid Incredible with HTC’s Sense and the Motorola Droid with Google Experience. HTC’s user interface offer more customizable widgets than the Google Experience.

Processing Power and Operating System

The Motorola Droid is powered by Android 2.0 OS and a 550MHz Arm Cortex A8 CPU with 256MB of RAM which is the same processor found in iPhone 3GS. This new addition to Motorola’s arsenal has one of the best internet browsing capabilities among Android phones available today.

On the other side of the fence, the HTC Droid Incredible is predicted to become one of the most powerful Android phones to date boosted by an Android 2.1 OS and a 1GHz Snapdragon processor with 512MB of RAM.

Memory

In terms of data storage capacity, the Motorola Droid is a fearsome device with a pre-installed 16GB, which is expandable up to 32GB via micro SD. The HTC Droid Incredible packs an 8GB on-board memory with an empty micro SC card slot.

Camera

For usual day-to-day use, the Motorola Droid is equipped with a decent 5-megapixel camera with video support. But for photography buffs, the HTC Droid Incredible is a more viable choice with a powerful 8-megapixel camera.

Battery Life:

Motorola Droid: 385 minutes talk-time; 270 hours stand-by time
HTC Droid Incredible: 312 minutes talk-time; 146 hours stand-by time

Conclusion

The HTC Droid Incredible vs. Motorola Droid showdown is too close to call. Both phones pack the same benefits that come with Android. But definitely, the coming of HTC Droid Incredible has raised the bar in the Android market and will keep cellphone manufacturers to always be on their toes.