Android Central ROM review: Incredibly Re-Engineered for the Droid Incredible

The HTC Droid Incredible has had a rough life.  Between supply issues, problems sourcing components, and the difficult time folks had rooting it, a lot of people had to wait a long time to to get one in their hands, and make it their own.  All that is behind us now, and even with new models coming out people still love the DInc.  With good reason -- its unique style and huge development community make it the perfect phone for anyone on Verizon who likes to tinker.

Android Central forums member PvilleComp shows us all the above is true with his review of Incredibly Re-Engineered for the DInc.  This one is a complete re-work of HTC Sense, and by all accounts will make you think you have a different phone compared to stock.  In the words of the developer chingy51o it's "Fast, Beautiful, and Simply Magnificent".  Who am I to argue?  Read all about it, after the jump.  Thanks, Mike!

Want to write a ROM review for Android Central?  We'd love to hear from you!  Look here for details.

Lockscreen

Incredibly Re-Engineered v2.3.2 Review

Incredibly Re-Engineered is a Sense based ROM skinned to look like an AOSP ROM with hints of Gingerbread, along with all the HTC Sense widgets, apps and features people love so much. Brought to us by chingy51o, this is the latest version of his Stock Sense Froyo based ROM’s. You’ll find the beloved HTC Weather Clock widget as well as FriendStream, Favorites, Calendar, Bookmarks and Music player widgets all pre loaded on the default setup. In addition to the standard HTC apps like HTC Gallery, DeskClock, Flashlight and FM Radio, chingy51o has also included a gingerbread keyboard, Wireless Tether, xda, hulu, SuperUser, DSP Manager and Rosie Settings.

The settings are about what you would expect from a Froyo-based Sense ROM. HTC’s scenes are supported, and the Personalize settings work as expected. The Gmail and Market apps are themed, unfortunately after your first download the market will update and it loses the theme with the update. Under Wireless and Settings you will see some left over settings from the Sprint EVO framework relating to 4g, so don’t get too excited, the Droid Incredible did not get a magic LTE upgrade.

One of the nice elements included in this ROM that is not included in the stock Incredible ROM is the drop down Notification Bar power settings. This allows you to control the Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth and 3g radios as well as the Flashlight and sound/vibrate settings all in one easy to get to location without having to take up real estate on your screens.

The launcher bar at the bottom is configurable for custom apps on the left and right of the bar through Rosie Settings. Unfortunately, there are only three positions available in the launcher bar.

Install was a snap even with the latest 3.0.0.8 Clockwork Recovery. It does take a long time to complete its first boot, so be patient, get a cup of coffee and wait it out. As always, chingy51o recommends a full wipe of data, cache and dalvik cache before installing for the first time.

The initial setup went smoothly and apps installed smoothly from the market as well as from Titanium. The initial setup offers you the ability to login to your g-mail account, configure your third-party email (exchange or pop) as well as facebook and flickr accounts on first boot.

The default kernel is "HeyItLou-Cifs-Tun-Ext4-WN-BFQ", which in English means that it has all the winning elements of a HeyItsLou kernel with support for Common Internet File Sharing, TUN network routing, EXT4 file systems, a WN web server and Budget Fair Queuing to make things run smoother. Setting kernel adjustments however does not seem to be an option.

My overall impression of this ROM are that it is a very stable Sense alternative; especially if you like the look and feel of Standard AOSP Android, but you don’t want to give up some of the Sense applications HTC has created. Screen transitions were good, apps launched quickly, calls were clear and crisp, sync’s with Google Calendar and email were consistent and battery life seemed on par with other ROM’s. So, if you are looking for a nice daily driver with a hint of Gingerbread, Incredibly Re-Engineered 2.3.2 is an excellent choice.

Scenes

FriendStream

Bookmarks

App Drawer 1

App Drawer 2

App Drawer 3

Settings 1

Settings 2

Jerry Hildenbrand
Senior Editor — Google Ecosystem

Jerry is an amateur woodworker and struggling shade tree mechanic. There's nothing he can't take apart, but many things he can't reassemble. You'll find him writing and speaking his loud opinion on Android Central and occasionally on Twitter.