I'm looking to buy the Thunderbolt because honestly, who doesn't want a new phone on 4g lte with, lots of RAM, storage, 2 cameras . I've heard its a little hefty and unfortunately it runs sense. I know that has already been rooted (sweet) and cyanogenmod 7 is on its way
(http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=995057)
I was looking for anyone who currently has the phone and can tell me their opinion of the phone, if they know when CM is expected, how long the battery life actually is, if it has any quirks and what ROMS are available for it on ROM Manger. I have already read a couple reviews, mostly engadget so I'm looking more for personal experience or suggestions! (http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/18/htc-thunderbolt-review/)
I'm on a Droid Incredible right now running CM7 which has been good for me I just want to upgrade to the 4G before Verizon starts tiered plans so if anyone has any suggestions about future expected phones that is also much appreciated because I'm not fixated on this phone, the Incredible is perfectly acceptable for now I just want unlimited 4G on a phone that will last me for 2-3 years.
Its a big deal for me that I can wipe and run stock android because Sense or any other UI are terrible as I'm sure you know.
I don't know about sense being all that bad compared to the other UI out there I like it way better, But i do agree it is nice to have a clean slate to work with.......... This phone is very nice BTW
Aggieeric said:
I'm looking to buy the Thunderbolt because honestly, who doesn't want a new phone on 4g lte with, lots of RAM, storage, 2 cameras . I've heard its a little hefty and unfortunately it runs sense. I know that has already been rooted (sweet) and cyanogenmod 7 is on its way
(http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=995057)
I was looking for anyone who currently has the phone and can tell me their opinion of the phone, if they know when CM is expected, how long the battery life actually is, if it has any quirks and what ROMS are available for it on ROM Manger. I have already read a couple reviews, mostly engadget so I'm looking more for personal experience or suggestions! (http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/18/htc-thunderbolt-review/)
I'm on a Droid Incredible right now running CM7 which has been good for me I just want to upgrade to the 4G before Verizon starts tiered plans so if anyone has any suggestions about future expected phones that is also much appreciated because I'm not fixated on this phone, the Incredible is perfectly acceptable for now I just want unlimited 4G on a phone that will last me for 2-3 years.
Its a big deal for me that I can wipe and run stock android because Sense or any other UI are terrible as I'm sure you know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ive carried the TB for about 5 days now and it is amazing. The phone runs so smooth (probably due to the increased amount of ram), I also live on the border of a 4g market. I dont have a ton of issues with it dropping 4g, it seems to hold it pretty good maybe once or twice a day it will drop into 3g.
Obviously as you probably already know, the battery life is horrible due to the LTE radio. With normal usage (little gameplay, just text and phone calls) I get about 8 to 9 hours on battery. Heavy usage (lots of playing games, internet browsing and dowloading) 5 hours, 7 if im lucky.
The size isnt to bulky. The curvature to the back of the phone makes it feel like it belongs in your hand.
Its an amazing phone and its speed makes me overlook the battery issues. I can deal with the battery life, I work at a Verizon store so I am surrounded by chargers, but if you get the device, a car charger and extra travel charger is a must.
By far, favorite android device ive ever carried and I have carried all the Verizon androids. 13-14mps down in Cincinnati
oka1 said:
I don't know about sense being all that bad compared to the other UI out there I like it way better, But i do agree it is nice to have a clean slate to work with.......... This phone is very nice BTW
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Id rather have sense over motoblur any day. But I agree also, clean slate is the best. Cant wait for those roms to start rolling out.
I now can upgrade my DROID X to a newer phone.
Is the Verizon Droid Charge worthy as a replacement to Droid X? I keep reading about some of the growing pain on rooting the VDC, which I can understand. Beyond that, despite a better screen, is VDC's hardware close enough in term of its performance specifically on these three major criteria, i.e. GPS antenna, battery life and responsiveness, when you compare it with DX? Or, will I suffer from it due to the noticeable difference in poorer performance of those things? Discuss.
Note that my only reason to even pick VDC is for the 4G speed as I'm quite happy with DX hardware.
You and I are in the same boat. Although I don't have a Charge in my possession, I have decided to get it as an upgrade to my X, and here is why.
I initially got the Xperia Play as an upgrade, and had it for a day, and got rid of it because I didn't like many aspects of it.
That got me looking at an alternative upgrade, so I looked at all the 4g phones. Knowing data tiering is right around the corner, I feel this was a good move on my part. Anyway, after playing with the thunderbolt, Charge, and Revolution, I felt none of the phones were perfect for me, but the Charge was the best. I also feel it is an upgrade over my DX running team black hats Gingerbread.
The camera isn't quite as good as the Thunderbolt. The colors are... off, but resolution is better than the X by a little.
Game speed is faster. While I was at the vzw store looking at the phones, I downloaded Dungeon Defenders and played Deeper Well on insane. Faster than the Droid X by far, and what a wonderful screen!!! Not to freaking mention I was able to download the entire game over 4G faster than I could at home with Comcast/wifi. (20min) That's a freaking bonus right there buddy!
I think it will be a nice upgrade, but I wont know for a week, so ask me again then.
Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk
Its alot better. The possessor is an a new hummingbird so it handles battery better. The screen is super amoled plus. Once you install the lagfix its fast. And finally 4g is 4g
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA Premium App
Ted A said:
Note that my only reason to even pick VDC is for the 4G speed as I'm quite happy with DX hardware.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you can go without an upgrade, then I say stick it out for the next best phone. If you need an upgrade but don't necessarily need 4G LTE, go Droid X2, imo. Beast of a phone. I just don't like how it's sans 4G LTE.
Ted A said:
I now can upgrade my DROID X to a newer phone.
Is the Verizon Droid Charge worthy as a replacement to Droid X? I keep reading about some of the growing pain on rooting the VDC, which I can understand. Beyond that, despite a better screen, is VDC's hardware close enough in term of its performance specifically on these three major criteria, i.e. GPS antenna, battery life and responsiveness, when you compare it with DX? Or, will I suffer from it due to the noticeable difference in poorer performance of those things? Discuss.
Note that my only reason to even pick VDC is for the 4G speed as I'm quite happy with DX hardware.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I upgraded from the DX to the DC primarily because I wanted to be grandfathered in to unlimited 4G when they make the change. I chose the DC over the Tbolt because of the battery life and the battery life to me does seem better than my DX.
from a performance stand point, I would not have upgraded just for the hardware originally. I might have waited it out for the Bionic BUT that being said, there is a noticeable difference in the performance of the 2 phones and I for one like the feel of the charge as opposed to the feel of the X.
Though the dev community is just now starting out, I find ROM flashing and such to be so much easier on the Charge, primarily because you don't have to deal with the bootstrapper and all that mess.
Overall, i'd say your decision has to come down to priorities, my priority was 4G unlimited (assuming that VZW will grandfather people in). If you want straight up hardware and performance, possibly hold out to the Bionic or go with the DX2 (I would've have gone with it except I couldn't see the point in getting a new phone that couldn't do 4G). Better battery life IMO go with the DC.
I am extremely happy with with all aspects of the DC over my X.
Hey guys,
Currently have the incredible and love it but I need a bigger screen. Im due for an upgrade and like the charge. Would Anyone who upgraded to it from an incredible be down to post their experiences?
Thanks,
Sent from my 2.3.5 Incredible Obsession
bigsapz said:
Hey guys,
Currently have the incredible and love it but I need a bigger screen. Im due for an upgrade and like the charge. Would Anyone who upgraded to it from an incredible be down to post their experiences?
Thanks,
Sent from my 2.3.5 Incredible Obsession
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It depends on you want. There is not nearly the amount of roms to choose from as there is for the DInc, but the ones we do have are great. If I had an upgrade, and was in your situation, I'd wait for the SGS2 or HTC Vigor. The Charge is a great phone but I wouldn't use an upgrade on it considering what is coming in the near future. Just my opinion though.
I did this in a roundabout way in that I used the Incredible for a year before getting my Charge, but I didn't use an upgrade (one of my kids had the Fascinate, but since he doesn't live in a 4G coverage area, I replaced his Fascinate with my Incredible and appropriated the Charge). I can say that I'm much happier with the phone having gotten it for free than I would be if I had paid for it, but overall quite pleased.
The Charge has has better:
-Battery life (by around 40%)
-Screen (I had both the SLCD and OLED DIncs- SAMOLED+ blows both away)
-Usability (screen size is much better for typing accuracy)
-Multimedia experience- SGX540 trounces the rather dated Adreno200
-Audio quality- especially with Voodoo Sound
-Bootloader design- ODIN mode is great for recovering from ****ups
Things that really don't impact my opinion
-4G is incredible in theory- in practice, Google Music and Netflix could both stream just fine over good old EV-DO RevA, and for anything else I need to download I have home wifi and 25Mbit Comcast Xfinity, so it's still sort of unnecessary. It is cool to be able to say my phone has a faster broadband connection than my home.... I'm regularly seeing 30mbit down/6 up. I'm not using it as a hotspot as I don't feel like either shelling out or risking my service, and I will say that I'm using 3-4x the data on LTE than I did over 3G, with better battery life as previously mentioned.
-Overall usability- the Hummingbird is a tad quicker than the Snapdragon, but overall I always found the DInc to be a quite responsive phone- no problems with either
-Call quality- though the Charge has a dual mic setup, they both sound the same on my end. Hard to find fault with Verizon.
Things that I still have to hand to the Incredible
-I have the Charge in an Otterbox Commuter to protect its incredibly vulnerable back shell. While this gives it a great solid feel in the hand, it also makes it a bit on the difficult side to slide in and out of pockets. The DInc was a very convenient size.
-ROM selection is way better for the DInc- though, let's be honest, I didn't care about anything else once CM7 for DInc was out. Here's hoping it hits the Charge soon.
Final thoughts- rumor has it the Bionic could be out within a week, but even if that's premature it's certainly not more than a month away. The Galaxy S2 and HTC Vigor are also both right around the corner. The Charge is about to be replaced as a flagship model. My approval of it is tempered by the fact that I got it for free. You may want to hold off a bit.
I came from the Droid incredible as well and echo the posts above. The charge is an upgrade but at this point just wait for gs2, vigor, or nexus.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA App
I came from the Dinc which I treasured. The dev community was awesome for the Dinc but I love eclipse.
Not sure why you would wait for the sgs2, it may not have 4G.
And the Bionic is just a bigger droid 3 with 4G. Of course to each his own, and I personally saw the samoled+ and just had to have it. I could have waited for the bionic or sgs2 but why? Whatever phone you get, im sure you will love. Afterall, they all do just about the same thing.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA App
I upgraded from the Dinc a couple of months ago and I'm semi happy with my upgrade. The 2 main reasons to upgrade to this phone are the screen and 4G. I guess it depends how important those two things are to you. All the phones coming out in the next couple of months will probably have those two things AND have upgraded processors, RAM, etc. So if I were in your shoes, I would wait a couple of months to see what else is coming out.
I came from the Incredible and am in love with mCharge. Has the hardkey buttons and 4g. Plus the screen it was everything I wanted. Before I got the Charge I was considering waiting on the Bionic but I personally am happy with the choice I made.
Sent from my GummyCHARGED Charge using Tapatalk
MillionManMosh said:
I did this in a roundabout way in that I used the Incredible for a year before getting my Charge, but I didn't use an upgrade (one of my kids had the Fascinate, but since he doesn't live in a 4G coverage area, I replaced his Fascinate with my Incredible and appropriated the Charge). I can say that I'm much happier with the phone having gotten it for free than I would be if I had paid for it, but overall quite pleased.
The Charge has has better:
-Battery life (by around 40%)
-Screen (I had both the SLCD and OLED DIncs- SAMOLED+ blows both away)
-Usability (screen size is much better for typing accuracy)
-Multimedia experience- SGX540 trounces the rather dated Adreno200
-Audio quality- especially with Voodoo Sound
-Bootloader design- ODIN mode is great for recovering from ****ups
Things that really don't impact my opinion
-4G is incredible in theory- in practice, Google Music and Netflix could both stream just fine over good old EV-DO RevA, and for anything else I need to download I have home wifi and 25Mbit Comcast Xfinity, so it's still sort of unnecessary. It is cool to be able to say my phone has a faster broadband connection than my home.... I'm regularly seeing 30mbit down/6 up. I'm not using it as a hotspot as I don't feel like either shelling out or risking my service, and I will say that I'm using 3-4x the data on LTE than I did over 3G, with better battery life as previously mentioned.
-Overall usability- the Hummingbird is a tad quicker than the Snapdragon, but overall I always found the DInc to be a quite responsive phone- no problems with either
-Call quality- though the Charge has a dual mic setup, they both sound the same on my end. Hard to find fault with Verizon.
Things that I still have to hand to the Incredible
-I have the Charge in an Otterbox Commuter to protect its incredibly vulnerable back shell. While this gives it a great solid feel in the hand, it also makes it a bit on the difficult side to slide in and out of pockets. The DInc was a very convenient size.
-ROM selection is way better for the DInc- though, let's be honest, I didn't care about anything else once CM7 for DInc was out. Here's hoping it hits the Charge soon.
Final thoughts- rumor has it the Bionic could be out within a week, but even if that's premature it's certainly not more than a month away. The Galaxy S2 and HTC Vigor are also both right around the corner. The Charge is about to be replaced as a flagship model. My approval of it is tempered by the fact that I got it for free. You may want to hold off a bit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I came from the Incredible as well, and I echo everything this guy said. Although I did pay for the phone instead of free (lucky guy lol) I feel like it was worth it. I still use my Incredible (deactivated, but still works on wifi) just for random games and testing out custom roms because we all know the Inc has some great developers. Charge development is looking great too though and I can't wait to see the likes of CM7, MIUI, etc on this phone. It's not perfect, but if you convert from RFS to EXT4 it's really close.
DINC to Charge
bigsapz said:
Hey guys,
Currently have the incredible and love it but I need a bigger screen. Im due for an upgrade and like the charge. Would Anyone who upgraded to it from an incredible be down to post their experiences?
Thanks,
Sent from my 2.3.5 Incredible Obsession
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I echo all the "good" comments as I came from the DINC a month or so ago. The only thing I miss is the LED that the "DINC used for letting you know it's charging. The Charge experience is a little different than the HTC experience but it just lets you know what else is out there.
I would hold out for the Bionic. I upgraded from Dinc to Charge because Verizon was changing their unlimited tier plans and I was afraid of missing the boat so I used my upgrade to lock myself in. The Charge was the best at the time but if you can wait until the Bionic comes out 9/8-ish I would. Dual core, 4G, 4.3 inch screen plus the ability to use the Motorola dock/laptop thingy (if you're interested) is a def plus. I can't remember RAM and storage specs but I think they beat the Charge as well.
One thing I did notice coming from Dinc to Charge was the snappiness of the ROMs. Once lagfix was enabled though it was pretty hard to distinguish the difference.
wenzer said:
I would hold out for the Bionic. I upgraded from Dinc to Charge because Verizon was changing their unlimited tier plans and I was afraid of missing the boat so I used my upgrade to lock myself in.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You do realize if you were already on an unlimited data plan, you were locked in?
Anyway to the OP. I came from the Fascinate to the Charge. I got in on the free exchange. The Charge is a great phone. I would say it's a Fascinate 2. I don't think I would have used (wasted) an upgrade on this phone. I think it's best to see what the Bionic, Vigor, SGS2 & iPhone 5 bring to the table. This is especially true when you consider Verizon did away with 1 year contracts.
On a side note, my daughter has a Dinc. She absolutely refuses to upgrade her phone. She says it's simply "Incredible". Lol.
I'm months overdue from getting rid of my Touch Pro 2, and the Charge is one of my top contenders. I was holding out for the Bionic (or rumored Verizon Nexus S), but after researching the X2 and Droid 3 and seeing the Dev community having issues achieving root, I'm now leaning back towards the current single core LTE handsets.
The brief time I've spent looking around, it looks like the battery life is great considering the usual LTE excess drain. Obviously the phone is rootable, there are kernels and roms available, and the dev community seems to be very active with the phone in general.
I haven't specifically seen any mention of overclock ability or "stealth" tethering, but I would have to assume these are all doable considering the kernel and rom availability.
If anybody wouldn't mind sharing some general feedback, I would greatly appreciate it!
* In general, how happy have you been with your Charge, and why?
* Why did you choose it over, say, the LG Revolution?
* Anyone unhappy with their decision to go with the Charge (after-the-fact) over something else, and if so, why?
Thanks again in advance for any comments, they would be much appreciated!
Cheers!
I like my charge. I also came from a TP2 like you. The battery life is decent but the 4g is awesome to have. It flies. I use stealth tethering via wireless tether for root users. The dev community is very active. The main issues I have are bluetooth related. I often have to reboot before I get into my car so I know there will not be bluetooth disconnects. Now that netflix is available I like the phone even more. Also I love swype.
Good luck and smart idea asking the questions that you are asking.
Sent from my VZW SGT running a Gingerbread Sprint Rom
I came to the Charge from the Revolution. I liked the feel of the Revo, it was heavier, felt solid and well made and it was also a much faster phone than the charge out of the box giving me Quadrants in 2k to 22k range. On 4g Speed tests the Charge is faster.
But when I had two Revolutions brick themselves so hard that I could not get into a factory reset, nor anything else in the space of 30 days I had VZW upgrade me to the Charge.
So far the Charge has beena pretty decent phone (considering I've rooted and ROMed it.) Stock I hated it.
I'm using Humble 1.42 as my ROM and I'm happy so far.
Time to upgrade buddy. Humble 1.51 is sick.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk
omnia38 said:
Time to upgrade buddy. Humble 1.51 is sick.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
**** humble he is nothing but a thief gummy is where it's at.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA Premium App
schick79 said:
* In general, how happy have you been with your Charge, and why? Very happy. 4G is lightning fast; the screen is the best out there; I personally find the Samsung TouchWiz UI to be very friendly. Others don't; each to his own. Battery life seems at least as good as any other Android phone; I can get 9-12 hours, which is all I need, unless I'm in a fringe reception area.
* Why did you choose it over, say, the LG Revolution? LG phones generally seem to be more troublesome from what I've read. Plus the screen is greatly inferior.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Red comments above.
schick79 said:
I'm months overdue from getting rid of my Touch Pro 2, and the Charge is one of my top contenders. I was holding out for the Bionic (or rumored Verizon Nexus S), but after researching the X2 and Droid 3 and seeing the Dev community having issues achieving root, I'm now leaning back towards the current single core LTE handsets.
The brief time I've spent looking around, it looks like the battery life is great considering the usual LTE excess drain. Obviously the phone is rootable, there are kernels and roms available, and the dev community seems to be very active with the phone in general.
I haven't specifically seen any mention of overclock ability or "stealth" tethering, but I would have to assume these are all doable considering the kernel and rom availability.
If anybody wouldn't mind sharing some general feedback, I would greatly appreciate it!
* In general, how happy have you been with your Charge, and why?
* Why did you choose it over, say, the LG Revolution?
* Anyone unhappy with their decision to go with the Charge (after-the-fact) over something else, and if so, why?
Thanks again in advance for any comments, they would be much appreciated!
Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry for quoting this long, its hard to look back at posts on your phone. I came from an LG Versa. That phone was complete ****, but I was 13 or 14 and something appealed to me. This is my upgrade. I love it, except for the battery life. We have 2 main custom roms, GummyCharged and Eclipse. (Humble is just a spinoff/kang of GC), and 2-3 kernels - PeanutButtaJellyTime (plus an OC edition, you mentioned you didn't see it), Nameless, and imoseyon's kernel, which you will only find on his Twitter page. "Stealth Tethering" is still available with Wifi Tether Beta3 on Google Code. I chose this over the Tbolt and Revolution because a verizon rep told me this was the 4G phone with the least issues and most positive customer feedback, plus I thought this one had the most support from XDA (the tbolt has a lot too though). My only peeve with this phone is its lack of support from Samsung. We basically have to do everything ourselves because Sammy hasn't given us good source. We don't get TW4 (although we have our attempts at porting it), and GB is FINALLY almost here. The Wolfson DAC is amazing, but the GPS (Yamaha?) leaves something to be desired. But in closing, I love this phone and im glad I got it.
Sent from my Droid Charge running GummyFroyo 1.9.1
kvswim, thanks VERY much for that! Quick question, though (or for anyone else), not actually having an Android phone yet, I have no idea what TW4 or DAC means.
Great to know OC is an option, as well as stealth tethering.
Also appreciate the scoop on the different flavors of roms/kernels/etc.
If I end up going with this phone (which is now far ahead in the lead), that will be the first thing I do upon opening up the box.
Thanks again!
schick79 said:
kvswim, thanks VERY much for that! Quick question, though (or for anyone else), not actually having an Android phone yet, I have no idea what TW4 or DAC means.
Great to know OC is an option, as well as stealth tethering.
Also appreciate the scoop on the different flavors of roms/kernels/etc.
If I end up going with this phone (which is now far ahead in the lead), that will be the first thing I do upon opening up the box.
Thanks again!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
TW4=TouchWiz 4, Sammy's 4th generation of their UI overlay, similar to HTC's Sense or Motorola's Motoblur. We have TW3. Also, the stock theming is HIDEOUS. Poop color EVERYWHERE.
The Wolfson DAC is the audio chipset in most (all?) Samsung Galaxy phones. It is amazing compared to other phones, it's audiophile quality. Plus the EQ and amplifier outputs can be modified with the Voodoo Control app (you can also change Voodoo lagfix in it).
PROTIP on selecting ROMS: If you like the stock feel go with Eclipse. If you like more of an Android Open Source Project (AOSP) feel, use GC. I highly reccommend trying both and seeing what you like more. Also, as of now, Gingerbread is completely up to you, as all we have in GB are leaks and no source (its completely unnoficial). Our Froyo builds are built from official ROMS and source.
Oh yes, we have stuff like MIUI and CM7 and OMFGB in development. Protip: NEVER ask for ETAs.
Sent from my Droid Charge running GummyFroyo 1.9.1
Gotcha, thanks. I do have a Xoom, but considering that's on Honeycomb, I didn't think there would be any relation between it and any phone.
When you said DAC the only thing that came to mind was digital to analog converter, but I didn't think that would be it. Guess I was wrong! That's another huge plus as my phone is always my mp3/flac player.
Will definitely check out all roms if/once I get the phone.
At this point I'm pretty much sold on the Charge as opposed to the Revo or TB, and even the Bionic. However, I am wondering if it's worth waiting a couple weeks until the rumored September release date for the Bionic to see if the price points fall. All things being equal, they should.
Again, thanks for all the help!
I got my charge 2 days ago...via a sweet craigslist deal. Anyways, I'm coming from the THunderbolt. I still haven't rooted the phone yet but the tbolt was perma rooted running a GB rom. Now I know you said LG rev but I'm going to go on a little rant here based on my initial thoughts.
I gotta say, I think the charge is an underrated phone. So far the battery life on the charge is DESTROYING the thunderbolt. The real test will be tomorrow when I'm at work with a poor data signal. I think the phone itself looks great, it is much better in person than you see in pictures. In pictures it looks fat and weird, I think its pretty sleek for a 4.3" LTE phone. Nice metal accents, good form factor, I could've done without the android hardkeys, but I don't mind them.
Samsung phones get knocked for build quality, but my galaxy s when I was on tmobile took a ton of abuse, the screen never scratched and even the "metal" accent trims don't scratch much. Also, I personally like the lighter weight feel of the samsung phones (galaxy, nexus, charge, etc).
Take that in comparison with HTC phones and the thunderbolt... I seroiusly don't know what kind of HTC koolaid people drink but I've never been impressed. The thunderbolt's screen is NOT very scratch resistant, the kickstand peel reaked of sh*t quality, I ended up polishing mine. When I had my nexus one, the power button felt like crap. When I had my HD7, the battery cover squeaked like hell. Like I said, I don't get how HTC gets so much credit.
Moving on to slam HTC more, if you ask me, HTC sense sucks, its so intrusive and blocky to me. Maybe I'm in the minority there but I'm sick of the stupid HTC clock widget, the menus, etc, just isn't my thing I guess. Lets not to mention the messages app in the thunderbolt freezing ALOT. Of course I ditched sense with the AOSP rom I was running but still, initial frustration. People give touchwiz heat, but I really don't mind it.
Reception - I'm getting FAR better 4g connectivity with the charge. I don't know what was up with my tbolt but once I'd drop to 3g or 1x, I could never get back to 4g unless I rebooted. Multiple radios - same issue.
Finally, the screen. Sorry but one of the most rewarding things with a phone is the screen, every time you turn it on, you obviously see it, and with the charge, thats a good thing because the super amoled plus is just excellent. Destroys the thunderbolt and most other phones in general.
Forget quadrant scores (people get wayyyy hung up on QS), dual cores, everything else. At the end of the day, if the aesthetics of the phone are good - size, weight, pocketability, the screen, the device is snappy (and the charge is smooth for me in stock form), and battery life is good, I'm gonna be happy. With all those things into account, I think the charge is a great phone so far and I'm really surprised its kind of slid under the radar and not given credit because people are waiting for the bionic and gs2.
Sorry to do tbolt vs charge since thats not what you're looking for, but as far as general feedback - I think you're going to be happy with the charge, its quite honestly a very nice phone. I'm glad I gave another LTE phone a chance before I lost faith in it.
Thanks Dale, I actually do appreciate the TBolt comparison. It was originally my #1 or #2 pick, so this reaffirms that it is rightfully at the bottom of my list.
It just hit me that Super AMOLED is probably the same as SAMOLED. I saw another article (about a completely different phone, actually) that was raving about SAMOLED. Good to have some additional confirmation on that.
I was originally hung up on Quadrant scores and having that dual core. However, after I thought about it, I'm really not sure how important it is considering what I would use the phone for. I have my Xoom, and that is my real "mobile workhorse" now, so that's the device that I'm more concerned about performance on. The phone will primarily be for web browsing, work e-mail, music, tethering, and that's pretty much it. Any other heavy lifting would probably be done by the Xoom. All that being said, I've pretty much convinced myself I won't miss not having the second core. Plus, I'm sure the battery life is better with only 1 core versus 2.
I'm actually pretty stoked after reading all of this feedback, especially the feedback from people who had another LTE phone. I feel good about going with this phone in the very near future.
Again, thanks to all!
schick79 said:
Thanks Dale, I actually do appreciate the TBolt comparison. It was originally my #1 or #2 pick, so this reaffirms that it is rightfully at the bottom of my list.
It just hit me that Super AMOLED is probably the same as SAMOLED. I saw another article (about a completely different phone, actually) that was raving about SAMOLED. Good to have some additional confirmation on that.
I was originally hung up on Quadrant scores and having that dual core. However, after I thought about it, I'm really not sure how important it is considering what I would use the phone for. I have my Xoom, and that is my real "mobile workhorse" now, so that's the device that I'm more concerned about performance on. The phone will primarily be for web browsing, work e-mail, music, tethering, and that's pretty much it. Any other heavy lifting would probably be done by the Xoom. All that being said, I've pretty much convinced myself I won't miss not having the second core. Plus, I'm sure the battery life is better with only 1 core versus 2.
I'm actually pretty stoked after reading all of this feedback, especially the feedback from people who had another LTE phone. I feel good about going with this phone in the very near future.
Again, thanks to all!
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"Super AMOLED" and "SAMOLED" are the same thing, however the Charges' screen is SAMOLED+ But yeah I think it was pretty solid upgrade for me, I love the screen, 4G is blazing fast, build quality and durability are pretty decent and the included 32gb sd card is plenty of room for music, videos and apps
schick79 said:
I'm months overdue from getting rid of my Touch Pro 2, and the Charge is one of my top contenders. I was holding out for the Bionic (or rumored Verizon Nexus S), but after researching the X2 and Droid 3 and seeing the Dev community having issues achieving root, I'm now leaning back towards the current single core LTE handsets.
The brief time I've spent looking around, it looks like the battery life is great considering the usual LTE excess drain. Obviously the phone is rootable, there are kernels and roms available, and the dev community seems to be very active with the phone in general.
I haven't specifically seen any mention of overclock ability or "stealth" tethering, but I would have to assume these are all doable considering the kernel and rom availability.
If anybody wouldn't mind sharing some general feedback, I would greatly appreciate it!
* In general, how happy have you been with your Charge, and why?
* Why did you choose it over, say, the LG Revolution?
* Anyone unhappy with their decision to go with the Charge (after-the-fact) over something else, and if so, why?
Thanks again in advance for any comments, they would be much appreciated!
Cheers!
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Dude...
Don't get the Charge.
While it's very true there will alwaya be devices that outperform * it'a safe to say the Charge seemed rushed from development to market probably because they were tapped to do so because of either HTC or Motk dropped the ball...
While rooting can solve the much outdated 2.2 joke made at our expense and even though many people have been forced to look at a front face camera (that takes back assward pics no less) and that isn't working across the board for many video chat users....you are forced to deal with an unrecoverable error such as the laughable RAM, arguably necessity of a notifcation LED, and ****ty build quality Samsung (in this device) exemplifies times 10.
Wait and be patient is the best intelligent decision considering the norm will (soon) be:
4.3-4.5 screen (hd res)
1gb of RAM
16gb internal storage
Up to date operating systems...
That said, I enjoy and dislike my Charge.
It's better than my O.G. DROID.
It takes THE best pictures and video of any phone Verizon offers...period.
Do I enjoy the squeaky hard buttons?
Do I like seeing particles of dust (a la bb storm 9530) ?
Do I enjoy ****ty plastic that easily scratches?
Nope.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA App
schick79 said:
I was originally hung up on Quadrant scores and having that dual core. However, after I thought about it, I'm really not sure how important it is considering what I would use the phone for. I have my Xoom, and that is my real "mobile workhorse" now, so that's the device that I'm more concerned about performance on. The phone will primarily be for web browsing, work e-mail, music, tethering, and that's pretty much it. Any other heavy lifting would probably be done by the Xoom. All that being said, I've pretty much convinced myself I won't miss not having the second core. Plus, I'm sure the battery life is better with only 1 core versus 2.
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For what it's worth, running overclocked and undervolted on Froyo Eclipse, my Quadrant scores were 1800-1900, which was about double the original score. Not the best but not terrible. Still had solid battery life, great stability, etc. Definitely glad I got this phone, but that's mainly because I rooted it and fixed so many of the things I didn't like originally. Playing on the EP1Q GummyCharged GBE ROM now and still loving it, just get to use the FFC for video chat.
Honestly, yes there will be VZW devices that out-spec it soon, but I've not found it lacking anything (that couldn't be fixed thanks to the dev community). Very happy with it.
You have the Motorola Bionic and the Galaxy S2 dropping within the month, I'd hold out. Not to say that the Droid Charge isn't good, but, those phones are going to be right around the same price and will smoke the Charge in performance.
The Droid Charge isn't that great. I only got it because I needed something to get in on Unlimited data and the Charge was supposed to get better battery life than the other two LTE phones.
First, the battery life is just OK. Only around 4-5 hours of music streaming.
Second, the 4G reception is incredibly spotty. The phone will drop to 3G for seemingly no reason. Sometimes data cuts out completely or goes to 1x (this is a widespread problem).
Like other Galaxy S phones, this has GPS issues. Sometimes GPS will stop working until you reboot the phones. I've never seen it reports an accuracy of more than 5 meters.
Even after trying the GPS fix posted in the other topic, I was only getting 10-18m accuracy outside with 7-9 satellites in view.
The Super AMOLED+ screen is pretty much amazing though.
It seems like Samsung is decent at hardware but bad at software. And there aren't any ROMs available here that aren't based on Samsung software.
I'd at least wait and see about the Bionic or Nexus Prime.
schick79 said:
* In general, how happy have you been with your Charge, and why?
* Why did you choose it over, say, the LG Revolution?
* Anyone unhappy with their decision to go with the Charge (after-the-fact) over something else, and if so, why?
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1) I'm VERY happy with my Charge. It's probably because this was my first smartphone but I'm simply blown away by it. Especially considering we have Cyanogen & OMGB/OMFGB coming our way(in-fact, they just got CM working! Not finished, but it's a start)
2) I looked at all the phones that were out and coming out and decided on the Charge. I didn't look into the dev support for other phones I was just looking at specs/reviews to make my decision.
3) Lets get this straight, I am in no way unhappy with my Charge and did not "settle" when picking this phone but in all honesty the Prime/GalaxyS2/Bionic look great and if they were released at the time of me picking out a phone I would have gotten them in that order. Only downside to this phone is the fact that it's not on GB and most likely won't ever get TW4. If you can get around that you'll love this phone. Also, once you see the screen you will never go back to a non Amoled, qHD ain't got **** on this baby!
My wife an I both got charges a couple of months ago. I am rooted and she is stock. When I pick up her phone and mess around with it, I absolutely hate it. I love mine (gummy charged). I don't know how people can use this phone stock.
el_brio said:
My wife an I both got charges a couple of months ago. I am rooted and she is stock. When I pick up her phone and mess around with it, I absolutely hate it. I love mine (gummy charged). I don't know how people can use this phone stock.
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Im almost in the same exact situation and couldnt agree more