HTC is now going big with their latest smartphone, the Droid DNA. This new smartphone has a 1080-pixel high-definition display, a quad-core processor and the latest Android operating system. Although the Droid DNA is very promising, can it deliver great performance?
Is its large screen good enough to compete with LG’s Optimus G and Google’s Nexus 4, both of which almost have the same specs as the Droid DNA? Let’s take a look!
Hardware
The new HTC smartphone features a Super LCD 3 five-inch display. As mentioned earlier, the display offers a 1080-pixel HD resolution, which goes along with a pixel density of 440 PPI. Apple’s Retina Display is no match for it. It has vibrant and crisp texts and images, beautiful color reproduction and good brightness.
The phone runs on a quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro chip processor, so it actually offers very fast performance, especially since the chip has 1.5 GHz. Every app runs smoothly. Its 2GB of RAM also helps in the smoothness of the performance. The downside is its 2,020 mAh battery. Such low power capacity seems to conflict with the large screen and powerful insides. Although the battery is still impressive, it does not live up to the one in the Droid RAZR Maxx HD.
The thing is, if you cannot live without holding your smartphone, you’d better bring a charger with you. Hardcore gamers might find this smartphone a bit off. What’s worse, to save the beautiful hardware of the Droid DNA, users cannot remove the battery and the phone does not have a MicroSD card slot.
One good thing about the battery is that its small size makes the smartphone slim. Thanks to its 0.38-inch thinness, the phone does not feel like it’s a 5-inch device.
Software
The HTC smartphone runs on the new Android 4.1 Jelly Bean with the HTC Sense 4+. It also has the improved Beats Audio and ImageSense technology which have been part of HTC smartphones since the One series started. More Android improvements were added like Project Butter and Google Now.
HTC Droid DNA Camera
The Droid DNA has two cameras: The rear camera with eight megapixels and an HD front camera. HTC did not change the sensor setup found on Windows Phone 8, giving it a wide-angle image capture with high resolution.
An LED flash and auto-focus are included for the back camera, the same set-up as the One X. Pictures taken by this camera are great, thanks to the software enhancements HTC developed in the Sense 4+.
Moreover, the Droid DNA’s cameras can record videos and take photos in any lighting environment. When they are in photo mode, you can choose features like panorama (to take a scenic photo) and the burst shot (to take action photos).
Conclusion : HTC Droid DNA
If you are not a Verizon fan, you might be disappointed, because this smartphone is only available with Verizon. However, if you are a fan, I can confidently say that this is the best Android smartphone that runs on Verizon.
The only catch would be the size. Despite its thinness, it is still a five-inch phone, so if you don’t like the large screen, maybe you should look for something smaller. I must say, though, that a big screen shouldn’t be a problem, especially if you are a techie. The HTC Droid DNA is the closest smartphone to a tablet. So if you are looking for a “tablet” that acts like a phone, the Droid DNA is for you.
Despite the fact that the limelight today is on the iPhone 5, the HTC Droid DNA does not disappoint. Besides, it’s way cheaper than the Apple device.
Read more about HTC Droid DNA here.
