The Incredible 2 is my second HTC phone, after the Thunderbolt, and I must say, I expect every phone, no matter the carrier or manufacturer, to perform this well. Looking at the stat sheet, no one expects the Incredible 2 to be the fastest or most advanced phone around. But, this little phone outperformed every other phone I’ve tested, and just plain worked perfectly. Despite not have dual-cores or 4G, I would whole-heartedly recommend this phone above a Charge or Thunderbolt.

Stats:

3G Data fromVerizon Wireless

Android 2.2.1 (Froyo)

4″ Super LCD Display, 480×800 Resolution

768 MB Ram, 1.1 GB Rom, 16 GB External mini-SD

8MP rear camera, 1.3MP front-facing camera

The casing is the standard solidly-constructed, metal form HTC uses. The sides are all very thin, but the backside has a raised design for the battery and camera. All the regular inputs are there: mini-USB and headphone jack along with the volume rocker and power button on the top-right. Aside from the HTC, Google, and Verizon logos, the phone is barren of anything to make it standout in a crowd. The phone is a little hefty, but it’s a solid weight and feels great in your hand. Unlike the Thunderbolt which wants to slide out of your hand, the Incredible 2 is the perfect size for any hand.

The screen is great to look at. While not as bright as the Super AMOLED display, it does look very good, even in direct sunlight. The 8MP camera is a nice feature. I don’t take pictures all the time, but you can tell the quality upgrade from a 5MP phone like my Fascinate. The Incredible 2 also comes with a front camera. While it won’t blow anything away, it is a nice touch to keep the phone specs in the smartphone upper-echelon. One very cool extra feature (like the HTC kickstand which is missing on this phone) is the bottom buttons rotate depending on the screens orientation. I thought the buttons were abnormally dim, but they aren’t attached to the screen. Instead, they turn on with the phone and can rotate any way you need them to. Very clever feature.

The performance of the phone won’t blow dual-cores away, but I think this is as fast as a single-core processor could possibly be. While I couldn’t say the Thunderbolt or Charge could outpace my Fascinate in every single test, the Incredible 2 absolutely and completely thumped my Fascinate. No matter what the application – Youtube, Google Navigation, Angry Birds Rio – the Incredible 2 is fast. The GPS is almost an instantaneous lock, within 10-15 at most (which is a major upgrade from any other phone I’ve used). I need to sing the praises of this phone a little more. This is the way EVERY phone should work, flawless. I experienced no slow-down, no lag, no force closes, no reboots/restarts/shutdowns, every app opened instantly, every radio worked and connected perfectly (WiFi, bluetooth, GPS, 3G), and in general, I wish every phone could run this nice. (That said, I did switch to Go Launcher EX immediately so Sense may be a pain). The only complaint I have about this phone (no, I don’t care it doesn’t have 4G or dual-cores because of how well it performs) is it runs Froyo and not Gingerbread. I don’t understand the reason for releasing outdated software, but since everyone is doing it, it must be ok, right? (Right?)

Call quality is very good, if a little tinny at times. I had no problem hearing anyone, and they all claimed to hear me great. E-mails, Texts, and GTalk generally arrived quicker than my Fascinate which was a nice surprise. The last exceptional thing about this phone is the battery life. I could very easily get a day out of the battery (playing PvZ, twitter updates, Navigation), and with moderate usage I could get a day and a half. I’m afraid if HTC and Verizon would have given this phone 4G, the battery would be worse, but still better than the Thunderbolt or Charge. It’s a mystery why they didn’t add the 4G radio unless it was simply to keep the small form factor. The speaker was fairly loud, but didn’t drown out my Fascinate; I would say they were about even.

I only have a few final thoughts. Every phone should simply work this well without faults, flaws, or force-closes. Every phone should have this good of battery life, no matter what the specs. Every phone should have as good of radios (GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, and Cell) as this phone. Again, it doesn’t run Gingerbread, which I’m sure would make this phone even better, but I can’t fault the phone because it runs Froyo so well, and I wouldn’t want to take the chance of Verizon or HTC messing up the Gingerbread build.