HTC Droid DNA review: A superphone with flaws

HTC is marketing its new Droid DNA as the "most advanced smartphone yet" -- and on paper, the device certainly looks that way. The Droid DNA, launching this Wednesday, November 21 on Verizon Wireless for $200 with a new two-year contract, has all the specs of a high-end superphone. The Android 4.1-based device has the looks, too, with a sleek and distinctive design and eye-catching 1080p display. Appearances aren't everything, though, and while the Droid DNA has some impressive elements, it also has some troubling drawbacks. I've spent the past several days using the Droid DNA in place of my own personal device to get a feel for how it fares in the real world. Here's a look at where the phone shines -- and where it falls short. Body and display HTC's Droid DNA falls into an interesting spot in the smartphone size spectrum: With a 5-in. display, the device is quite large for a normal phone, but significantly smaller than a plus-sized phone-tablet hybrid like Samsung's Galaxy Note II. The Droid DNA measures 2.8 x 5.6 in. Compared to the Note II -- which, with its 5.5-in. screen, measures 3.2 x 5.9 in. -- the Droid DNA is practically a baby. But compared to a more typical phone like the Droid Razr Maxx HD, which measures 2.7 x 5.2 in., the DNA is decidedly big, especially when it comes to length. The phone feels good in the hand, however, and is right on the upper limit of being comfortably pocketable. The device is pleasantly thin -- 0.38 in. officially, though thinner at the edges thanks to a tapered back design. HTC Droid DNA The Droid DNA's display is a gorgeous 1920 x 1080 Super LCD3 with 440 pixels per inch (ppi), making it the highest resolution screen on any smartphone today. The display looks fantastic, with crisp, sharp details and brilliant colors that delight the eye. Even in sunlight, the Gorilla Glass 2 screen remains perfectly viewable. When it comes to the smartphone display department, it's easy to give the Droid DNA top honors. That said, we're reaching a point where more pixels aren't necessarily a game-changer -- and while the Droid DNA's display is undoubtedly outstanding, the difference between it and the 720p screens on phones like Google's Nexus 4 and HTC's One X is pretty subtle to the naked eye. The Droid DNA has a polycarbonate material on its back that's soft to the touch and not at all cheap-feeling. The material's matte finish looks nice but does seem to pick up an awful lot of scuffs and visible smudges. The back of the phone is basically all black, save for a bright red ring around the camera lens.. . . . . . . . . . That red highlighting carries throughout the phone's design: The sides of the device along with its power button and a thin grille covering its earpiece share the same bold coloring. The black and red contrast creates an eye-catching effect, for sure -- one that, depending on your personal taste, I suspect you'll absolutely love or passionately despise. The Droid DNA's power button is oddly placed on the top of the phone, which makes it rather unnatural to reach during typical use. The volume rocker, meanwhile, sits on the phone's right edge. Both buttons are recessed so low into the phone that you can barely feel them with your finger; they almost blend into the device from a tactile perspective. I found this to be vexing during day-to-day use, as I'd actually have to move the phone around to look for the buttons instead of being able to find them by touch. A 3.5mm headphone jack is on the phone's top, along with a micro-SIM card tray that's locked and accessible only with a small pin tool (included with the phone). The phone's bottom houses a standard micro-USB port that doubles as an HDMI out-port with the use of an MHL adapter. The micro-USB port is curiously covered by a thin plastic flap that has to be pulled off and then clicked back into place with every use. In the grand scheme of things, that process is a fairly minor hassle, but given how often you access the phone's charging port, it gets old fast. The flap's flimsy feel also makes me worry about its durability; within just a few days of use, the material on my review unit became bent and slightly warped -- a detail that was noticeable when the flap was closed and in place. With the Droid DNA, HTC has once again opted for placing capacitive buttons just below the display instead of opting for virtual on-screen buttons, the latter of which provide a far more fluid and user-friendly Android experience. Current versions of Android are designed to use the on-screen button model, after all, and while the software does still support hardware buttons, it's very much a matter of legacy support -- not an ideal usage situation or one that's native to the platform. Interface issues aside, the buttons didn't consistently light up when I was using the device in dimly lit conditions, which made them impossible to see and thus press without just poking around blindly and hoping for good luck. In a rare and interesting twist, the Droid DNA has two LED indicators that alert you to things like missed calls and new messages -- one on the phone's front, at the top-right of the earpiece grille, and one on its back, to the left of the camera lens. Under the hood HTC's Droid DNA has an engine that should be screamingly fast: a 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor along with 2GB of RAM. That's the same setup used in the Nexus 4 and the LG Optimus G, both of which are absurdly speedy devices. That's why I've been very surprised with how inconsistently the Droid DNA performs. While tasks such as app loading are impressively fast, the phone suffers from a lot of jerky and glitch-filled performance in other areas. System animations frequently stutter, and scrolling on the Web is slower and less fluid than what I've come to expect from a high-end phone. Beyond that, the system seems to struggle to keep up at times: When typing, for instance, the phone will often freeze up for a few seconds and ignore my input -- then quickly burst out the backlog of letters it's collected in a rush to catch up. I can't remember the last time I experienced anything like that on a computing device. In general, getting around the system feels like more work on the Droid DNA than on other devices with comparable or even less horsepower. On-screen gestures aren't always responsive, which makes a simple task like trying to swipe away a tab in Chrome feel like a labored effort. And I experienced a shocking amount of hiccups and glitches, including weird flash-frames and blurred graphics when I tried to switch from one app to another. A few times, the phone briefly flashed random colors on the screen for no apparent reason. (This, incidentally, is precisely why I prefer to rely on several days of real-world usage as opposed to benchmarks and lab tests in my evaluations. Numerical measurements are fine, but they really don't tell you anything meaningful about how a device performs in day-to-day life.) download plants vs zombies ipad grounded download woodruff and the schnibble of azimuth download ghost in the shell 2nd opening download youtube video chrome linux download crux unlocker v5.0. gratis baixaki download how do i youtube videos with chrome download defender 2 for computer download podcasts from itunes to iphone download cheats in plants vs zombies in pc download angry birds easter android