You've seen the leaks, but now it's real. HTC and Verizon have just announced the Droid DNA, a 5-inch behemoth sporting an incredible 1080p Super LCD3 display. Powering those pixels is the capable Snapdragon S4 Pro SoC, familiar to us as the APQ8064 with 4 Krait cores running at 1.5GHz and last seen in the Nexus 4. For modem, the Droid DNA is using MDM9615 which makes this HTC's first Qualcomm Fusion 3 based device. The Droid DNA also includes ImageChip and the usual ImageSense features, and brings the 2.1 MP F/2.0 camera we saw on the HTC 8X as well. There's 2 GB of RAM onboard as well.

The style of the phone alludes to its Incredible forebears, but only in the bright red accents. The design is sleeker, with a smooth back and thin profile. On the long edges of the phone are large red grills, though stereo speakers are not in order. What is available to audiophiles, is a 2.55v built-in headphone amp, not a common find in a smartphone but something that will go a long way to improving the listening experience. 

Wireless charging is also being introduced to the Droid line for the first time. It's unclear whether this will be  on the increasingly common Qi standard, but if Brian's growing enthusiasm for the technology is any indication, this could be a popular feature. 

As is the norm, the HTC Droid DNA will be available on-contract for $199, and pre-orders start today with shipments expected by November 21st. We'll be hands-on shortly, and give some impressions of the device. 

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  • jjj - Tuesday, November 13, 2012 - link

    Again no microSD and the HTC J Butterfly has one,HTC is starting to just be annoying.
  • deputc26 - Tuesday, November 13, 2012 - link

    no sd card and 16gb? almost as big a shame as nexus 4. I blame goog for booting sd cards.
  • piroroadkill - Friday, November 16, 2012 - link

    Yep. Completely agreed. No MicroSD and such needlessly small battery = fail. What the hell?
  • Death666Angel - Tuesday, November 13, 2012 - link

    The Note 2 should have launched at that resolution. :) Looking forward to the test. Will there be an international version of this?
  • cigar3tte - Tuesday, November 13, 2012 - link

    2030mAh battery for a 5" 1080p device? And you can't replace it. Not going to work.
  • abhicherath - Tuesday, November 13, 2012 - link

    Now if only bigger laptops also started following this trend...

    On another note, I wonder how my 1080p wallpapers will look on that beast,hmm.
  • alfreddelacruz - Tuesday, November 13, 2012 - link

    Hoping this comes to ATT in some variant soon. Wish it had a better battery like 2200mAH at least and a microSD slot. I like the built in headphone amp very cool. I use the Filo amp coming out of my One X and it sounds great, but without the amp it sounds very good anyway.
  • karasaj - Tuesday, November 13, 2012 - link

    This could be a great phone if the battery doesn't end up being terrible. I don't see how they're going to manage it, but that's the one thing that could be the downfall of this phone. Otherwise, everything is pretty perfect. (minus wanting a 4.5 inch flagship android - does anybody know of one? I can't seem to find anything under 4.7)
  • karasaj - Tuesday, November 13, 2012 - link

    Oh, for Verizon. The LG Optimus G might have been nice but it doesn't seem like they're covering it.
  • extide - Tuesday, November 13, 2012 - link

    Yeah because that makes sense. PLEASE MANUFACTURERS KILL OFF 1366x768!

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