DROID INCREDIBLE by HTC

Like many Verizon customers, I had lusted in my heart for an Apple iPhone. Not badly enough to switch to AT&T mind you, but you get the idea. I had toyed with the idea of going with Blackberry, but truthfully I'm no longer a Blackberry kind of guy. So I started taking note of Google's Android phones. Early models were promising but it wasn't until April of last year when HTC introduced the Droid Incredible that I really thought that the Droid had arrived.

With its Qualcomm 1Ghz Snapdragon Processor, 512MB of RAM, 8GB of built-in flash memory and that brilliant 3.7" AMOLED Display and 8MP Dual LED Flash Camera it really grabbed my attention. I was still a few months shy of my upgrade anniversary so I still had some waiting to do.

Interestingly the need to wait worked out nicely for me. The **Android Market **had time to develop and then HTC upgraded the device to the 2.2 version of the Android Operating System (Froyo) and then one day in November I opened an email from Best Buy that told me that if I signed a new 2 year contract with Verizon, this bad boy was mine for nothing more than my signature. Smooth!

So it's been about three months since my Droid Incredible and I became inseparable buds. Mastering the Android OS, particularly with HTC's Sense UI overlay was remarkably easy. I've seldom owned a device that did all that it promised to do and delivered the goods so effortlessly.

If the HTC Droid Incredible has an Achilles Heel at all, it's the standard 1300mAh Lithium Ion battery. While the Incredible may look like a cell phone it's more a small tablet computer. Watching HD video, playing games on a device armed with a 3D chip and using it as a full turn-by-turn GPS unit sucks down 1300mAh pretty quickly. You either learn to manage your resources very carefully, carry around a USB charger or opt for supercharging your Droid with one big *mamma jamma *of a battery. I chose the latter route opting for a **Seidio Innocell 3500mAh Lithium Polymer Battery, **with a matching beefy back door that bulks the device up from its svelte .45" profile to .75". Surprisingly, the Incredible feels better in my big hand with its new mass. But more importantly it's pretty much freed me from any concern about running out of juice during the day no matter how I decide to squander my resources. Very sweet.