My New Phone

Image by kjarrett via FlickrBack in November, I received a notice from my wireless phone provider informing me that I was able to upgrade my phone to a newer model.  For the past two years, I had been using a BlackBerry Storm.  I had been fairly happy with the BlackBerry, but there were a few things that had started to bother me about it. 

First, there were a lot of things that I had not been able to do with the BlackBerry browser.  There were a number of websites that I could not access with it, especially some of the paid review sites I had been using that required quick responses to some notifications that I received via email.  A second issue, and an even more important one was that I was having a lot of issues with the memory in my phone.  Frequently, the memory usage of the phone would bog down the whole system and I would have to remove the battery to reset the phone.  It was becoming a major hassle.

I had been debating on whether or not to stick with the BlackBerry format or to switch to a Droid phone.  The more I began to research the differences, the more I began to lean towards a Droid.  Even though I was eligible to upgrade my phone, I thought that I would have to wait until I received either a tax refund or hopefully a bonus from my employer in March.  Thankfully, I woke up one Sunday morning in early December and had received an email from Best Buy informing me that they were having a smartphone sale and that I could upgrade to a HTC Droid Incredible with my current service provide at no cost to me other than extending my contract for two years.

Now, I am all about saving money whenever I can.  Had it not been for the sale, I was looking at having to put out $250-$300 to upgrade my phone.  Needless to say, I jumped all over the free phone.  I have had the new phone for about a month now, and I have to say, that I am quite happy with it's performance.  I no longer have the issues that I was having with the Storm.  I have been able to visit quite a few sites that I was unable to visit on the BlackBerry, and there has been no bogging down of the phone due to running out of memory. 

About the only complaint that I have with the phone is the sensitivity of the touch screen when I am scrolling through my contacts.  There have been several times when I have inadvertently dialed a number by mistake.  Once, I removed my phone from my belt holster to put it on the charger.  After attaching the charger, I noticed that I had accidentally dialed my parents house.  It was almost midnight, and they are usually in bed fairly early.  I hope I was able to disconnect the call before it rang on their end.  Another time, I had my phone in my hand as I was walking through a store.  When I looked at the screen, I had inadvertently activated the camera and had taken three pictures.

All in all, though, I am very happy with the phone.  I hope that the few issues that I have had thus far are just a case of me getting used to the new device.  The only other concern I have is that the Incredible, like the Storm, only has a virtual keyboard.  Once with the Storm the screen shorted out and I was unable to view anything on the screen.  I could only receive calls and place voice activated dialing, which did not work very well.  I do have to say that the virtual keyboard on the Incredible is much more responsive, at least to me, than on the Storm, so hopefully it will hold up better.