Hardware

HTC may not be the king of the hill in device sales or financials, but 2012 has convinced us that it's firmly planted as the champion in smartphone design. The company's had a knack for thinking outside the rectangular box and coming up with cleverly built handsets -- the Sensation series and Touch Diamond come to mind -- but it seems to have cranked the focus up another notch this year. The One series was beautifully crafted and each model therein acted as a brilliant indication of HTC's renewed dedication; without skipping a beat, it was later followed up with the colorful and visually stunning Windows Phone 8X, which has been readily endorsed by Microsoft. This brief bit of background was added to emphasize one important thing: HTC isn't slacking off with the Droid DNA. Everything about the phone -- straight down to the Ferrari-inspired edges -- screams luxury and ensures a comfortable experience. We're just as drawn to its beauty as we were when we first beheld the One X with our own eyes. It's an incredibly sleek and solidly built device that won't leave us worried about durability, since it consists of aluminum on the sides and a soft-touch polycarbonate on the back that is quite similar to the material used on the 8X. (Unfortunately, it's also a fingerprint magnet.) Gorilla Glass 2 graces the display with the promise of preventing that beautiful screen from getting scuffed.

Currently, the DNA only comes in one color option: black with red accents. These two colors have been HTC's bread and butter for many years, so it comes as no huge shocker that this would be the default choice for, well, Big Red. It also correlates with the Beats Audio color scheme, so it's a perfect combination for every party involved. The red isn't overbearing and complements the black quite well, accentuating the power button, earpiece, camera and edges (as we mentioned earlier, the grille-like edge design was apparently inspired by Ferrari, and we fully support that decision). The same folks who were concerned about the Galaxy Note II's behemoth size will also have identical reservations for the 5-inch DNA at first, but this particular device isn't looking to compete in the same genre. HTC went out of its way to emphasize that the DNA is "a smartphone, not a phablet," and we can definitely attest to that statement. Holding it up to your ear when making a call likely won't inspire the same feelings of awkwardness as the Note II might do, and it's much easier to use for one-handed tasks without needing special keyboards or dialpads. In fact, the DNA's form factor reminds us of what you'll find on the One X and Samsung Galaxy S III: at 70.5mm (2.78 inches) wide, it's only 0.6mm wider than the One X and is actually 0.1mm narrower than the GS3. Boasting a height of 141mm (5.55 inches), it's also taller than either phone. At its thickest point, the DNA measures at 9.73mm (0.38 inch), which is a bit thicker than the 8.9mm One X and 8.6mm GS3, but the back gently slopes to meet the 4mm-thick tapered edges. We were expecting the phone to require some sort of adjustment period at first, but we found the DNA to be a completely natural fit in the palm of our hand -- and it feels great.

The DNA's back is another indicator of HTC's recent change in design strategy. If you recall, the Windows Phone 8X offers a gently sloping curve (think of a "smiley face" when looking at the phone edge-on) without the phone becoming too thick, thanks to the pyramid-like fashion in which the designers stacked the internal components; HTC confirmed to us that this same methodology was used for the Droid DNA as well. And as we've come to expect on top-end devices made by HTC, the back is entirely unibody, so that 2,020mAh battery can't be swapped out. Near the top, you'll find the 8MP ImageSense autofocus camera flanked by an LED flash to the right and an LED notification light to the left. The rear notification light is rather uncommon to smartphones -- we can't recall having seen a device adorned with two such indicators -- but anyone who tends to put their phone face-down will actually find a great deal of use out of this addition. Near the bottom are the Verizon LTE and Beats Audio logos, though fortunately they don't take up much real estate. On the front, you'll notice HTC's standard three-button setup below the screen (back, home and recent apps), with the front-facing camera, proximity sensor and earpiece above. An LED notification light hides underneath the speaker grille. The Gorilla Glass covers nearly the entire front, but there's a U-shaped cutout at the top for the earpiece; this particular section of the phone seems ill-designed, as the earpiece -- and the small section above it -- appears completely out of place and disrupts the cohesiveness of the design.

There's a fine line when it comes to continuity, however: in an effort to make the phone look sleek, HTC made the volume rocker (found on the right edge) almost completely flush with the body of the phone, making it a bit difficult to press. The power button, unfortunately placed on the top center, is designed precisely the same way. The two buttons are made of anodized aluminum and their flush placement helps them blend in better, making the edges much more aesthetically pleasing, so you'll just need to decide if that makes it worth the small cost in usability. Rounding out the top of the DNA, the power button is flanked by a micro-SIM tray on the right and 3.5mm headphone jack on the left. We noticed another small quirk soon after unboxing the phone: the micro-USB / MHL port on the bottom is covered by a plastic flap that takes more effort to snap closed than it should. According to HTC, this was done to keep the phone splash-resistant, in exactly the same manner as the J Butterfly. As we've seen on the majority of Japanese phones in the past, carriers in that country have particularly high standards when it comes to protecting devices from water, so HTC and Verizon chose to adopt those standards for the DNA. If you purchase the phone, it's important to keep in mind that it's compatible with Qi, so it may be worth investing in a certified wireless charging pad rather than fumbling with that flap on a regular basis. (We used an Energizer pad and Nokia Fatboy pillow to charge the DNA, and both worked like a charm.)

While we're on the subject of wireless, we should note that the Droid DNA also features dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n, NFC and compatibility with HTC's Media Link HD for wireless HDMI mirroring. If you don't mind going the wired route, a MHL adapter will easily work here in its place. Sadly, USB OTG isn't officially supported.

Last but not least, internal storage is limited to 16GB with no option for expandable memory, a poor decision on HTC's part. Sure, the idea of shunning the microSD slot is nothing new, and HTC has done this plenty of times before -- the One X+ is guilty of the same thing -- but we have a feeling that this particular choice was made by Verizon, since the J Butterfly (the DNA's Japanese counterpart) does allow for expandable storage. In other words, Verizon would have had to go out of its way to make sure the slot wasn't included.

HTC Droid DNA Pricing $200 with contract Dimensions 5.55 x 2.78 x 0.38 inches (141 x 70.5 x 9.73mm) Weight 4.86 oz. (138g) Screen size 5.0 inches Screen resolution 1,920 x 1,080 pixels (440ppi) Screen type Super LCD3 Battery 2,020mAh Internal storage 16GB External storage No microSD slot Rear camera 8MP, f/2.0, 28mm wide-angle lens, AF, BSI, ImageChip Front-facing cam 2.1MP, f/2.0, wide-angle lens, BSI Video capture 1080p rear / 1080p front NFC Yes Radios LTE, CDMA, quad-band GSM / EDGE, quad-band UMTS / HSPA+ Bluetooth version 4.0 with aptX SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro APQ8064 CPU 1.5GHz quad-core GPU Adreno 320 RAM 2GB MHL Yes; support for HTC Media Link HD also included WiFi 802.11a/b/g/n dual-band Operating system Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean, Sense 4+ UI

Display

And here it is: the crown jewel of the DNA. The feature that makes it stand out above the rest of the quad-core crowd: that 5-inch, 1080p (1,920 x 1,080) display. More specifically, this IPS panel -- also known as the Super LCD3 -- is an evolution of the SLCD2 you can find on the One X. If you recall, we declared that device's display to be the best we'd ever laid eyes on; the DNA, however, easily steals that title away. Granted, it's an iterative bump in resolution: the Super LCD2 panel on the One X had packed more pixels than the naked eye could discern, so pushing the density by over 100ppi merely makes the DNA screen sharper and clearer. How good is it? Images appear to just float above the screen. The font rendering is crisper than anything we've ever seen, and 1080p movies look simply stunning. Colors seem to appear more natural (without being overly saturated), the darks are darker and whites are not as harsh to our eyes as they were on the One X. Viewing angles are just as stellar, and you will love to use this phone in direct sunlight because even at 50 percent brightness you can see everything without straining your eyes -- something that we can only say about a select few devices. We give the Super LCD3 display all the praise in the world, because it's the current undisputed champion in the mobile industry. It can't be argued that the 1080p screen is the most beautiful we've laid eyes on to date, but don't go giving your current 720p display the heave-ho just for that single reason. It's an iterative improvement to be sure, and it's love at first sight, but it's a bit more nuanced than any previous bump in resolution. To put it more succinctly: it's difficult to go back to a qHD screen after using 720p for an extended period of time, but we don't have the same reservations going back to the One X+ display after using the DNA.

Software

As expected, the Droid DNA plays host to a fresh installation of HTC's Sense 4+ user interface, which runs atop Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean. Regardless of what you may love about the display, you may not harbor the same feelings toward the manufacturer's custom skin. With the exception of carrier-mandated tweaks, the UI here is essentially the same as the one we reviewed on the One X+ a couple weeks ago, so head over to our review to get the full rundown on the odds and ends. We mentioned special provisioning from the carrier, which comes as no surprise to anyone familiar with the US smartphone scene. Verizon has stuck with precedent and thoroughly decimated the DNA with obnoxious amounts of pre-loaded apps. Fortunately, nearly all of them can be disabled and each one can be hidden from view, thanks to some functionality in the Sense app menu. We can live with those options, especially since there seems to be very little impact on performance (more on that later), but there is one change to the firmware that simply shouldn't have happened: the recent apps / multitasking button cannot be changed or toggled to allow for the menu key. This is a feature that you can find on the One X and X+, so it gives us cause to believe this is something Verizon chose to leave out of the final product. Doing so essentially forces the menu button to take up an abnormally large amount of screen space on third-party apps.