HTC Droid

                                                       

                              When you’re contemplating the vast expanse of glass covering any one of the current models of smartphones with supersized screens, you have to ask yourself: How big is too big? Is a 5-inch display that much better than a 4.5-incher? Does native 1080p capability actually matter on a smartphone? How big of an advantage does such a device earn?


Ladies and gentlemen, meet the HTC Droid DNA. Its massive 5-inch 1920 × 1080 display has the same resolution as the best HDTV sets lining the shelves at your local retailer. It sports a pixel density of 440 pixels per inch, which bests all the big-name competitors — the Google Nexus 4 (320ppi), the HTC One X (316ppi) and 8X (341ppi), and the Apple iPhone 5 (326ppi).

While a 1080p screen is mighty pretty, it’s not a killer feature on a smartphone, and it does not make the device significantly better than the current crop of 720p-capable phones.
But while this looks great on paper, it doesn’t matter much at all. Seriously. Don’t get me wrong: The DNA’s display is gorgeous, and arguably the best-looking smartphone display out there. But to the naked eye, and over a couple of weeks of daily use, it doesn’t look significantly better than the phones mentioned above, and that’s a good thing. The fact is, they all look great. On any one of them, pixels are indiscernible and text looks crisp and clean, rivaling a printed page. Colors are vivid and bright. Photos, video, apps, websites, magazines, every single thing displayed on screen is rendered beautifully.

The bottom line is that while a 1080p screen is mighty pretty, it’s not a killer feature on a smartphone, and it does not make the device significantly better than the current crop of 720p-capable phones. And this is a wonderful thing for consumers. Smartphone displays are better than they have ever been. Today, we expect top-tier phones to come with Retina-quality screens, and anything less is deemed unacceptable.

While the DNA’s display looks stunning, the size of the thing makes it difficult to use the phone with one hand. While it isn’t as audaciously oversized as the 5.5-inch-display on the Samsung Galaxy Note II, the DNA’s touchscreen can still be a bit of a hassle. The slightly smaller 4.7-inch displays on the Nexus 4 and One X are far more comfortable. Even the 4.8-inch display on the popular Samsung Galaxy S III is easier to use with a single hand — and 4.8 inches is about the largest smartphone display that I’ve been able to comfortably operate thus far. It’s here that the DNA’s display doesn’t make it more useful, but counts against it.

• GENERAL 2G Network CDMA 800 / 1900
• 3G Network CDMA2000 1xEV-DO
• SIM Mini-SIM
• Announced 2010, April
• Status Available. Released 2010, April
• BODY Dimensions 117.5 x 58.5 x 11.9 mm (4.63 x 2.30 x 0.47 in)
• Weight 130 g (4.59 oz)
• DISPLAY Type AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
• Size 480 x 800 pixels, 3.7 inches (~252 ppi pixel density)
• Multitouch Yes
• Protection Corning Gorilla Glass
•   - HTC Sense UI
• - Optical trackball
• SOUND Alert types Vibration, MP3, WAV ringtones
• Loudspeaker Yes
• 3.5mm jack Yes
• MEMORY Card slot microSD, up to 32 GB
• Internal 8 GB storage
• DATA GPRS No
• EDGE No
• Speed EV-DO Rev. A, up to 3.1 Mbps
• WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
• Bluetooth Yes v2.1 with A2DP
• USB Yes, microUSB v2.0
• CAMERA Primary 8 MP, 3264x2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
• Features Smile detection, geo-tagging
• Video Yes
• Secondary No
• FEATURES OS Android OS, v2.1 (Eclair)
• Chipset Qualcomm QSD8650 Snapdragon
• CPU 1 GHz Scorpion
• GPU Adreno 200
• Sensors Accelerometer, proximity, compass
• Messaging SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM
• Browser HTML
• Radio Stereo FM Radio with RDS
• GPS Yes, with A-GPS support
• Java Yes, via Java MIDP emulator
• Colors Black
•   - Dedicated search key
• - MP3/eAAC+/WAV player
• - MP4/H.263/H.264 player
• - Google Search, Maps, Gmail,
• - YouTube, Google Talk
• - Document viewer
• - Photo viewer/editor
• - Organizer
• - Voice memo/dial
• - Predictive text input
• BATTERY Standard battery, Li-Ion 1300 mAh
• Stand-by Up to 146 h
• Talk time Up to 5 h 15 min
• MISC SAR US 1.40 W/kg (head)     0.70 W/kg (body)    

Another sticking point is the paltry battery life. In over a week of testing the handset, I wasn’t able to make it through an 8-hour workday without having to charge up the 2020 mAh Lithium-ion cell before I headed home. On the weekend, while running errands and using Google Maps, Yelp, Twitter and the camera throughout the day, battery life flew by and I found myself stopping to charge up by midday, and again in the evening. If you buy the DNA, you’ll want to pick up a spare charger to go with it.

Each time I had to charge up, I was greeted by an annoying little plastic door covering the USB port on the bottom of the DNA. When this tiny door is closed, the DNA looks sleek and smooth. But opening the door reveals a flimsy piece of plastic that feels like it’s hanging on for dear life. It feels like it’s only a matter of time before that little door breaks off. While everything else on the DNA feels lovingly designed and well built, this door is a weak point. HTC should have just left the port exposed, as most phones do nowadays.