HTC Droid DNA
Phone Scoop Review
Nov 16, 2012 by Eric M. Zeman
HTC's new superphone is the first to ship in the U.S. with a 1080p HD display. The Droid DNA for Verizon Wireless has more to offer than a good-looking screen, though. Phone Scoop's full review dives deep into all the DNA's features. read review ›
User Reviews
Average Ratings
Great Phone With Flaw
Pros: Excellent screen resolution. The battery lasts me an entire day with moderate use, playing games seems to drain it faster, but I have not had to charge it during the day at all. This phone is very customizable, and I love the wireless charging (Just buy a Qi pad and it works) Call quality is awsome as well as network signal. Using Speedtest.net I got a download as high as 33 Mbbs down though my average is about 15. The memory is not an issue to me, I have about 4GB in music plus several pictures and apps without having any memory issue, although I would have liked to have seen a micro SD card. The NFC works great using Android Beam.
Cons: Verizon!!!!! I starting getting messages about once a day saying the phone needs a sim card, which I click OK and the phone still works. Restarting the phone will get rid of the error message, not a big deal. What is a big deal is that once again VERIZON has released another phone with a KNOWN issue per a level 2 tech at VERIZON. I had the Thunderbolt, Bionic, Rezound, and the Incredable. all of which had known issues that Verizon does not inform the customer. The HTC Rezound which I just replaced was swapped out 6 times and still had network issues. I finally got a Level 3 tech on the phone and found that there is a known issue with the network dropping signal and fix is being worked on. I love the DNA, but Verizon is selling this phone to people and not informing them that some of the phones have this issue. Buyer beware.
Excellent Phone
I kept going back and forth on whether to get this phone based on the battery. I was coming from a thunderbolt that had an extended 2750 mega watt battery. After having it for about a week I must say I am very impressed. If you play on it for a long time the battery lasts about 8 hrs. If you use it every now and then it will last well over 24 hrs. You have to understand that is you use it heavily the battery is gonna go fast but it still lasted a long time. I had purchased the 9000 mega watt power pack but ended up not needing it and returned it because the battery does fine. With the battery issue out of the way, this phone is awesome. The screen size is great, the program is great. Its well worth the money. Give it a try and I'm sure you'll love it.
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Great overall phone with some shortcomings
I've had my Droid DNA for about two weeks now and so far I am very impressed. It's very fast, the screen is responsive and the phone has been able to handle everything that I've thrown at it with very little, if any, stuttering. The GPS finds my location almost instantly and is WAY better than the GPS on my Droid X, which would sometimes take a few minutes to find my location. On both speaker phone and when holding the phone to my ear, the voice quality of the person I am speaking with is loud and clear and people who I am speaking with report that my voice is also loud and clear. I also find the temperature of the phone to be much lower than my Droid X, which would warm up considerably during heavy usage.
As I don't download much or take many pictures or videos, while I was a little bit concerned about the non-removable memory, I don't think it will be a problem for me. I don't travel outside of the country very frequently so while the SIM card is a nice feature, it doesn't apply to me.
My biggest complaint about the phone is the battery life. I need to charge it nearly every night, even with only moderate usage, while my Droid X could usually go for 1.5-2 days under similar usage without a charge. Another major complaint that I have about the phone is that the included voice recognition for dialing numbers is TERRIBLE. On my Droid X, I could simply say "Call X mobile", I would get a confirmation of who was being called, and the call would go through to the person's mobile number. On my DNA, I don't get any confirmation and rather than calling someone in my contacts, the phone usually mishears me and searches online for something that isn't relevant. I know that I can download third party apps to do this but I haven't found a good one yet. I also find the volume of the notifications and ringtone (which are the same ones that I had on my Droid X) to be lower than on my Droid X.
Overall, I'm happy with the phone and I highly recommend it.
