Skip to main content

HTC Droid DNA for Verizon Wireless hands-on

HTC Droid DNA for Verizon Wireless hands-on

/

HTC's 5-inch 1080p smartphone makes it to America

Share this story

Gallery Photo: HTC Droid DNA for Verizon Wireless hands-on photos
Gallery Photo: HTC Droid DNA for Verizon Wireless hands-on photos

HTC and Verizon Wireless unveiled their latest flagship smartphone collaboration this morning, the Droid DNA. Sharing many features with the HTC J Butterfly unveiled in Japan a few weeks back, the Droid DNA can be put in the "massive" category of smartphones that straddles the line between a phone and tablet.

The highlight feature of the DNA, as with the J Butterfly, is the new, 5-inch, 1080p Super LCD 3 display that boasts 440ppi pixel density — much higher than anything else on the market. The screen is incredibly sharp, and pixels are virtually invisible to the naked eye. Like the Super LCD 2 display that HTC uses on the One X, the Super LCD 3 on the DNA boast very vibrant colors and exceptionally wide viewing angles. To put it succinctly, the display is nothing short of stunning. We've been praising the One X all year as having the best display on any mobile device, but it looks like the DNA might just steal that crown away.

HTC Droid DNA for Verizon Wireless hands-on photos

1/5

Of course, to accommodate such a large display, the DNA is a rather large phone. Like the Samsung Galaxy Note II, the DNA is not a phone most people will be able to comfortably use with one hand, and most operations will require you to employ two hands. Fortunately, the relatively thin frame and very small borders around the display help to minimize the phone's footprint, so it doesn't feel exceptionally larger than a One X. The DNA is also astonishingly light when you pick it up. You would expect a large device like this to have some heft, but at 142g, it's remarkably light. We will reserve final judgement on the DNA's ergonomics and usability when we give it the full review treatment.

Inside, the DNA is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor clocked at 1.5GHz and paired with 2GB of RAM. Unsurprisingly, this processor had no trouble pushing around Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and the Sense 4+ interface during our brief time with it, even though it has to deal with a much higher resolution display than seen on other devices.

Verizon plans to launch the Droid DNA on November 21 for $199, and needless to say, we're pretty excited to spend some more time with it and its impressive display.