HTC DROID DNA User Reviews

AreWeData posted on 14 May 2013, 13:16

10

Droid DNA review from a Droid fan.

AreWeData has owned it for less than year before publishing this review

So far so good! Upgraded from the Droid 3, and it's a whole new world of possibilities at my fingertips. Quick response, quick power up/down, and never a lag between opening/closing programs or windows. Such a powerful processor and large amount of RAM never fail to deliver fast gaming or web browsing. Love the design and build of the phone, and would recommend it to anyone.

Build quality 10/10

Reception 10/10

Call quality 10/10

Internet 10/10

Multimedia 10/10

Camera 10/10

UI speed 9/10

Everyday usage 10/10

Text input 9/10

Display 10/10

Battery 8/10

Pros

• Large Screen
• High Pixel Density
• Fast everything!

Cons

• Flap over micro-usb port
• Flush buttons are hard to find/press at times

silly posted on 13 May 2013, 16:32

1

This phone is terrible

silly has owned it for less than 3 months before publishing this review

this phone does not work well, sense sucks, call quality is terrible, battery lasts 4 hours, and it lags. Will be getting the galaxy s4 because i have played around with it and it is truely a amazing piece of technology.

Build quality 1/10

Reception 1/10

Call quality 1/10

Internet 1/10

Multimedia 1/10

Camera 1/10

UI speed 1/10

Everyday usage 1/10

Text input 1/10

Display 1/10

Battery 1/10

Gbrunner24 posted on 15 Apr 2013, 15:24

9

A well oiled, finely tuned, beast of a phone

Gbrunner24 has owned it for less than year before publishing this review

It is odd how many people underestimate the HTC DNA, even though it has amazing specs. The Sense UI is still holding down HTC, however it is very easy to install a third party launcher and messaging system to help remedy that. The battery life is fantastic with real life usage, much better than my S3. There was a sim card seating issue, but with a recent update (as of today) that has been fixed as well. Don't overlook the DNA.

Build quality 9/10 The only thing that hinders the build quality is the flap that is covering the charging port. I get that it keeps dust out, but it's too much of a hinderance.

Reception 10/10 The radio in the DNA is fantastic. Almost always has 2 bars more than my S3. Also when switching from 3g to 4g it never hangs up like older LTE verizon devices.

Call quality 9/10 Call quality is always great, with voices sounding good on both ends. Speaker phone could use a little improvement though

Internet 10/10 LTE is always speedy in rendering, and the stock browser works flawlessly.

Multimedia 10/10 Integrated beats audio works great with music, and obviously viewing videos/movies is stellar on the 1080p screen!

Camera 8/10 I think many underestimate the camera on the DNA. The only time is falters is in low-light conditions, although it's not terrible.

UI speed 9/10 Sense is a very heavy skin over Jellybean and it sometimes has a hiccup or two. I wish it had stock Android, but I wish the same thing on every phone.

Everyday usage 10/10 GPS always picks up quickly, interface is always speedy, and the battery gets me well through the day, even with being a pretty heavy user.

Text input 7/10 I am not a big fan of Sense's keyboard, never have been. The layout is odd and speed isn't great. Thankfully you just have to download SwiftKey and you'll be all set.

Display 10/10 5 inches of 1080p glory. It doesn't get much better than the S-LCD3 HTC has given the DNA.

Battery 8/10 For how "small" the battery is in the DNA it still gets me well through the day. Obviously if you've got the screen on full brightness all day and are gaming you're going to chew through any phones battery.

Pros

• Fantastic underrated camera
• Brilliant screen
• Great battery life
• Strong antenna

Cons

• Sense UI

Gbrunner24 alternatives:

Samsung Galaxy S III

Nokia Lumia 822

MRohr posted on 23 Jan 2013, 17:11

9

HTC DNA Review

MRohr has owned it for less than 3 months before publishing this review

The DNA isn't as great as I expected, BUT it's not horrible. I LOVE the crisp screen! I also like having the on/off button in the top rather than the side. Top things I don't like are the freezing/stickiness with the keyboard, photo album and delay in receiving txts.

Build quality 9/10 I love the smooth design, minus the charging port cover, it's a pain to open and even more so to close

Reception 9/10 I have only run into two places with little reception, one of which was out past Front Royal, VA

Call quality 8/10

Internet 10/10 Must faster than previous phones.

Multimedia 7/10 Beats is AMAZING! Youtube is iffy.

Camera 9/10 Nothing too special, it's a decent 8 mpix

UI speed 8/10 Speed is better than my previous phones, YouTube is not as fast as I had hoped and the home key became sticky after a month or so, there's a delay in new txts coming in (it shows up, then when you go to open it the txt doesn't show up, you have to exit out then go back to get your txt) and the photo album becomes sticky (you have to tap on it more than once a lot of the time to get it to open)

Everyday usage 9/10 Freezing/stickiness is a big let down

Text input 7/10 Can be slow to respond, personal dictionary isn't too great either

Display 10/10 I LOVE the crisp bright screen!

Battery 8/10 I have to charge it every night, if I use GPS I need to charge it during the day. I am a heavy Facebook user and play Words with Friends, use the internet regularly and same with email.

Pros

• Bright, crisp screen
• On/Off button at the top
• Creative unlock circle

Cons

• Poor battery life
• Freezing and Sticking as time goes by
• Keyboard is slow to respond and not always accurate
• No SD slot

michalis11 posted on 24 Dec 2012, 04:30

10

best phone ever!!

michalis11 has owned it for less than month before publishing this review

i am completely fine with my droid dna! it has beautiful display and it's speed is amazing! camera is one of the best for me if not the best! defenetly one of the best pfones ever so dont thing about it!! goooo and buuuuuuyyyyyyy iiiiiit!!:D:D:D

Build quality 10/10

Reception 10/10

Call quality 10/10

Internet 10/10

Multimedia 10/10

Camera 10/10

UI speed 10/10

Everyday usage 10/10

Text input 10/10

Display 10/10

Battery 10/10

Trios posted on 21 Dec 2012, 13:20

10

VZW Droid DNA

Trios has owned it for less than month before publishing this review

This thing is a powerhouse! The specs remind you of buying a computer because this thing runs like a top line machine handling everything I have thrown at it beautifully and I put my tech through its paces...Streaming music while surfing the web, while running multiple apps like FTP and WMD and others in the background, this phone isn't even taxed to do this stuff. The only problem I have found is that you may initially have to reseat the SIM Card because there is a problem where it doesn't seat right the first time it is inserted (idk why).
The lack of expandable memory isn't a problem 11 Gigs is amazing and certainly plenty for a phone designed as a media powerhouse...if you are recording more than 11 gigs of video at a time I'd recommend investing in a Cloud sync app or program to offload to. but this phone is definitely one of the best decisions I have made for my tech uses. Highly Recommended!

Build quality 9/10 The build is sleek as all hell but the phone lacks protection. If an otterbox is released consider this rating a 10!

Reception 10/10

Call quality 10/10

Internet 8/10 The phone is not backward network compatible which means if your not in a 4g or on a wireless network...your SOL, sorry this was a poor design overlook. The internet in 4g is amazing though so

Multimedia 10/10 No complaints

Camera 10/10 havnt really tested will tonight but if its higher than my TB was then it will be awesome.

UI speed 10/10 amazing!

Everyday usage 10/10 Easy to use, get used to, and customize.

Text input 10/10 STT is amazing works beautifully and the txting buttons are a little small for me but i have goliath hands so.

Display 10/10 Beautiful display I am so glad I went with this model since i constantly use netflix and stream movies and shows from my house

Battery 10/10 I cannot complain about the battery this thing is such a powerhouse that if your not careful about how you set up your power settings it will drain very fast but as I said it's a powerhouse and this must be expected...if you are planning on using this for long term video recordings or long days away from a plug I would recommend investing in a battery pack or a motorola Razr which has longer battery life.

Pros

• Powerhouse
• Beautiful screen
• Fast as a bat out of hell

Cons

• SIM card glitch (initial)
• No memory expansion
• not network backward compatible

idaman12000 posted on 04 Dec 2012, 16:58

10

Droid DNA

idaman12000 has owned it for less than 3 months before publishing this review

amazing hd camera, great hd screen, battery life is okay but could improve. camcorder video should have an option to push the icon to let the recording begin rather than it starting once in that mode. great phone overrall. have had no issues with it. beats audio is amazing especially with actual beats headphones.

Build quality 10/10

Reception 10/10

Call quality 10/10

Internet 10/10

Multimedia 10/10

Camera 10/10

UI speed 10/10

Everyday usage 10/10

Text input 10/10

Display 10/10

Battery 10/10

Pros

• quad core processor, 2 gb of ram, nice and sturdy built.

Cons

• no sd slot for expandable memory,better battery capacity, option to have a standard battery or extended battery.

Ardoleon posted on 03 Dec 2012, 15:03

10

Great Decision

Ardoleon has owned it for less than month before publishing this review

I saw this phone here at PhoneArena, and had to try it out. I had a chance to use a Moto Droid RAZR MAXX HD, and the build quality seems roughly the same, I can't really compare deeper than that because I would never put either through any real durability test. The screen is by far the single most dazzling display I have viewed in my life, and with the quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM, it will be a competitive phone for many months to come. As far as reception goes, I feel it is about equal to the Motorola radio, I am in a tiny town with lower-end VZ service, but I can always hear the other end loud and clear, and no one has told me that they cant hear me. As far as the internet goes, htis phone does a remarkable job of bringing your content to you at a very fast speed, especially on LTE. As for multimedia, I usually don't put movies on my phone, but any HD content just becomes mind-blowing at that resolution. The camera is comparable to what I saw on Apple devices, haven't really gotten into the nitty-gritty of photography with it yet. The one UI element that could use a little help is the text input, i feel the auto-correct and predictive technology could use some help from Motorola, it feels laggy at tile when you use the trace funtion, but otherwise OK. The battery is an average life, not really any less than other smartphones have given me. It isn't the RAZR MAXX HD, but then nothing is comparable for that battery. Overall, I would definitely recommend this phone...  

I saw this phone here at PhoneArena, and had to try it out. I had a chance to use a Moto Droid RAZR MAXX HD, and the build quality seems roughly the same, I can't really compare deeper than that because I would never put either through any real durability test. The screen is by far the single most dazzling display I have viewed in my life, and with the quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM, it will be a competitive phone for many months to come. As far as reception goes, I feel it is about equal to the Motorola radio, I am in a tiny town with lower-end VZ service, but I can always hear the other end loud and clear, and no one has told me that they cant hear me. As far as the internet goes, htis phone does a remarkable job of bringing your content to you at a very fast speed, especially on LTE. As for multimedia, I usually don't put movies on my phone, but any HD content just becomes mind-blowing at that resolution. The camera is comparable to what I saw on Apple devices, haven't really gotten into the nitty-gritty of photography with it yet. The one UI element that could use a little help is the text input, i feel the auto-correct and predictive technology could use some help from Motorola, it feels laggy at tile when you use the trace funtion, but otherwise OK. The battery is an average life, not really any less than other smartphones have given me. It isn't the RAZR MAXX HD, but then nothing is comparable for that battery. Overall, I would definitely recommend this phone for anyone out to get a new smartphone, as the comparison to the Samsung Note 2 feels way too huge to use for an everyday purpose.

Build quality 10/10

Reception 10/10

Call quality 10/10

Internet 10/10

Multimedia 10/10

Camera 9/10

UI speed 10/10

Everyday usage 10/10

Text input 8/10

Display 10/10

Battery 9/10

Pros

• Awe-inspiring Display
• Quad-Core Processor
• Lots of RAM
• Great Build Quality
• Not too huge to use

Cons

• No SD card slot

NeoSin posted on 27 Nov 2012, 17:40

10

-The- Droid.

NeoSin has owned it for less than month before publishing this review

I had a decent flagship device going in, the RAZR MAXX. But seeing the specs of the DNA made me drool, and I HAD TO HAVE IT! What better Christmas present to myself than a new phone? After working out the deal on how I could open a new line without having to pay for it all myself, I went out and got myself this after heavy deliberation between this and the Galaxy Note II. I strongly feel I did not make the wrong choice at all! This phone is THE phone to own right now. If you're in the market at Verizon, and you did not chose this or the Note II, you simply chose incorrectly!

Build quality 9/10 The build quality is supreme here. While not built like a tank (like my Razr MAXX was), the materials feel premium and fantastic in the hand. If I had to complain about something, it would be the USB door. I feel its unneeded and a nuisance. The USB port itself is amazing. The Charging head slides in with a satisfying click, and takes a good amount of force to retrieve. It has even suffered an uncased drop! I almost had a fatal heart attack, but it came out buff free, not a visible scuff on it!

Reception 10/10 Ever heard of Cornell, Michigan? I bet you haven't. I got crystal clear reception that suffered no dropped calls, or even static! Rivals the radio my MAXX had for sure!

Call quality 10/10 See reception, the only reason people can't hear my at times is because I have this nasty habit of bringing my phone farther and farther away from my face!

Internet 10/10 Quick, speedy, little to absolutely no shuddering whatsoever. Everything loads in a blink!

Multimedia 10/10 The video that I recorded did very well, but I'm far from an expert in this category.

Camera 9/10 I'm not a shutterbug, infact I so rarely use my camera that it should be a crime. But given HTC's history of good cameras (I owned an Incredible before my MAXX) I'm going to give this one the benefit of the doubt.

UI speed 10/10 Suprised at Sense 4.0+! I know Sense has a nasty reputation of being a hog and bogging down on the processing power, but this phone doesn't even seem to care that Sense is there!

Everyday usage 10/10 Nothing has changed from my typical day to day usage, everything just runs faster and more efficiently. Being that I use 4.2 on my tablet, its much better to move from Jelly Bean to Jelly Bean, and not Jelly Bean to ICS.

Text input 10/10 Still getting used to the difference in size, so I fumble words still, thankfully Swiftkey is there to pick me up when I'm down.

Display 10/10 Do I need to say anything about this? 5 inches of 1080p glory! 441 PIXELS PER INCH PEOPLE!

Battery 9/10 I can't justly say that the Battery is better than my MAXXs, I would get hounded off of this website. THAT BEING SAID! The seemingly small 2020 mAh battery SUPRISED me by powering through my typical day with a bit of room to spare yet! The biggest complaint I had about the phone immediately laid to rest.

Pros

• Quad Core, the future is here!
• Brilliant display
• Goes through a typical day with some juice left over

Cons

• Expandable memory, but only because I have to hate something.

poole_shark posted on 24 Nov 2012, 13:26

9

Great phone so far...

poole_shark has owned it for less than month before publishing this review

This is an initial reaction. I just picked it up yesterday afternoon from the verizon store. I am coming from a no ICS Samsung DROID Charge so anything I decided to buy would be an upgrade. I did not realize I could populate each category below with a TON of text. I want to use the phone for a week and then give my thoughts on the perks and nuances. I will update this review after I use it for a full 7 days.

Build quality 9/10 All the reviews are spot on with this. I think they underrate it. Phone is very thin to me and feels great in my hands.The power button and volume buttons are easy to press for me. I do not have "big hands," and I was able to handle the phone just fine. The power button on top did not hinder my operation of the phone. The flap on the bottom really ticks me off though. After only one time of removing it and putting it back in, it does not sit completely flush. I am getting a charging pad for xmas, but until then I will have to deal with this stupid flap. Should be a slider.

Reception 10/10 I live in Maryland, so I do not expect this to be a problem 95% of the time. After I travel with it, I will post an update.

Call quality 10/10 I could hear people just fine, and it seemed clear to me. On the other end, my girlfriend said it sounds like I am in a tunnel. She has an iphone. Just called my friend he said I was coming through loud and clear.

Internet 10/10 Internet is blazing fast. On LTE, I tested espn.com with the razr hd and this phone, and the DNA was noticeably quicker. Wifi signal strength is strong. I was able to see more networks than my ipod. Nothing wrong yet. When the wifi is on and you're not connected, there is a constant wifi finder notification.

Multimedia 10/10 Putting a 10 for now based on the reviews. Will update later.

Camera 8/10 Of all the reviews I read, the camera is what really made me decide this over the razr hd. Out of the box, in my apartment, with one light on, taking a picture with no flash and default settings, it seemed out of focus and noisy. I haven't had enough time to make a judgement call though, so this rating is based on my experience SO FAR. Confident this will be at least a 9 if not a 10, after my week of usage.

UI speed 9/10 Fluent. Nothing bad to say yet. Facebook didn't load once, and the contacts app crashed when I tried to delete 132 contacts, but I believe this was user error. Those two things make this a 9 instead of a ten, but I am confident this will be a 10 out of 10 after a week.

Everyday usage 10/10 I am nowhere near a "power user." I talked an average of 20 minutes a day, send 50 texts, have several email accounts synced, facebook, play scramble and other random games, but no RPG type games which require a lot of power. I do not use my own music, I do not watch movies on my phone. All this might change now that I have a capable device.

Text input 10/10 Better than the apple keyboard. I use swiftkey3, but I did user it for an hour or two and had no problems with it.

Display 10/10 The first thing I noticed was the screen. It is simply a work of art. I still have my charge(AMOLED, pentile), and was using my 4th gen ipod last night. The 1080p LCD3 blows these out of the water. I had no problem viewing it in my dark family room. I will keep it on automatic brightness 99% of the time. The gorilla corning glass 2 allows your finger to glide across the screen with ease. The curved glass on the slides made it hard to grab the slider bar in the contacts app, but this will just take adjusting to.

Battery 8/10 Time will tell. Cannot properly rate this on less than half a day of use. Giving it an 8 based on what have online and the other battery monsters available.

Owlet posted on 22 Nov 2012, 17:20

10

Best smartphone right now and for months to come.

Owlet has owned it for less than month before publishing this review

I was curious if this phone wouldn't live up to the hype. I must say, it's even better than you would expected from reading about it and looking at pictures.

It's a pleasure to hold and look at. But even more so to use it. Screen is very nice, everything is very smooth and fast and responsive.

The radios are so much better than the SGSIII that this phone replaced. VZ network on SGSIII goes down to 1 bar to no bar in a weak service area, but this phone stays connected with 2-3 bars. Same with WiFi, HTC is superior.

Battery is nothing spectacular, of course, but probably no phone is right now. For me it lasts the same as my SGSIII. Batteries is where we need innovations now, so they can last a week like phones used to.

Sound is very nice, both through the loudspeaker and through the Beats Studio and Beats Pill.

Camera is good, but I prefer a real camera. Even if some say DNA's camera performs a tiny bit better in low light conditions, it's still pretty bad to me. But, it's enough to share some pics with your friends. But don't pay attention to what I say about camera, I use Nikon DSLR for work and pleasure, so no phone will do it for me.

Bottom line, the overall experience is very satisfying. This phone is just an eye candy inside and out. And performance keeps up with the looks. I can't see any smartphone right now in the same league.

Build quality 10/10

Reception 10/10

Call quality 10/10

Internet 10/10

Multimedia 10/10

Camera 9/10

UI speed 10/10

Everyday usage 10/10

Text input 10/10

Display 10/10

Battery 9/10

Pros

• Design
• Build quality
• Screen resolution
• Beats audio
• Very fast
• HTC Sense UI

Cons

• No memory card slot
• USB port cover