Let’s do another battle between two top-tier 3G phones on Verizon. This battle is between the DROID X2 and the DROID Incredible 2. Both phones are sequels to popular phones and are coming in with 3G in a world that is changing over to 4G. If you are not ready for the 4G change lets find out which one of these phones will be the better to pick.
Hardware & Design
DROID X2
The DROID X2 looks exactly the same as the first DROID X. The phone has a 4.3 inch screen upgraded to qHD resolution. It comes with physical menu buttons, HDMI out, 8 megapixel camera with LED flash and no front facing camera. That’s pretty much the same specs as the last phone but now includes a much improved processor with a 1.0 Ghz Nvidia Tegra 2 dual core processor. The phone is still pretty thin with it only being bulky at the top where the camera is. It has a soft touch black finish that feel comfortable in the hand and is not too heavy. The camera is pretty much the same as before with nor real improvements you can check out the video to see.
DROID Incredible 2
The Incredible 2 also has the same look as the earlier model. The improvements are the screen which is now 4 inches using Super LCD technology, adds a 1.3 megapixel front facing camera, a faster version of the 1.0 Ghz snapdragon processor and global 3G roaming with a pre-installed SIM card. Everything else is the same with touch sensitive controls, soft touch finish, weight and 8 Megapixel front facing camera. You can see the full review for still images and check out the test video below.
I have to give the this one to the DROID X2. While neither phone took a chance to shake up the design. The DROID X2 offers more with a better screen and processor versus the DROID Incredible 2. It is also a lighter phone that the Incredible 2.
Software & Usability
DROID Incredible 2
Both devices use Android 2.2 with their own custom skin on top of it. The DROID Incredible 2 uses HTC Sense UI. The interface has 7 desktops and custom HTC widgets. Sense UI is a total skin over Android so you don’t’ see much stock elements in it. Everything goes through the Sense UI interface. You can change to different HTC Scenes that arranged he desktops different with shortcuts and widgets. Sense UI works but it’s definitely showing its age and could use some update to it like with Sense 3.0. No clue if that will come to this device but lets hope some things from it come down to the Incredible 2. Battery life is standard android battery life. You use it heavy you will be looking to charge during the day. Moderate use you can go 1 full day without needed to charge.
DROID X2
The DROID X2 has the BLUR or MOTOBLUR interface even though they don’t want you to call it that. They have revamped the software and it works a lot better than the earlier version. You have custom Motorola Widgets and different themes to choose from which is similar to HTC Scene. The skin really just layers over and improves on the spots that the stock version of Android lack. With the Tegra 2 processor its fast and smooth with no lag as I was using. The best feature added to the software is the battery management which makes this phone last longer than standard android phones. You can get up to about 3 days of battery life without the charge depending on the settings you choose in the battery manager. This is a great feature to have.
One the software level I feel the DROID X2 wins here as well. It’s more true to the android experience than the DROID Incredible 2 and the battery management software is very key as it gives it the battery life that you really want in a phone that you don’t get with the Incredible 2.
Overall
Between these two devices the DROID X2 wins in my opinion. Unless you are in the need for 3G global roaming the DROID X2 is a better build quality, faster phone and provides a better experience overall. The DROID Incredible 2 is not a bad phone by any means but it simply doesn’t improve that over its predecessor and doesn’t stack up high enough against the DROID X2. Be sure to check out both review below to form your own opinion.
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