I Phone Review

iPhone 4 Compared to DROID Incredible

The official release of the iPhone 4 has everyone asking, "Will the new iPhone 4 be able to match up to the DROID Incredible's current dominance?" The answer is now readily available and it looks as if Apple has managed to pull it off once again. This new iPhone 4 brings a lot of muscle to the table since a lot of the features that it boasts are not only better than the DROID Incredible's, but cannot even be matched because Apple holds proprietary hardware and software rights for many features. Keep in mind that the iPhone is certainly not dominant in every aspect though, since the DROID Incredible has plenty of things that the iPhone 4 just cannot equal up to. Although up to this point the DROID Incredible has fought hard for a nice slice of the market share pie, the release of the new iPhone 4 will almost certainly bring about a huge victory in this respect over the next quarter, and now the new main competition may be the HTC EVO instead of the DROID Incredible.

The main selling point for the DROID and DROID Incredible up until this point has been it's ability to multitask, coupled with a huge advertising and marketing campaign to outline the differences between the iPhone 3GS and DROID. This worked very well and the DROID did appear to gain considerable market share during this period, but with the new iPhone OS 4 operating system allowing for multitasking, it hardly makes the DROID Incredible seem to be so incredible anymore. Especially when you consider the app differential between the two platforms. Currently Apple outnumbers Android ~215,000 apps to 70,000 apps. This is a huge margin and is one of the main selling points for most buyers. However, for those of you probably reading this article, it's going to take a little more than just a couple numbers on the apps and operating system abilities to win you over, so we've compiled a detailed comparison of the main features and selling points of each platform below. We hope you enjoy!

Cosmetics

We all know the sleek designs of Apple and this new iPhone 4 won't be any different. It comes equipped with a band of stainless steel that is also the antenna which they designed to be up to 4 times the strength of steel which allows the phone to have the super thin and powerful design. Besides the band of stainless steel, their is also aluminosilcate glass in both the front and back(this is the same material used in top speed choppers and trains). Designed to be twenty times more stiff and strong than plastic, and extremely durable, this glass itself is super hi-tech. The DROID Incredible compared...is plastic. Seriously that should say quite enough on this point as the iPhone has a much sharper design and better appeal.

Dimensions(Weight/Size)

There are not any huge differences between either of these smartphones. The DROID weighs 130 grams/4.59 ounces, and the iPhone weighs 137 grams/4.8 ounces. The DROID is around 4.63 inches in height, and the iPhone is around 4.5 inches tall. The DROID is about 2.3" by .47" in width, while the iPhone is slightly less at 2.31" by .37" wide. So really, the two small differences here are the weight and depth for the iPhone 4, being slightly heavier, but still thinner than the DROID Incredible. Mostly due to Apple's design and craftsmanship on the casing of metallic glass that makes up the iPhone, this will not likely be a deciding factor for many consumers in any case.

Cellular and Wireless

With the use of the GSM/EDGE network, AT&T will still be the sole provider of network service for the iPhone 4. The DROID Incredible uses the Verizon or Alltel network, with its dual band CDMA 2000 system that is offered. If you would like to check into this further, just visit our website for a full article that compares AT&T's network with Verizon's.

As for wireless capabilities both the iPhone 4 and DROID Incredible offer 802.11 b/g/n. Additionally each also offer Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR and I believe the new iPhone 4 is going to offer wireless tethering via the OS 4 release which will allow for automatic syncing much like the MacBook's and other current Apple devices.

The current cellular carrier, AT&T probably accounts for the majority of all complaints with the current iPhone 3GS. Some may find this to be a huge factor in which phone they choose, and AT&T and Apple both know this and thus have made promises to make their network much stronger. This would help to resolve the current issues of dropping calls and spotty 3G coverage that users complain of so often. Even though they may have "promised" to do so, they seem to be dropping the ball on it as those changes have yet to be noticed by the majority of iPhone users. So keep in mind that at this point, if you go with the iPhone 4, your probably going to have some of the same encounters with network problems that everyone else is having right now.

Location Services

The iPhone 4 will offer assisted GPS, and their standard digital compass which seems to me to be the most useless item on the phone. These items are a step up from the iPhone 3GS which had a proprietary app that used maps and directions from Google Maps. The iPhone 4's location based services will be setup using cellular triangulation and wi-fi signals to get a fix on your locale. The DROID Incredible on the other hand, will offer navigation via Google Maps, just like previous DROID smartphones. Not exactly a massive difference here, but the DROID Incredible may be the better offer on this subject since it gets its info directly from Google's own navigation services. This support may be a decision making advantage not just for the Incredible, but every single Android OS smartphone as well.

Battery/Power

The iPhone 4 carries with it the power of a lithium ion battery which is rechargeable via a USB connection with a computer or by plugging it into a wall with a standard power adapter. DROID's Incredible can do the same thing and comes with rechargeable lithium ion battery too. The battery for the DROID can be taken out though which allows you the ability to replace it with another battery if the one your using goes dead. Who really cares though unless your going out of town somewhere like camping or something and don't have any outlets for power around anywhere and no car charger. If this is the case, you probably won't need to charge it anyway because you may just not want to deal with it for a few days.

Being the second phone to come to market has given the iPhone 4 a chance to step up its game a little in the battery department however in regards to talk, standby, and usage times. This new smartphone can give you a seriously nasty 7 hours of total talk time if your using 3G, 14 hours if using 2G, and when your on standby, you can get in the 300 hour range! Plus when it comes to internet use, surf around as much as you like for about 6 hours if using 3G and about 10 if using your Wi-fi connection. Plus if you love videos and music like some do, the iPhone 4 will offer about 10 hours of video play and when listening to your favorite music you will be able to chill for like 40 hours.

When you compare the DROID Incredible's numbers for these same statistics, you soon realize it does not quite match up. It only offers you about 300+ minutes of usage and close to 150 on standby. The iPhone 4 battery is just large and in charge(pun intended). If you are like most users, you will be plugging your phone in to charge at some point during a day, or at the very least letting it charge overnight, so that total time difference may not be that big of a deal. If you are one of the users however that require tons of media consumption from your phone on a daily basis though, the iPhone 4 is going to be your best bet.

Capacity (Memory and Storage)

One let down for the iPhone 4 is that it will carry a very similar internal memory storage capacity as that of the iPhone 3GS. Although rumor had it that they iPhone 4 would have around 64 gigs of internal memory, it turns out it will be 32GB. You can get a smaller version(16GB) just like the 3GS offered when it first came to the shelf. The DROID Incredible will only offer 8GB's on their memory, but you can expand that 16 gigs up to a total of 24GB's by using a microSD card, although you still cannot store any of your apps on the extra 16 GB card so this can be a massive downfall for the DROID Incredible.

So when looking at the memory, the iPhone 4 may be the better option if you plan on downloading a bunch of apps to your phone. If you use your phone mostly for music, photos or videos however, the DROID Incredible could pose the better option for you because you can swap out microSD cards with other users, or give you the option to store photo's on one card, videos another, and music on yet another to be able to use when you need that medium. Really, both phones will be able to bring plenty enough memory to the table for pretty much all users to satisfy your requirements.

Screen Display

Okay this is where the MAJOR differences begin to come into play as both phones have been fairly similar up till now. Apple stepped it up a notch with their new display though offering a retina display with an enormous 960 x 640 pixel resolutions and 326 ppi. The 800 x 480 pixels that the DROID Incredible had that was so impressive, just got trumped. The DROID Incredible's display is a little bit larger when compared to the iPhone 4's(3.7" to 3.5"), that larger screen area makes the fact of having less pixels even more apparent. When we get to the camera comparison for these phones below, the pixel difference will again become a huge advantage for the iPhone 4.

In addition to the better pixel ratio's the iPhone 4 also offers a fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating on not only the front screen, but the back of the device as well. The contrast for the device is also significantly better at 800:1.

This is only the beginning of the comparisons between the DROID Incredible and iPhone 4, and hopefully it helped you out, but if you would like to read even more on these two phones, take a look at our iPhone-DROID site below.