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Why no smartphones with HUGE batt?

These days smartphones have gotten plenty small to carry normally. so why don't they beef them up with a ginormous batt and make it a selling point?
I think the SGS is the smallest big screened smartphone. If they were to make it Evo sized, double the batt life and sell it as a completely different phone, that would be great! I mean I would think it would be some major bragging right to say "our phone has 200% the batt life of the next best phone".
10 hours of full 3G web browsing/GPS/video playback
70hrs+ of audio playback
on top of all that, maximum batt life deterioration over time will be null because you'll go through MANY fewer recharge cycles.
These phones are all great, but I'm a power user and I'm always fighting my batt. We should be able to have all the bells and whistles blowing at all times.
Thanks for your time/response
Edit: the new iPod has a 3400mah batt. Coupled with the "Peal" which turns the iPod into an iPhone (albeit an ugly one), you basically get an iPhone 4 with double the batt life in a similar sized package...
Edit: I'm dead wrong about the iPod's batt capacity as rajendra82 has pointed out. It was 3.4 watt hour, not 3.4 amp hours. Sorry (for the record, the iPod's batt would be terribly insufficient as a modern phone batt in a smartphone)

eatkabab said:
These days smartphones have gotten plenty small to carry normally. so why don't they beef them up with a ginormous batt and make it a selling point?
I think the SGS is the smallest big screened smartphone. If they were to make it Evo sized, double the batt life and sell it as a completely different phone, that would be great! I mean I would think it would be some major bragging right to say "our phone has 200% the batt life of the next best phone".
10 hours of full 3G web browsing/GPS/video playback
70hrs+ of audio playback
on top of all that, maximum batt life deterioration over time will be null because you'll go through MANY fewer recharge cycles.
These phones are all great, but I'm a power user and I'm always fighting my batt. We should be able to have all the bells and whistles blowing at all times.
Thanks for your time/response
Edit: the new iPod has a 3400mah batt. Coupled with the "Peal" which turns the iPod into an iPhone (albeit an ugly one), you basically get an iPhone 4 with double the batt life in a similar sized package... sigh...
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The new iPOD touch has a 3.44 Wh battery, which at 3.7 V translates to 929 mAh. The Samsung Captivate has a 5.55 Wh battery, which at 3.7 V translates to 1500 mAh. Since the battery capacity is directly proportional to the volume, a battery of 3000 mAh will be twice as big as our current battery. The biggest phones today (i.e., the EVO and Droid X) only ship with a 1300 mAh battery. 1500 mAH is plenty for this phone to get through the day. Battery life is typically rated at 1000 cycles, which is 3 years assuming a full day to go from 100% to 0%. You are likely to replace the phone in 3 years any way.

Our phones do have large batteries, and as long as you don't have a bad program, have the screen on super bright, or use it as a hot spot, the battery life is going to be good enough for nearly anyone.
The captivate has a HUGE percent of the volume dedicated to the battery already, without using a non standard (non rectangular prism) battery shape the phone thickness would need to greatly increase and have wasted space.
In simpler terms, when your battery is already good for the market, a thinner phone sells more than a marginal battery lfie increase.

What about weight? Does a bigger battery weigh significantly more?

I would love to have a bigger battery or one of those battery cases like my fiancee has for her iphone. I think the above comments are spot on, but i think what companies dont take into account is how much people use their phones for on a daily basis. I dont know about you, but I use my phone a hell of a lot during the day more so than what constitutes as 'just getting through the day'. If im lucky enough to make it through till the end of the day its skirting on the red. A backup battery would be awesome to have!

rajendra82 said:
The new iPOD touch has a 3.44 Wh battery, which at 3.7 V translates to 929 mAh.
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Sorry, I just realized that. I must have missed the details about the ipod power.
I understand that the captivate technically has the "best" battery, but I do not agree that it will last through the day. I'm using my phone regularly to look up information, text, Gtalk, and make many calls. The phone is dead by the time I get home around 6pm (days start around 7:30am).
the iPad has a "10 hour batt life". My sister has her iPad lying around the house but she and I are much more often on our phones, so why don't our phones have a 10 hour batt life? I think its kinda difficult to use the ipad for 10 hours in a single day seeing that people usually work too. My phone is used for productive purposes usually, so it is very easy to drain it in the 4.5hrs it lasts on any day (not to mention difficult to get through an 8hr plane ride and still have juice to find your way to the hotel when you land). Last I checked, a day was at least 8 hours, not 4.5.
I also realize that they would have to ditch the rectangle/cube form factor of the batt in order to fill the space of a larger case more efficiently (something the iphone takes advantage of). I have nothing against this (or the added weight) and I don't think any other power user would care either.
At the end of the day, a captivate thats as big and heavy as the Evo is a small compromise if it'll last ALL day long and I believe there is a significant market for Android+10hr batt. Unfortunately, the obvious response to that is that I'm wrong since it doesn't exist. So I guess I'm just a crazy person then
Sigh...
Edit: I forgot to mention Virgin America has solved all flying problems with this nifty little thing called a power receptacle in each trio of seats.

There have been at least 10 different claims in the last 5-10 years from companys saying they've found a way to at least triple battery capacity.
so far none of them have made anything...

Have you ever seen those extended batteries that also replace the back cover? They look awful. It's great that the Captivate is so slim and light.
It's unlikely that enough people need that much power every day for manufacturers to implement a huge battery in every device.

Nevertheless, it would be great to have the option.
Third party batteries that replace the back cover haven't been designed by the manufacturer to take advantage of all the space available, they're just made afterwards for the (admittedly few) people who need to stay more than 12hrs without a power source.
If a manufacturer specifically made a phone to accomodate a larger battery, the uglyness+volume/duration ratio would be much better.
Imagine a qwerty slider with a large battery instead of the keyboard: you could live with the additional volume and you could go on for two full days without a powersource.
Personally I wouldn't ever make it without a car charger, I keep a spare battery around in case I need it and even carry a retractable microUSB as a key holder (I use my phone as a music player, the battery drains FAST).
I'm ok with that but a large capacity batt. would let me not have to care about how much juice I have left all the time, wich would be great.

eatkabab said:
At the end of the day, a captivate thats as big and heavy as the Evo is a small compromise if it'll last ALL day long and I believe there is a significant market for Android+10hr batt. Unfortunately, the obvious response to that is that I'm wrong since it doesn't exist. So I guess I'm just a crazy person then
Sigh...
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You're not crazy. I think about the smartphone battery problem all the time. It's by far the biggest drawback of a smartphone. Even if you are using it lightly, you still have to charge every night, that is smartphone 101. And yet, if my friend iwth a little feature phone texts me all day, and I text them back all day, there phone... is fine. They can bascially run it all day for three days before needing to charge when it's new. My Captivate (or any other smartphone)... constantly having the screen on? It would be begging for battery after hours. Now of course, we have vastly better batteries than the feature phone, it's just the smartphone is doing significantly more. But still, yes, there should be a way, possibly with non-rectangular batteries, to significantly (at least double) battery life at a not massive cost to form factor and size. And yes, I'm sure there is a market here as well.

Seido is in the development process for a 3200mA battery for the cappy. Won't be long before you can actually see what it looks like on their website
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

This may be about the captivate battery life but I think some of u are crazy. I run the hybrid r3 rom on my phone and I use it for music; GPS; internet and everything else that is normal and my battery is garbage. I'm sorry but when I buy a phone it should not be dead by like 3 pm
Sent from my vibrant hybrid using XDA App

Bigger battery means more weight. Some manufacturers get a little more power out of the same physical size, but if you really want to double the battery, you double the size and double the weight.
Since the phones have no extra room inside, you wind up with a bigger phone.
All manufacturers are trying to balance size, weight and power. It is no coincidence that all the smartphones have near the same size battery.

ColbyRyptos said:
This may be about the captivate battery life but I think some of u are crazy. I run the hybrid r3 rom on my phone and I use it for music; GPS; internet and everything else that is normal and my battery is garbage. I'm sorry but when I buy a phone it should not be dead by like 3 pm
Sent from my vibrant hybrid using XDA App
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This post pretty much leads me to believe more is going on than you're saying. With hybrid r3 I was getting two days with heavy usage, also gps isn't functional on that rom, so claiming to use it seems to be misinformed at best
Sent from my Samsung SGH-i897

beazie0885 said:
Seido is in the development process for a 3200mA battery for the cappy. Won't be long before you can actually see what it looks like on their website
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
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Seido might make some great batteries, but if the batt for the captivate is ANYTHING like the batt for the galaxy S, its absolutely retarded and WAY too big to be practical. They basically just extended the batt brick and extended the casing with it. With the same batt cover, they could have added a whole nother batt right next to the extended batt cuz of all the wasted space.
Not a viable solution IMO. A factory made phone that has a HUGE batt would be marginally larger than the current captivate because they can take advantage of a non-traditional form factor and all the space inside.

eatkabab said:
Seido might make some great batteries, but if the batt for the captivate is ANYTHING like the batt for the galaxy S, its absolutely retarded and WAY too big to be practical. They basically just extended the batt brick and extended the casing with it. With the same batt cover, they could have added a whole nother batt right next to the extended batt cuz of all the wasted space.
Not a viable solution IMO. A factory made phone that has a HUGE batt would be marginally larger than the current captivate because they can take advantage of a non-traditional form factor and all the space inside.
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Our Captivate doesn't have any extra space, and even the Droid X has a battery of the same size. I am just not seeing the extra space for bigger battery. There is also the weight issue.
Now if maybe the new Dell Streak will give you a monster battery in that big thing.

i agree that a phone with a super battery pack would be nice. me and my friends would always talk about if we could make our own phones what we would want and i always said something that would give me nice battery life so the idea i came up with was this
by default most phones come with a 1500 mah battery
but why not add a non traditional form factor to the rest of the case adding battery to and around the phone like in the area around the camera in the front of the phone around the side of the phone kinda like some of this battery jackets we see coming out for the iphone 4
i think it would add maybe just a built more bulk to the phone i'm still using a tilt so i'm used to carryin a bulky phone
i've always been interested in seeing super cap or ultra cap tech being put into a smartphone figuring if we can't go all day with our battery at least let us be able to get a full charge with in a few minutes ya know
i see ultra and super cap tech starting to be put in remotes were you can charge it in 1 minute to 5 minutes and not have to charge it for two weeks that kinda tech in a cell would be lovely

I, for one, would give up the cool looking indent in the back of the captivate (where the metal cover is) if they would fill that space with battery. It wouldn't increase the size of the phone (much), wouldn't make it bulgy, and I could see it giving at least 50% better battery life.
Even if the phone was blobby, plenty of people are buying Droid phones, and those things are frikin' mon calamari cruisers.

alphadog00 said:
Our Captivate doesn't have any extra space, and even the Droid X has a battery of the same size. I am just not seeing the extra space for bigger battery. There is also the weight issue.
Now if maybe the new Dell Streak will give you a monster battery in that big thing.
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Click to collapse
obviously they would have to make the phone a tad thicker and its already so light weight that adding double the batt weight would still keep it weighing less than an Evo

the Samsung Captivate battery is pretty beefy if you ask me, I don't know how they would fit a processor and other components in the phone if they got a bigger battery

LOL @ SGS2 owners

So I have been inspecting their forums since they went on sale in the UK today via Phones4u.
They are having tons of trouble rooting and they can't play Tegra 2 games.
Quadrant scores are around 3000.

Maybe unlocked bootloaders will come back, but this is the exact reason I bought the G2X. I imagine a powerful, open device will get a lot of developer support.

You have a source for the "locked bootloader" info?

The battery life seems to destroy the G2x battery life, from initial reviews that I have seen.
Also the Samoled+ display looks amazing and blacks are truly black hehe.
Here's a link to a nice review of the phone
http://www.jrin.net/2011_04_24/samsung-galaxy-s-2-in-depth-review
All in all it seems to be a solid phone, but I still love my G2x
Edit: I love it because of the developer support it will have, the screen isn't that bad I really love the colors and the brightness, and tegra 2 of course, there's plenty of +'s for the G2x as there is for the GS2

so when does this hit the US?
my g2x is troubling with the battery, bleed, reboot issue

diablos991 said:
So I have been inspecting their forums since they went on sale in the UK today via Phones4u.
They are having tons of trouble rooting and they can't play Tegra 2 games.
Quadrant scores are around 3000.
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Click to collapse
Lol the point of this thread?
The phone hasn't even been officially out for a day
Of couse it wont play tegra games it needs a tegra gpu for that.
And quadrant is total BSnot to mention sgs2 is clocked at 1.2ghz were gx2 is only 1ghz
Sgs2 is better than g2x in hardware not to mention plays pretty much every video format no prob
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

I don't think they can play tegra2 games because the euro one comes with a exynos processor or some reason to that affect. But whatever, thats just one downfall of that beast of a phone. Lets hope Sammy has fixed the GPS and lag issues right outta the gate. Secondly, they just released the phone so I assume its going to take a little time to get the phone rooted. I was about to go and buy the G2x but it wasn't that impressive when i was at the store so now I'm impatiently waiting for the Sensation and GS2.
Hopefully by the time the GS2 releases, the G2x will have all its bugs fixed and I can compare all 3 at once to see which one I like the best.

I guess Mali in Exynos is another new platform for developers to learn to make games for.

I can't imagine the gs2 havning better battery life. It has the same size as the original galaxy s. With dual core and a bigger screen I'm sure it sucks the battery down. Not to mention what a battery hog amoleds are....I get great life on my gx2. Right about 20 hrs with normal use
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA App

Smallsmx3 said:
Not to mention what a battery hog amoleds are....I get great life on my gx2. Right about 20 hrs with normal use
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA App
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Please tell that to all the people who are losing 10%+ every hour while the phone is idling...
My G2 with its 1300mAh gave me much much better battery life than my G2x currently does, but I just know that this is software related and hopefully (fingers crossed) CM7 will fix this.
Its my only gripe right now with the phone, that and the bleeding, but I plan to change my phone out at a later date for a new one, $500 outright for the phone I expect it to act like one.

I'm about to go in for exchange #1
These issues for 550 after tax is ridiculous imo
What ever happened to QA, on expensive electronics
How do I remove CWM by the way???

Amd4life said:
I'm about to go in for exchange #1
These issues for 550 after tax is ridiculous imo
What ever happened to QA, on expensive electronics
How do I remove CWM by the way???
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Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1050768

I'm pretty sure the Galaxy S2 already has been rooted and the bootloader comes unlocked. And for tegra games, it has a mali gpu, not a ULP so of course it will not play them.
Sounds like someone is jealous of the SGS2 specs.

Evofusion said:
Please tell that to all the people who are losing 10%+ every hour while the phone is idling...
My G2 with its 1300mAh gave me much much better battery life than my G2x currently does, but I just know that this is software related and hopefully (fingers crossed) CM7 will fix this.
Its my only gripe right now with the phone, that and the bleeding, but I plan to change my phone out at a later date for a new one, $500 outright for the phone I expect it to act like one.
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Click to collapse
Well the CM team already said the battery driver was haywire. My chinese android tablet was like that, it would say it was at 15% within minutes, but would run for like 4-5hours.
CM7 is almost among us and hopefully you guys will get a more accurate reading. My battery life is amazing. Heavy use and I get a 20% warning around midnight (8am-midnight). This is also under the assumption that you know the phone is new and I can't put it down. This is with a PUSH exchange, Gmail, Facebook/Twitter LP widgets, gaming, and normal phone use.
Of everything, the battery is the last thing I can complain about.
Comparing the phones here are things I don't like:
No HDMI port (separate attachment)
Lack of a dedicated Search button (I use this religiously)
No Tegra 2 which I suspect will be really big when it comes to gaming.
Those are just a few things I notice hardware wise. Software wise I don't know.
The locked bootloader is a drag. Rooting shouldn't be a problem as we've had rooting capabilities on the N1. I'm sure just like with our G2x phones, it should use the same exploits.

player911 said:
Well the CM team already said the battery driver was haywire. My chinese android tablet was like that, it would say it was at 15% within minutes, but would run for like 4-5hours.
CM7 is almost among us and hopefully you guys will get a more accurate reading. My battery life is amazing. Heavy use and I get a 20% warning around midnight (8am-midnight). This is also under the assumption that you know the phone is new and I can't put it down. This is with a PUSH exchange, Gmail, Facebook/Twitter LP widgets, gaming, and normal phone use.
Of everything, the battery is the last thing I can complain about.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Even if the battery driver is wonky, it still is lasting only 9 hours for me, in real world time. It's fully charged because I leave it charging all night when I go to bed. So from full charge, no matter what the reading says, to dying and shutting down after 9 or 10 hours is real.

Looks like the SGSII people are happy so far. Dunno what you're LOLing at.
I'm just happy P990/999 is cheaper =)

I'm not sure what is being done differently. Have you tested it on a bare bones stock config (right out of format and setup)?
The is one thing that I think is so weird how there are lots of varying problems across the board. Like some people have greyed out options while others have bad battery life.
Here are my About Phone info. Maybe we have varying software loads:
Baseland version
M6600A-SCAUTNZ-2.0.9720T 1 [MAR 27 2011 10:00:00] MP:TRULGE_08.09.02R_MDM
Kernel: 2.6.32.9
Build: FRG83G
Software Version:
LG-P999-V10f

Evofusion said:
Please tell that to all the people who are losing 10%+ every hour while the phone is idling...
My G2 with its 1300mAh gave me much much better battery life than my G2x currently does, but I just know that this is software related and hopefully (fingers crossed) CM7 will fix this.
Its my only gripe right now with the phone, that and the bleeding, but I plan to change my phone out at a later date for a new one, $500 outright for the phone I expect it to act like one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your battery drain is easily fixable. Get "wheres my droid power" from the market (It's Free) and see what is eating it. I've had 2 issues. One was yahoo mail for some ungodly reason it was eating my battery like mad. I FC'd it and its been fine since. The other was Wifi calling. Even though it was disabled it was eating 5x the battery of any other app, ALL THE TIME. I froze it out (luckily I don't use it often) and I have had 0 problems since. I am nearing 15 hours today w/ 3 full hours of display on games/surfing/what have you plus about 30 min of phone use and a couple of five minute or so speakerphone calls.

madwolf27 said:
Your battery drain is easily fixable. Get "wheres my droid power" from the market (It's Free) and see what is eating it. I've had 2 issues. One was yahoo mail for some ungodly reason it was eating my battery like mad. I FC'd it and its been fine since. The other was Wifi calling. Even though it was disabled it was eating 5x the battery of any other app, ALL THE TIME. I froze it out (luckily I don't use it often) and I have had 0 problems since. I am nearing 15 hours today w/ 3 full hours of display on games/surfing/what have you plus about 30 min of phone use and a couple of five minute or so speakerphone calls.
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Eh thats good to know. That deserves a "Thanks". I typically go into #*#*4636*#*# and look there but it isn't that helpful.

Evofusion said:
Please tell that to all the people who are losing 10%+ every hour while the phone is idling...
My G2 with its 1300mAh gave me much much better battery life than my G2x currently does, but I just know that this is software related and hopefully (fingers crossed) CM7 will fix this.
Its my only gripe right now with the phone, that and the bleeding, but I plan to change my phone out at a later date for a new one, $500 outright for the phone I expect it to act like one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My battery is fine. Guess I got a better one than you. I take my G2X off the charger at 5am and it doesn't need to go back on the charger until 7pm with moderate use. With heavy use it still lasts until I get home from work at 3pm. Much better than my Vibrant did.

Droid Charge battery life totally awesome?

Does anyone know whether the Droid Charge battery is supposed to last over a day without recharging? That is what I heard through the grapevine.

I am not sure about a whole day but mine lasted around 14 hours of heavy use on its first full charge yesterday. I am 8 hours in right now and am at 75% with heavy usage again. Its a definite improvement over the thunderbolt.

I have a Droid Charge and the battery life is better than the HTC Thunderbolt. The reason: the Charge has a 1600mAh battery compared to the Thnderbolt's 1400mAh battery.
Some of you may be wondering how I got my Charge - It was given to me as a sponsorship gift by Samsung. I received it the initial release date (March 28th). I had just bought the Thunderbolt 3 weeks prior. When I received the Charge in the mail I pulled my LTE SIM out of the Thunderbolt and threw it in the Charge and was activated for use within seconds. So you I can report that you can swap your SIM across CDMA/LTE phones. I gave my wife the Thunderbolt threw, we went to our local Verizon store and purchased a LTE SIM.
BTW, the Charge is a very nice phone. Much lighter than the Thunderbolt but the build quality is done right in plastic. The Super AMOLED Plus display is stunning. I don't miss the Thunderbolt at all.
Sent from my Droid Charge using XDA Premium

Quick question, what types of apps have you run, games are not my focus but if you have run any memory intensive ones that would be good to hear about in terms of performance or stuttering issues. Its the 512MB RAM that concerns me, the plastic part I don't have an issue with and because its so light I would actually just add the extended battery anyways to get a little weight on it.

Well games are typically CPU intensive apps. In the course of my day I use TweetDeck, Pulse, GMail, FoureSquare, GroupMe, BeeJive, and a quick game of Let's Golf 2 or Angry Birds during my lunch hours. I have at least 60 apps on my Charge and I don't experience any delay in loading or and stuttering during games.
Sent from my Droid Charge using XDA Premium

Thanks. That is what I wanted to know. I have my time filler games, mostly I use the iPod touch for the games anyways (wife doesn't use it anymore) so there is lots of room on it for the bigger games, though I can say the iPod Touch is a 4Gen and I was playing Guerilla Bob and it stutters all the time even with everything closed.
I know I shouldn't be worried I know this phone will get sold in 6 months or less for something else that comes along. I just wanted real world experience before I spend away again. Buyers/Sellers remorse on the TB, really wanted it, sold it, now I wonder if I should have kept it or is getting the Charge the right decision.

They charged for a SIM? I have needed a couple SIMs when I bought used Thunderbolts and there was no charge.
I haven't switched over entirely from the the Thunderbolt yet because I'm having trouble getting my app data to transfer with Titanium Backup (or MyBackup Pro for that matter). The apps themselves come across fine but the data has gone missing. I've never seen this before in going from D1 to D2 to Fascinate to DX to Thunderbolt. But intermittent use of the Charge does suggest better battery life as noted.
DRAZY said:
I had just bought the Thunderbolt 3 weeks prior. When I received the Charge in the mail I pulled my LTE SIM out of the Thunderbolt and threw it in the Charge and was activated for use within seconds. So you I can report that you can swap your SIM across CDMA/LTE phones. I gave my wife the Thunderbolt threw, we went to our local Verizon store and purchased a LTE SIM.
Sent from my Droid Charge using XDA Premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

DRAZY said:
I have a Droid Charge and the battery life is better than the HTC Thunderbolt. The reason: the Charge has a 1600mAh battery compared to the Thnderbolt's 1400mAh battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You realize that's a 14% increase in battery capacity. So going from like 14 hours to 16 hours of use is what it should do. There's clearly a lot more.
Do they use the same LTE chip? Kernel issues? Radio issues? There's a lot at stake here. Does Sense gobble up more battery? Shrug.

Over at Android Central user beveritt found some info about the LTE in the Droid Charge . . . http://forum.androidcentral.com/902437-post2.html
Here is beveritt's post:
"Dug up some good info myself, had been searching for some time, then of course found it on my own after asking the question...
Charge is using a VIA Telecom CBP7.1 CDMA modem instead of the old Qualcomm QSC6085 in the Fascinate
LTE modem looks to be a native Samsung designed chip called the CMC220.
Knowing that it becomes more clear how the performance and battery life can be substantially different (better?) than the Thunderbolt's MDM9600/MSM8655 combination.
Reference: http://developer.verizon.com/jsps/devCenters/DeviceDB/Landing_Pages/SamsungCharge.jsp "

RaptorMD said:
Thanks. That is what I wanted to know. I have my time filler games, mostly I use the iPod touch for the games anyways (wife doesn't use it anymore) so there is lots of room on it for the bigger games, though I can say the iPod Touch is a 4Gen and I was playing Guerilla Bob and it stutters all the time even with everything closed.
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Click to collapse
the ipod touch 4th gen only has 256MB of ram, so the Charge shouldn't have any issues with a game like that. My Fascinate runs stuff better than my friend's Thunderbolt, so I don't see 512MB of ram being a limitation quite yet.

RaptorMD said:
Quick question, what types of apps have you run, games are not my focus but if you have run any memory intensive ones that would be good to hear about in terms of performance or stuttering issues. Its the 512MB RAM that concerns me, the plastic part I don't have an issue with and because its so light I would actually just add the extended battery anyways to get a little weight on it.
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Well in my understanding thunderbolt is more powerful than charge...i day this because I do a little test in every android phone I got, monopoly hd never before could open this game in any android device including the samsung tab but thunderbolt I could and run smooth...well I tried in my charge and won't open the game, no problem to install but to open only in thunderbolt
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA App

denpad2010 said:
Well in my understanding thunderbolt is more powerful than charge...i day this because I do a little test in every android phone I got, monopoly hd never before could open this game in any android device including the samsung tab but thunderbolt I could and run smooth...well I tried in my charge and won't open the game, no problem to install but to open only in thunderbolt
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA App
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Not really an issue of powerful-- just that Monopoly HD requires a Snapdragon processor which Tbolt has and Charge does not.

I get a good 4hrs on full charge :/

The Charge's battery life is an epic fail. Those that are experiencing great battery life are likely not in 4g markets. The Charge constantly switched back and forth 4g/3g which kills the battery at a much quicker rate than the TB. In CDMA only mode, you get pretty average performance. Also, with my TB, I had the ability to force LTE mode. With the Charge you can't. So if you are in a fringe area, constant switching and poor battery life. Also, the Charge's antenna doesn't see to be good as the TB. With the TB, I can get 4g in areas were the Charge can't. A lot has been said about the TB having bad battery life. So will every device, including the Charge, in 4g. I'll be taking the Charge back in and sticking with my TB.

droidmark said:
Not really an issue of powerful-- just that Monopoly HD requires a Snapdragon processor which Tbolt has and Charge does not.
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Ididn't know thanks for the info
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA App

RaptorMD said:
Quick question, what types of apps have you run, games are not my focus but if you have run any memory intensive ones that would be good to hear about in terms of performance or stuttering issues. Its the 512MB RAM that concerns me, the plastic part I don't have an issue with and because its so light I would actually just add the extended battery anyways to get a little weight on it.
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RAM concerns on Android devices are overblown, due to a lack of understanding of how Android allocates it. An Android device is not like a typical computer that will allocate memory to a process until all available system memory is consumed. On a typical 32 bit computer this would be somewhere in the 3-3.5 gigabyte range depending on the various hardware memory address requirements. Even if you do not have this much RAM in the machine, the system will use the hard disk as virtual RAM. Slow, but it works.
Android, on the other hand, reserves a fixed amount of memory for any process that starts up. This could be up to 32 megabytes, depending on the configuration. During the first versions of Android this was 16 megabytes. To any foreground application, it makes no difference whether your phone has 128 megabytes or 1024 megabytes of working memory. The foreground process will get its entire 32 megabytes. The only difference will be how many background processes will Android have to kill to make enough room for the foreground app.

Not going to fight about which phone is better since they are both nice
The TB battery issues are likely software judging by the fact the new gingerbread radio is giving great battery life.
One thing I would like to know is of the charge can handle 720p flash like the TB. I tried 720p on my droid x and captivate and neither could handle 720p flash by the TB cuts right through it like butter.

dakota_96 said:
The Charge's battery life is an epic fail. Those that are experiencing great battery life are likely not in 4g markets. The Charge constantly switched back and forth 4g/3g which kills the battery at a much quicker rate than the TB. In CDMA only mode, you get pretty average performance. Also, with my TB, I had the ability to force LTE mode. With the Charge you can't. So if you are in a fringe area, constant switching and poor battery life. Also, the Charge's antenna doesn't see to be good as the TB. With the TB, I can get 4g in areas were the Charge can't. A lot has been said about the TB having bad battery life. So will every device, including the Charge, in 4g. I'll be taking the Charge back in and sticking with my TB.
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Maybe I just have an odd-ball phone, but I'm finding the Charge's battery life to be much better than the Thunderbolt. I am in a "fringe" area in Las Vegas and find that the Charge knows when to let go of a 4G signal and stick with 3G. The Thunderbolt would always hang onto a weak 4G signal, draining the battery in a matter of minutes and leave me with no data connection whatsoever. (despite the phone telling me I had a 4G connection)

0mie said:
I get a good 4hrs on full charge :/
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I got 7 hours on full charge. This is my first smartphone so I have nothing to compare it to. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. I've read online that the Charge is supposed to last the entire day before needing a charge, but mine has only lasted 7 hours.
Are there things I need to do to make it last longer?

I work in an area with marginal reception, and yesterday I watched the battery go down 30 percent in about an hour. I wound up returning the phone to verizon. The speed of 4 g is awesome, but I need more a 3 hour battery life. Unless the application did not function correctly, I did have 4 g turned off.

Can't decide.. T-bolt versus Droid Charge?

can't seem to decide.. I have a Blackberry Bold right now and both these new phones blow this POS away!!!

Droid Charge easily. Better screen and better battery life.

Droid is Nice buTTT
I currently have both. I have to say up front - I had a Sammy Fascinate and loved it. If I could have done Skype I'd have stayed with it. Buttttt - I couldn't so I went with the first available - the Iphone 4. My family and I travel a lot for leisure via auto and we like to stay in touch face to face.
The iphone was very dependable - does what it says it will do every time. Buttt - it is locked down pretty tight.
Out comes the HTC Bolt and I waited for things to settle in with various ROMs. I jumped in the pool about 3 weeks ago and after considerable tinkering I get about 10-12 hours of battery life.
Out comes the Sammy Charge. Remembering my experience with the Fascinate - I get one. The screen is TERRIFIC!!!! Feels good in the hand, battery life is a little better than the Bolts (probably will get better with rooting, custom ROMs and tinkering) and the GPS works fairly quickly.
Now the bad news:
1. Data connection - data connection - data connection. Not good, erratic drops, slower than the Bolt, not good.
2. No Skype yet.
3. Sammy history. Sammy/Verizon are slow with any major updates and as a consequence developers are slow to develop custom ROMs. This is just a personal observation.
All in all - I am back with the Bolt - after some tinkering now it "just works" all the time. No freezes, lots of Skype and FAST!!!
Hope this helps.

benlane said:
I currently have both. I have to say up front - I had a Sammy Fascinate and loved it. If I could have done Skype I'd have stayed with it. Buttttt - I couldn't so I went with the first available - the Iphone 4. My family and I travel a lot for leisure via auto and we like to stay in touch face to face.
The iphone was very dependable - does what it says it will do every time. Buttt - it is locked down pretty tight.
Out comes the HTC Bolt and I waited for things to settle in with various ROMs. I jumped in the pool about 3 weeks ago and after considerable tinkering I get about 10-12 hours of battery life.
Out comes the Sammy Charge. Remembering my experience with the Fascinate - I get one. The screen is TERRIFIC!!!! Feels good in the hand, battery life is a little better than the Bolts (probably will get better with rooting, custom ROMs and tinkering) and the GPS works fairly quickly.
Now the bad news:
1. Data connection - data connection - data connection. Not good, erratic drops, slower than the Bolt, not good.
2. No Skype yet.
3. Sammy history. Sammy/Verizon are slow with any major updates and as a consequence developers are slow to develop custom ROMs. This is just a personal observation.
All in all - I am back with the Bolt - after some tinkering now it "just works" all the time. No freezes, lots of Skype and FAST!!!
Hope this helps.
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The erratic data may only be affecting a small number of LTE devices since I read some Thunderbolt users have had similar problems.
Have you tried both Skype apps from the Market?
Remember, Google is promising faster updates for 18 months after a phone releases. That may include the Droid Charge.
Bow chika wah wah

Charge vs Bolt
Like I said, I have both the devices. The Bolt never acted as erratic as the Sammy. When I say erratic I mean complete dropouts not just shifts. A little better when you download, install and use LTE switch program.
About the Skype - nothing to do with Google all about the Skype/Microsoft universe. Remember that the Bolt originally had Skype installed. When it finally came out - no Skype. Still no authorized Skype just the grey area apk.
My take remains, the Bolt is my choice based on these issues and Sammy's history.

benlane said:
Like I said, I have both the devices. The Bolt never acted as erratic as the Sammy. When I say erratic I mean complete dropouts not just shifts. A little better when you download, install and use LTE switch program.
About the Skype - nothing to do with Google all about the Skype/Microsoft universe. Remember that the Bolt originally had Skype installed. When it finally came out - no Skype. Still no authorized Skype just the grey area apk.
My take remains, the Bolt is my choice based on these issues and Sammy's history.
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Click to collapse
my fascinate had skype preinstalled... I had to root to remove the pos app. If Im thinking right, you want the full version of skype?

My vote is for the sammy. I have owned both and having to throw the thunderbolt on the charger 3 times a day got old fast. I also think the samsung feels a lot better in my hand.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA Premium App

benlane said:
Like I said, I have both the devices. The Bolt never acted as erratic as the Sammy. When I say erratic I mean complete dropouts not just shifts. A little better when you download, install and use LTE switch program.
About the Skype - nothing to do with Google all about the Skype/Microsoft universe. Remember that the Bolt originally had Skype installed. When it finally came out - no Skype. Still no authorized Skype just the grey area apk.
My take remains, the Bolt is my choice based on these issues and Sammy's history.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Funny, my experience with both devices is exactly the opposite. My Thunderbolt (recently sold) was horrific with data drops, often refusing to hold any data connection whatsoever. 3 days with the Charge and I can already tell data connectivity is much improved.

Agreed. I didn't have the TB, but I had the Fascinate and I would drop data at my house all the time. I've got about a 10pt better db signal with the Charge and haven't had as many drops (if any) now.

Had the Thunderbolt and hated it. That little douchebag of a phone would drop my LTE constantly and make tears appear on my face and try to drown me.
Sure Charge isn't rooted or ROM'd yet but so far it's better in every possible way. The battery life is way better which is huge for me since I need to be in touch with my hookers constantly and can't always be near a charger.
Also the screen kicks golden beans

hahah funny description...
what's the cheapest place to get the Charge from right now? I have a $50 verizon new every two credit to use too.. I don't think Amazon or best buy honors that right?

Best Buy will match the price that you would get at Verizon, so you should still get it for $250

costco has it for 250 as well, which my best buy price matched without even verifying. the main benefit of shopping at costco i believe is a 90 day return policy on the phone, so if the bionic, galaxy 2, or something else comes out in the next 3 months and you want to trade phones you are able to do so.
a verizon store is the last place i'd buy the phone as they charge a $35 restocking fee if you happen to return it, and you only have 14 days to do so

I had the tbolt twice... I bought it day one ... and within 5 days it was returned due to horrible battery life.
in the DC area i have had GREAT lte reception, however in the phoenix area the LTE is horrible. so i think much depends on your location.
I bought the tbolt again when there were a decent amount of roms and plenty of people saying they had better battery life... the only way I could use the phone for more than 4 hours was to turn off all the radios ... that made the phone useless to me...
i now have the charge and it runs with all my apps and my level of use for a full day... i don't have to charge every 2- 3 hours anymore... so i am very happy with the charge even though it is not rooted... (I was too quick with the update).
again even with the charge and my lg lte modem I found the area around scottsdale and tempe to have either no or horrible lte coverage. i think that verizon should work on better coverage in cities before saying they have lte in them...
I too would like to have skype working with video ... it would just make sense but there are other apps that work well such as oovoo.

eagle17 said:
I had the tbolt twice... I bought it day one ... and within 5 days it was returned due to horrible battery life.
in the DC area i have had GREAT lte reception, however in the phoenix area the LTE is horrible. so i think much depends on your location.
I bought the tbolt again when there were a decent amount of roms and plenty of people saying they had better battery life... the only way I could use the phone for more than 4 hours was to turn off all the radios ... that made the phone useless to me...
i now have the charge and it runs with all my apps and my level of use for a full day... i don't have to charge every 2- 3 hours anymore... so i am very happy with the charge even though it is not rooted... (I was too quick with the update).
again even with the charge and my lg lte modem I found the area around scottsdale and tempe to have either no or horrible lte coverage. i think that verizon should work on better coverage in cities before saying they have lte in them...
I too would like to have skype working with video ... it would just make sense but there are other apps that work well such as oovoo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd have to agree on the spotty coverage in Tempe/Scottsdale/Mesa. Sitting in my office right now in Tempe I have no LTE coverage. If I walk outside it will pick it up; this is usually the case no matter where I go (in the cities listed). I have not tested it in any other city.

thanks for the Costco note.. I am going to buy from them for $250 and they give you an accessory pack for free.. plus the 90 day swap window which is very nice to have!
632627 said:
costco has it for 250 as well, which my best buy price matched without even verifying. the main benefit of shopping at costco i believe is a 90 day return policy on the phone, so if the bionic, galaxy 2, or something else comes out in the next 3 months and you want to trade phones you are able to do so.
a verizon store is the last place i'd buy the phone as they charge a $35 restocking fee if you happen to return it, and you only have 14 days to do so
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

aliensquale said:
can't seem to decide.. I have a Blackberry Bold right now and both these new phones blow this POS away!!!
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I would recommend testing both if you can. I got the thunderbolt on release and love it. I got the Charge on release and love it as well, but prefer sense over touchwiz. Thats just my personal preference. Id keep the Thunderbolt over the Charge if I had to choose, but I dont.
I dont see how some that complain about their LTE dropping when they had their Tunderbolt do not take into consideration the national LTE outage....their wasnt a second LTE phone at the time to compare whether their LTE dropping was due to the phone or the service...yet they blame the phone. For all you know, your data dropping at that particular time could have been service related, not phone related. You had nothing to compare it to. So far, my Thunderbolt consistently has better LTE speeds, while my Charge had better 3G speeds. Both drop LTE and revert back to 3g in the same area at the same time. Only speeds differ. Im in a 4G area FWIW.
Both are great phones and just like any phone, it depends on your needs. I would advise you to play with both, and if you dont mind the re-stocking fee buy one and return it for the other if your not happy. In my experience, if youre crafty you can get out of the restocking fee and talk your sales rep into allowing you to buy one phone and return it if youre not happy.

I need the voice/data to work at the same time. But I still want this beast cuz of tthe beautiful screen
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App

Your posting in the Samsung Charge forum, of course people are going to say the Charge. I promised I would never buy another Samsung product after the upgrade problems I've had with my fascinate and am going to stick with that. My wife has the Thunderbolt and that is going to be my next phone. Battery doesn't seem to be as bad and I already have the options to apply an undervolted kernel to save battery life. My wife's nephew has the phone also and he doesn't have issues with the battery. YMMV, IMHO, TIFWIW....
jv

how much battery life savings can you get with the undervolted kernal? if you do the undervolted kernal.. doesn't that slow down the processor in the phone thus make the overall use of the phone slower?

Do you recommend the Droid Charge?

So... I lost my DINC last week and I can pay Assurion 90 bucks for a replacement (probably used and probably one of the later models without the AMOLED screen) or... Verizon said I can get a new Droid Charge for 199. I've heard so much bad stuff about the Thunderbolt that I'm tempted to just go ahead and get the Droid Charge. I think the phone looks gorgeous, but I'm worried Samsung will be slow with the Android updates. I can live with that really.... I'm just wanting something that is fast, nice to look at and use and has good battery life. It also looks like the Charge has a nice useable camera in comparison to HTC phones. While, I might miss Sense.... I don't dislike the way the Charge looks.
Are you happy with yours? Any thoughts or extra info?

Get a charge i have both.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA Premium App

About the updates. Because its a "Droid" phone the updates might be quicker. I would think if they didn't give good updates it wouldn't just hurt samsung but the droid line. because if someone hears the droid charge didn't get so and so update the normal person would think the whole line of droids is bad. I'm just guessing and if this doesn't make sense sorry I'm very tired
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA Premium App

Verizon rep told me gingerbread is coming by end of june. But they don't know **** so take it as you will
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA Premium App

i got the charge and after a week and a half, i went to a thunderbolt
pro:
-awesome looking screen, great for under the sun
-good camera quality
con:
-camera takes ages after taking a picture, to be ready to take another photo (2-5 seconds) I've missed multiple great photo ops in the week i owned the charge.
-rtf system lags, and the voodoo lagfix is a bandaid. even the animation of speedtest apk studders (when it's scanning for a server)
-4g reception is poor, average of 5mb/1mb. most places my wife's thunderbolt got 4g, the droid charge didn't(sitting at a restaurant, at the park etc.). additionally, since i got the thunderbolt, my 4g average has been 10mb/3mb
-randomly lost all signal and takes about 15-20 seconds for it to be restored
i would most likely never touch another samsung phone until they come out with another nexus

i also have both phones but prefer the thunderbolt ... sense is faster and smoother than touch wiz, the social integration, i think, is better, if that matters to you...also the browser seems to perform better and the keyboard (or any of the replacement ones) feels 'snappier' on the thunderbolt than the charge ... now the charge is really good in sunlight, as someone said, which can NOT be said for the thunderbolt ... big minus for the 'bolt, as i use my phone outdoors a lot!!
games seem to lag more (angry birds, etc.) on the charge and i've also already scratched the back of the charge in several places, inadvertently, and there are two little 'pits' in the screen of the charge
while there are plusses and minuses of both, i find myself using the 'bolt more as it's just all around, a much faster phone ... at least in my experiences.

Sounds to me like someone with a h**d-on towards Samsung. Obviously I only have a couple of weeks worth of experience with the Charge, I got it the day they released it a couple Saturdays ago. But I drive a truck so I am in and out of a lot of different 4G areas. I run speedtest.net as I am going through areas and I find the speeds on average to be well above what you are claiming here. Not only am I running the speed tests, they are being run on my laptop which is connected to the phone via wifi hotspot. Have I seen some 4-5dn/1-2up 4g speeds? Sure but I have also seen 21.6/8.5 in the greater Cincinnati area !! So far I have been able to test speeds in Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus, OH, Cincinnati, Charlotte, NC. The vast majority of the time I am seeing speeds of between 10 & 15 mbps on the downstream with 12mbs being a fair average. Suprisingly enough, much of the time the upstream speeds are similar to the downstream!! From my experience, the ping times are 75ms on average with a high in the 110 range and low of about 65ms. This is real world testing in many different 4g areas ...
As for the Charge? I love it. I personally don't like the feel of the HTC Sense overlay. I know many love it and good for you!! Plus, the T-Bolt doesn't even come with Swype installed on it !! As stated, I am all over the place and I have never once had any type of issues with lack of signal. I am on the phone a heck of a lot during the course of my day and it has always been rock solid ...

I drive a truck also and I can agree with you. My Co-Driver has the Bolt and our 4G speeds are close most of the time. The Bolt does get better ping times sometimes, and it kicks the Charge's ass in a Quadrant test, but Im assuming that's due to more RAM. On another note, both of our phones were charged this morning and ATM mine is at 40% and his just died.
Another thing I really love about this phone is the media player. Its AWESOME! That was a really big issue for me, as I listen to alot of music and I like it loud. I've had the OG, DX, the Thunderbolt, and I still have an iPhone, and the media player on this phone kills all of the others. With the exception of the iPhone, the others don't get loud enough. The music clarity even trumps the iPhone and I have a $500 set of Shure headphones that I listen with.
My opinion is that the Charge is a great phone and even though the Thunderbolt is faster, its at the expense of poor battery life. Once the developers open this phone up though I think it is really gonna make a big difference. It may not be the fastest, but its well-rounded and will be a great phone to ensure you keep that Unlimited data plan, until something better comes along.
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Upgraded from my problematic Thunderbolt and no regrets. I love the Charge.

As everyone else before me replied, I also have both. I definitely prefer the Charge over the TB, but really it depends on the end user: you. Which do you like better? Which can you see yourself using for a while?
You can read over a thousand posts from people like us, and each will prefer one over the other. So take everyones replies with a grain of salt, including mine.
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I have the tbolt and my cousin has the charge. I think they are both great phones.
The charge has a better screen and battery life (out of the box) imo.
The tbolt I believe has better dev support atm, since the charge just came out. People complain about the battery of the tbolt, but im rooted with the extended battery, in 4g area and my battery lasts 1 1/2 days on moderate to heavy use.
I think the pros and cons to each are slim, it just depends on what you prefer. Go to the Verizon store and compare them both. I think you will be happy either way.
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Thank you for all your input!
I luckily had my lost DINC returned to me today, so I'm still going to go tomorrow and check out the Droid Charge and see if it begs me to take it home. Now, I just am not so desperate.
While I love everything about HTC phones, I think the display on the TB looks like crap. I got my DINC the day it came out before the amoled shortage and the switch to SLCD and that alone is the reason why I cried when I lost it. If the Thunderbolt got better battery life and had a nicer display, I'd def. go that route.... but until HTC brings an LTE phone to Verizon with a display as nice as the ones Samsung makes... I think I'm moving towards Samsung. I'm just trying to weigh the positives and negatives of going with the Charge now or seeing what else Samsung throws our way and when Verizon officially pulls the plug on unlimited data. (Not that I'm a data hog, but with 4G and all the great things that it can do, it seems pointless to be limited for something that doesn't cost them nearly as much as they are passing on to us.)

The Charge is the first "modern phone" I had in years. My previous was an HTC Windows Mobile at least 3 years old, maybe older than that. And before that were Palm phones.
I spent time debating between the Thunderbolt and the Charge and I really couldn't be happier I went with the Charge. I'm in NYC so I have 4G all the time pretty much. Speed tests as high as 25 mbps down and 10 up.
My deciding factor on the Charge vs. Thunderbolt was battery life. I can't imagine having to constantly keep a Thundebolt plugged in all day and 8 hours of life with average use was not acceptable to me at all. The Charge battery life I can live with. I just went 2 days without charging it with light use, and even under heavy use a nightly charge is all that is needed.
Unfortunately I took the OTA update as soon as I turned it on so hoping for a new rooting possibility so i can remove/freeze the bloatware but that would have been an issue with the thunderbolt too.

BirdOPrey5 said:
Unfortunately I took the OTA update as soon as I turned it on so hoping for a new rooting possibility so i can remove/freeze the bloatware but that would have been an issue with the thunderbolt too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ed2 root has been out for awhile now. Easiest way is to install cwm and flash imnuts debloated, prerooted rom.