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I'm slightly disappointed in the Thunderbolt

I had a Droid Incredible before my Thunderbolt. My girl now has my Incredible and, when she has any problems with it, I really enjoy picking up that phone to help, fix, or change some things for her. I miss my Incredible.
Sure, the Thunderbolt's larger screen is nicer and easier to look at in many respects, but the Incredible fits nicely in my hands. I never use protective covers, cases, or films... and I never will. That's just how I roll. I was able to flip the Incredible around and maneuver it in my hand like Tom Cruise handles liqueur bottles in 'Cocktail.' Sorry for the cheesy movie analogy. I feel clumsy with the Thunderbolt and I find myself grasping it tighter out of fear of it jumping out of my hands.
The power button and volume rocker is on the opposite side which is tough to get accustomed to. I understand that's because of the kickstand and maybe it's more ergonomically correct for right handed people. I don't know if the old way caters to us left-handed, left-eared people better or not, but that's what I was used to.
I really miss the AMOLED screen of the Incredible. When it's sunny out, I find it just as difficult to see the Thunderbolt's display, so that's a non-issue for me. I just REALLY miss the contrast, pop, and vibrant colors of the AMOLED. AMOLED's refresh rate doesn't leave fading gray trails when scrolling fine black lines or text like LCDs do. If I didn't love HTC and Sense so much, I would opt for a Samsung, but I'm too stubborn and I have succumbed to brand loyalty.
I see hints of the performance gain in the MSM8655 of the Thunderbolt vs the QSD8650 in the Incredible, especially with the newer Adreno graphics... but I'm not impressed at all. Honestly, I can't stand how choppy some of the Sense graphics are; for example, text message and email scrolling, and the notoriously clunky app drawer for Sense hurt my eyes sometimes. I have the Warm Z TwoPointTwo ROM on the Incredible and it seems to perform better, especially in those respects, than the Thunderbolt. And that's with the stock HTC kernel on the Incredible. Of course, actual benchmarks would beg to differ.
The Thunderbolt has 4g... and that's why I won't trade with my girlfriend. So far, my best upload and download speeds have been 44Mb/s and 19Mb/s respectively. I even get better overall reception (including LTE) at home with the Thunderbolt than the Incredible or any other Verizon phone, which would often drop calls unless we stood next to a window when I'm at home. I also think, as time goes on, the ROMs will get better, smoother, faster, and more stable for the Thunderbolt. I'm having trouble finding just the right skin, theme, and ROM for the Thunderbolt. I've tried BAMF Remixed, Thunder, and now I'm on VirusROM. I just need to learn some patience. Maybe Warm Z TwoPointTwo will come to Thunderbolt. I love that ROM.
Until then, I'll just continue to find reasons to spend some quality time with my old pal, Incredible. I know I just need to quit cold-turkey... rip it off like a band-aid... but it's so difficult when I still share the same home with that phone.

No choppiness here.
None. Not overclocked either.

I hate that the placement of the volume rocker. I feel the same way you do about your incredible as I did about my G2. I had the G2 for a month before I sold it. I miss the G2, but really do like the Thunderbolt.

adrynalyne said:
No choppiness here.
None. Not overclocked either.
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I do and have had for a while. Email scrolling, web surfing and XDA App. Doesn't matter what kernel whether it is normal, under volted etc... I also have short freezing while typing on both text and email. Two full wipes and no change. The freezing kinda reminds me of the way my Facinate acted on stock 2.1
I wish I knew why this is happening. : (
Sent from my BAMF ADR6400L using XDA Premium App

I've never experienced the issues you outlined about the screen. Perhaps yours is defective?

Maybe the incredible 2 would have been a better choice for you?

I also came from an incredible to the tbolt because i had dropped my Dinc and the screen was shattered 60 feet to the concrete will so do that...lol and the insurance no longer has the inc. So they offered me a droid x and i fought with him to get the tbolt and i miss my old inc:.. lolI hope myn warm comes to the tbolt
sent from my rooted das-bamf tbolt

nerozehl said:
I've never experienced the issues you outlined about the screen. Perhaps yours is defective?
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Are you talking about the gray fade on scrolling? It's barely noticeable. I'm a perfectionist. Because I liked my Incredible so much, I'm likely blowing any flaws out of proportion.
dirtyfingers said:
Maybe the incredible 2 would have been a better choice for you?
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I was thinking about it... but since I was using up an upgrade discount, I wanted to make sure the phone was drastically different. Bigger screen and, of course, 4g. The Incredible 2 would have only been an upgrade in the chipset... and maybe a couple other things I don't really care about. As far as I know, it doesn't have AMOLED, either.
Don't get me wrong, though. I do love the Thunderbolt. I just wanted to rant about the little nuances after having the Incredible for a year.
The four capacitive back-lit buttons on the Thunderbolt are dimmer and have spotty hotspots compared to the Incredible, too. Just thought I'd throw that in there.

I got all those issues he mentioned. I believe that htc will release a fw upgrade to ease some of those issues. There's more issues on top of those too like not being able to talk when plugged into a stereo with audio Jack. Something that is possible on the dinc. Sometimes when exiting apps it takes me to app drawer instead of default home screen. And the most annoying work the stock sms app not giving me the option to send without saving as a draft first. Htc can't allow that to linger. Ill be damned if I'm the only one having those issues. But I'm still in love with the phone. The button orientation takes some getting used to but ill get over it. And the lag with the sense widgets are tolerable. I've weaned away from launcherpro for a while but with those issues, I'm thinking about reusing it again. Its way faster than sense. I'm sure there can bea home replacement app that can satisfy us more than launcherpro go launcher & adw. One that will replicate some of sense 2.0 or even 3.0 features. I've been convinced so after trying out Regina launcher.
Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk

My only complaint is the power button. I seem to have a hard time hitting it.

Well, there are other phones out there
Me:
No lag.
No performance hitches.
No battery issues.
No oversaturated all to hell amoled screen.

adrynalyne said:
Well, there are other phones out there
Me:
No lag.
No performance hitches.
No battery issues.
No oversaturated all to hell amoled screen.
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Click to collapse
Battery is definitely better in the Thunderbolt. I use my old TP2 battery (1500mA) in the Incredible and battery life is tolerable. The AMOLED screen could be to blame for some battery issues.
I use your your kernel with the Thunderbolt and battery life is quite good so far even though it's stock battery is 1400mA.
One thing I can say I'm looking forward to with the LCD screen vs AMOLED: I don't have to worry about burn-in (or burn-out, so to speak). I haven't had that problem on the Incredible but, eventually, it would happen.

I've been surprised with the Thunderbolt. I came from a Droid and then a Droid X and only bought the Thunderbolt because I wanted an upgrade to play with until the dual-core qHD's show up in the summer.
I still consider it to be a "hold-me-over" phone, and I expect the Bionic is going to be the likely replacement, but Thunderbolt has been very pleasing. The HTC build quality is good, and Sense is less maddening than Blur was, but in truth, we really aren't stuck with the junk the manufacturer puts on the phone so they don't really matter very much.
I didn't expect the Thunderbolt to be faster than the X. I expected the battery life to suck. I expected LTE to be marginal for me.
Well it is faster than the X--a lot faster. Perhaps it's RAM or perhaps the processor is just more advanced, but the difference is quite noticeable.
I also haven't had any problems with the battery, although I'm not a heavy user or a heavy talker. Battery life was acceptable before I started rooting and ROM'ing, and has been quite good since then
I don't get LTE at my home and I work from here, so I only see it once a week when I go down to Orlando to see my bro's, so it's still not a big deal to me now. But a year from now it will. Of course I'll be on the big powerhouse phone then, but whoever on my account gets the phone from me will appreciate it (probably my daughter).
Btw, does anyone realize how expensive a five-phone plan is with 2000 minutes and five smart phones? Yikes. I could cause Verizon to have a bad quarter by switching to AT&T with all the money I'm paying them. If I didn't care about my phone doing things like making calls and sending/receiving data, I might consider it.
I've looked at all those sexy phones coming in for T-Mo and AT&T and even Sprint, but I've been with Big Red for a lot of years now and I have faith they will bring the hardware this summer. They may never have the dominance they had last year, but they will be a player.
As for the Thunderbolt, it is an evolutionary phone, pushing yesterday's technology into a fully satisfactory form for today and doing a superb job of it. I'm glad I pulled the trigger on it, rather than waiting for the Charge or DInc2.

adrynalyne said:
Well, there are other phones out there
Me:
No lag.
No performance hitches.
No battery issues.
No oversaturated all to hell amoled screen.
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Click to collapse
I second this. This phone is great. Sure I miss some of the things about my "adrynalyned" fascinate, but still I wouldn't trade back.
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App

Volume buttons on the right are driving me mad.
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA Premium App

Immolate said:
I've been surprised with the Thunderbolt. I came from a Droid and then a Droid X and only bought the Thunderbolt because I wanted an upgrade to play with until the dual-core qHD's show up in the summer.
I didn't expect the Thunderbolt to be faster than the X. I expected the battery life to suck. I expected LTE to be marginal for me.
Well it is faster than the X--a lot faster. Perhaps it's RAM or perhaps the processor is just more advanced, but the difference is quite noticeable
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Click to collapse
With the X you have to use Autokiller if your rooted so it doesn't lag, at least I did, and with autokiller the X was a hell of a phone. I finally found a rom (was released yesterday) for the TB that makes my TB run Better than my X.

Immolate said:
Btw, does anyone realize how expensive a five-phone plan is with 2000 minutes and five smart phones? Yikes. I could cause Verizon to have a bad quarter by switching to AT&T with all the money I'm paying them. If I didn't care about my phone doing things like making calls and sending/receiving data, I might consider it.
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This made me laugh so hard
I do not think I will go back, I just miss my Incredible's trackpad... I hate these damn arrows

gbmitchell said:
My only complaint is the power button. I seem to have a hard time hitting it.
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Yea that's my only complaint as well. Then again the incredible's wasn't that great either my fav power buttons were droid and droid x.

The stock sms on the tbolt is horrible. It lags bad. It will gray out the send button mid text. Every other text is failed and have to resend. The word suggestion covers up the message text. The whole design is not very user friendly in my own opinion. But...other than the sms my tbolt is great. And handcent took care of the crappy messaging.

Immolate said:
Btw, does anyone realize how expensive a five-phone plan is with 2000 minutes and five smart phones? Yikes. I could cause Verizon to have a bad quarter by switching to AT&T with all the money I'm paying them. If I didn't care about my phone doing things like making calls and sending/receiving data, I might consider it.
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Click to collapse
Yes, I know exactly how expensive this is!!! Me, wife, son, 2 x step kids, every one has a smart phone. And the cable company wants me to pay for a home phone???
I came from an Incredible also. I don't miss it. Once I saw the size of the TBolt screen I was sold.

[Q] did you get a droid charge? what was your device

basically two simple questions: what phone did you have before, and what made you decide for the droid charge?
My answer is I had the samsung fascinate, I was pretty mad with samsung, because of the slowness of updates, specially froyo, but the developers made it happened.
I got the charge because I love the Amoled Screen, and the specs are pretty good, in my opinion, better than the thunderbolt, Im not sure if developement on this phone will be as good as the thunderbolt, but as it is right now, I love it, why brake what is not broken?

In the last year or so I've gone through the following to get to my charge:
Blackberry 9630 -> HTC Incredible -> Samsung Fascinate, then got a Samsung Epic 4G to carry alongside -> Samsung Droid Charge
During that time, I've also had lengthy personal experience using a HTC Thunderbolt (two friends have them), a Motorola Droid X (two friends have them), Motorola Droid 2 (three friends have them), Samsung Galaxy Tab 7" (owned), and Motorola Xoom Tablet (owned).
I love my Charge. I'd say the specs are on-par with the Thunderbolt, and while I'd take HTC Sense UI or TouchWiz 4.0 -- I can't stand the washed out look of even the best LCD's on phones on the market right now.
I loved my AMOLED Inc, I really loved my S-AMOLED Fascinate and Epic, and now I really love my S-AMOLED+ Charge.

I had a defective droid x out of the box and replaced it with a Fascinate. I upgraded to the Thunderbolt and it had really bad build quality issues so I ported to att and got an Atrix. The Atrix was awesome but att was the complete opposite. I was lucky to have my phone ring half of the time and ended up having to return it and port back into Verizon. I went to best buy and they said they had the Charge instock and sold it to me 11 days early. This phone has the best screen I have ever seen and amazing battery life. Gps performance is not perfect but overall this is the 4g device to have.

Went from a BB Storm 9530 to the Droid Charge. I have a Galaxy Tab so I knew what I was getting from the droid charge, but the screen is just fantastic! When I saw it in person I knew that was the phone I was going to upgrade to. 4G is great and I just prefer it over the thunderbolt for not only the screen but I have had good expierences with Samsung in the past, and I really didnt like the kick stand on the TB. Just picked it up less than 1 hour ago

burningembers said:
I love my Charge. I'd say the specs are on-par with the Thunderbolt, and while I'd take HTC Sense UI or TouchWiz 4.0 -- I can't stand the washed out look of even the best LCD's on phones on the market right now.
I loved my AMOLED Inc, I really loved my S-AMOLED Fascinate and Epic, and now I really love my S-AMOLED+ Charge.
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Click to collapse
Went from a Galaxy S i9000 to a Nexus S to a Thunderbolt, and I agree, other than the iPhone 4 (which I also have) the LCD screens just pale in comparison to SAMOLED. The Thunderbolt does just look "washed out" as you put it.
Still, I'm having a tough time making the leap to a Charge. Not sure why, there's a lot of good about it that calls to me, but a lot of stuff I wish Samsung hadn't done to the phone. That SAMOLED PLUS screen may be the trump card, though...I'm afraid to go actually look at one in person because I know I won't be able to resist.

distortedloop said:
That SAMOLED PLUS screen may be the trump card, though...I'm afraid to go actually look at one in person because I know I won't be able to resist.
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Yeah I went in to look at it and walked out 300 dollars poorer

Went from verizon iphone, to the bolt, then to the incredible 2, and got the droid charge the day of release. Gotta love the screen and the battery life is Outstanding!!!!!
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA App

I went from the Samsung Omnia to the Charge, and given the option I would do it over again. I have a friend with the bolt, and the only reason that he doesn't complain about battery life is because he leaves his phone plugged in at work all day
I went with the Charge because I wanted a 4G phone for a wifi hotspot (two laptops and soon to have two tablets), and once I saw the screen on the Charge I couldn't go back.

I had a Samsung Nexus S on T-mobile. I have been wanting to get off of t-mobile for a while since their service is pretty worthless when I am most of the time. I wanted to get back on verizon, but needed a solid phone to replace my beloved Nexus S. The Charge was pretty close so I pulled the trigger. Very happy so far.

I began my Android experience on an HTC Eris and kept it until I got the Charge last Saturday. Although it was rooted running Froyo and overclocked, the Eris was such a piece of $!&#! I cracked the glass on it in January before CES and wanted to wait to see what the manufactures had in store for 2011. Nothing impressed me except the Atrix which obviously is on ATT. Well, I was being stubborn and waiting for the Atrix twin (dual-core, 1GB RAM, etc) to come to Verizon and...well, nothing yet. (You watch, the holy grail of Android phones exceeding the Atrix will be announced next month on Verizon, *rolls eyes*)
The night before the Charge was officially on sale at Verizon, I was flashing a ROM on the Eris when it began to loop. I knew it was probably going to happen, and the trackball didn't fully work which made navigating recovery all but impossible. I'm not skilled on the SDK or ADB so I said forget it and resolved to get the Charge the next morning.
Although I really wanted a more future proof dual-core processor, I am extremely satisfied with what Samsung has come up with here. I mean, this SAMOLED Plus display is AMAZING! Performance has been fine, GPS locks in a semi-quick fashion, camera pictures and video look great, and the physical buttons are a awesome, and battery life has been pretty good.
I don't live in a 4G area (yet) but right after I purchased the phone, I left for Nashville. Once there, the 4G symbol light up (didn't change my plan, just $30 unlimited 3G) and man oh man! Reached speeds up to 23 Mbps down! On a good night, my Comcast dedicated line doesn't get that (pathetic). God bless LTE.
Complaints (#opinion):
Brown and orange color scheme? Seriously, Samsung?
3G seems to be faulty, cuts out often for about 2 mins at a time unless I toggle the data switch off/on. Never had a 3G problem in my area with the Eris.
Verizon's seemingly infinite amount of bloatware.
Power button location.
No LED notification light.
Obviously, no dual-core.
Samsung and their plastic, ugh. It's a little cheap feeling and slippery ($300 phone here and we get slippery plastic?)
--------------
Overall, I'm extremely happy with this device. And once it's rooted, some of those complaints will evaporate.
Moral of the story: it's a great looking, capable phone and if you're due for an upgrade, I would definitely consider it.
Sent from my DROID CHARGE using XDA App

Had every iPhone made before getting the Atrix... coupled with moving to the Bay area I realized how bad AT&T sucks overall. Switched to the G2x from Tmobile and LOVED it, but I had no signal at home which sucked. Now i am sitting pretty with the charge. Ironically I have LTE service at home with it, but no 3G service.

I guess i have a problem that is the first step, admitting it ...
anyway here are the phones i have owned in the last year..
Droid original, iphone 4 on verizon, ported to tmo galaxy S 4g, back to verizon with a droidx, tbolt, back to droidx, back to tbolt, now charge...
so the original droid was awesome except I learned I did not want a keyboard anymore. and the screen size was a bit small.
everyone talked about how great the iphone was so i had to try it to make sure I was not missing out on something great. although my 8 yo daughter has an ipod touch that I can't stand i figured I would keep an open mind. it was good I found that i really enjoyed the front facing camera after spending several months telling people that it was useless. The iphone was a decent phone, however I still can't stand the proprietary connections and software requirements.
galaxy s 4g, what a great phone... the only things i didn't like about this phone was gsm, compared to cdma in the DC area was appauling, no indicator light, no indicator light,
DroidX bought on ebay for $200 a great phone I rooted and had a rom on it before I activated it. great phone i still kep it as my backup.,.. no front facing camera, display is washed out, no 4 g speeds .,.. i find that the 4.3 screen was not too big for me.
Thunderbolt, battery life was horrible on stock.. took it back before root...
droid x again for a month or two untll I read how great the new roms were.
so i bought a used tbolt on ebay for $400. rooted and rom'd it. liked the roms but could not get the battery to last longer than about 4 hours. I decided to remove many apps and turn on the radios and was able to extend the battery life at the expense of usefullness of the phone.
then the charge... this is the phone I think i will be able to keep for a while. I only wish it had the msg indicater light... otherwise I am liking it very much.

Had a Droid Incredible before my Charge. So far I am really missing it aside from when 4G is behaving on my Charge.

[Q] DROIDX Owner on the fence about getting Charge

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.
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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.

Please convince me/unconvince me lol

I have a thunderbolt right now... Im going to get getting rid of my girlfriends iphone so we can lock her in the 4g unlimited plan. She likes my thunderbolt so thats what she will probably get. Now i'm thinking about switching over to the charge but i'm having a hard time. I hate sense but I hate touch wiz even more. I like the fact that the thunderbolt has 2 aosp roms to choose from but the gummy rom I just saw for the charge looks pretty good. Help me decide please!

My contract has been up for a few weeks, I've been researching phones vigorously to find the best one and so far my conclusion is
#1: Samsung Galaxy S2
#2: HTC EVO 4G/3D
#3: Droid Charge
#4: HTC Thunderbolt
Galaxy S2 is a BEAST of a phone, only problem is there is no US release date as of yet, and even worse there is no US Verizon/Sprint/T-Mobile/ATT release date as of yet...
HTC EVO 4G/3D are great phones, I personally didn't look too far into them since they aren't on Verizon but you can look up their specs to see if they are in your ballpark
Droid Charge is my personal phone of choice, i WOULD get the GalaxyS2 but we aren't seeing a release date(it's expected in July-September but I can't wait)
HTC Thunderbolt was an obvious contender if the Charge was on the list but I've heard of a lot of problems with this phone such as rebooting issues, battery issues etc.
so the verdict? Droid Charge if you need/want a phone now, Galaxy S2 if you can wait(I'm not psychic but it's pretty obvious that phone is going to be HUGE, which in turn means great support from the developers & tons of easy root methods)

There's several threads along these lines that you should check out, so skim through the section and read them, even the one about "learning to hate the Charge" or something like that...you'll get plenty of pros and cons and TB vs Charge comments in those, but since I feel like whining about my Charge I'll jump in here. IF you don't read my whole post, at least check out the last paragraph, you might like the idea.
IF, and that's a big IF, the Galaxy S II ever comes to Verizon or ATT with an LTE radio, I'll be all over it once it's rootable, but since you're up against the expiring unlimited data offer, there's just the two to choose from (Charge, Thunderbolt).
I have both, and it's still a tough call for me on which I prefer. So many pluses, and so many minuses on both.
If I had to choose one right this minute to toss away, I think it would be the Charge, though. The Charge has got about the best damn display I've ever seen on a phone. iPhone 4 is sharper, but smaller, and the Charge blows away the iP4 in the contrast and inky blacks department.
The Charge is lighter than the TB, by a very noticeable amount. It's arguably got better battery life, but seriously, you won't be happy with it either. If you're in a spotty 3G area, the Charge seems to have exponentially better battery life than the TB, but in a solid 4G area, they both suck. I haven't spent enough time with both in a solid 3G area to compare yet.
The Charge's screen seems scratch proof without protection. Mine rides naked and has no mars. It fell out of my pocket on the leg press machine the other day and the front hit the metal bar on its way down. No damage to the screen but a small nick in the bezel (which is soft plastic). The Thunderbolt is a scratch magnet- treated mine with kid gloves, but no protection, and it's still somehow managed to get two nasty gouges in the screen.
The Sammies are pretty good at playing any media you throw at them, not so sure about the HTCs.
The Charge's hardware buttons at the bottom are pretty nice; I didn't think I'd like them, but once you get past the cheap plasticky feel, they're a solid competitor to the capacitive ones.
Those are about the only major plusses on the Charge for my usage.
Major minuses include a laggy as heck phone unless you do the voodoo ext4 conversion AND install the Gummy ROM. VooDoo alone, debloating, using different launchers, etc, did not fix the lag on the Charge for me. Gummy seems to have for the most part, but there's still an occasional sluggishness on waking the phone or switching some apps.
The plastic is cheap feeling compared to TB. It's a big issue for some.
There's no kickstand on the Charge. I know I'm not alone in thinking this is one of the coolest, most obvious enhancements to a phone to have. One of the big Android blogs, Android Central I think, made a blog post along those lines just recently.
There's no Gingerbread yet for the Charge, but there is (unofficially, anyways) for the TB.
You mentioned you hate Sense, but with the BAMF Sense 3 ROM I am in love with Sense. It's the slickest thing I've seen on a phone for a launcher and some cool widgets. I've been a CM7 and Launcher Pro guy for all my Androids since the N1 once CM7 became available, but for the TB, I think it will stay Sense on mine for quite a while.
We might see more activity with the Charge development-wise, it's still fairly new, but I believe that by the this time in the phone's life on the TB we had a lot more activity. We don't even have a full and proper ClockWork or Amon Ra recovery for the Charge yet. Imnuts has given us a pretty decent one, but you'll soft-brick (or worse) your Charge if you try to do a Nandroid restore with it, and unless I missed an update, you have to do a battery pull to reboot if you try a factory restore/wipe on it.
All that said, and my overall preference for the TB...why not grab a Charge and play with it for a while in daily use. GET IT AT COSTCO. You'll get locked in with the unlimited data plan, but unlike VZW purchased phones, you get 90 days to test drive the phone itself. 14-day right to cancel on cell plan still applies though. If you just hate the thing, you can go back and get the Thunderbolt, or better yet, by August or end of September when your 90 days is up we'll have some more choices (like maybe that oh-so-sweet Galaxy S II).

Thank you. I just got back home with a new Charge. Gave my girlfriend my thunderbolt. Now im trying to figure out how I root this on a mac?

You're gonna want gummy...the phone's a laggy turd with any variant of stock for me...YMMV.
Use Odin in a VMWare Windows box to flash the Imnuts Clockwork, then use Clockwork to flash the Gummy rom, which is pre-rooted.
There are plenty of tutorials around here on using Odin, so I won't bother explaining, but a good tip get the phone recognized in the Windows box while in download mode is to plug it in in regular mode first, wait for the virtual cd-rom that will open, then run the driver installer (all in the Windows box). Make sure USB debugging is off, or the virtual cd won't open.
You can try flashing Clockwork with Heimdall, but many of us can't get it to work on the Mac with the Charge.

My wife and I just got one. I rooted mine and I don't plan on rooting hers. When I try to go back from Gummy to the last touchwiz crap I want to smash the damn thing. This phone files once you get a good rom on it @ use the voodoo lagfix. My quadrant (doesn't really mean much, but FWIW) was around 800 before and 1700 after. The rom is still not perfect but it is miles ahead of stock.
Ohhh... do you self an favor and use a windows machine to root the thing. It takes half an hour if you know what you are doing.

Thank you. Yes I rooted and flashed gummy already. Huge difference!

It is amazing how much I hated this phone when I got it vs how much I love it after a Voodoo kernel and Gummy

It took me a while to figure it out, but once I got the voodoo kernel on my Charge, I tried the ROMs out and while Gummy is fast, I still think AC's Altered Beast ROM is the best. It might still be in its Alpha stage, but its crazy fast and looks very sexy. Gummy is definitely great right now, but I think once the Altered Beast is finished that will be the ROM to go to. If your looking for speed and looks, Altered Beast is a good way to go.
Also, where as the phone does seem to be made out of a cheaper material, I have also noticed that my screen seems nearly invincible. Plus it looks amazing.

Altered beast looks awesome but I love soap look I don't know if I can leave yummy... haha

cacash89 said:
Also, where as the phone does seem to be made out of a cheaper material, I have also noticed that my screen seems nearly invincible. Plus it looks amazing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Samsung definitely makes a damn good display, both in appearance and durability. I've never scratched a Galaxy S based phone... and I've had four of them.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk
edit: edited ***** to both and been to never...sheesh the autocorrect on the phone is bad sometimes.

Went From TB to Charge
After having to many issues with the TB (4 of them) Verizon got me the Charge.
The Development for the TB is awesome and a ton of roms and kernels and themes to keep you busy for months, but I had quite a few reboots and cell issues and was about the same on all models. The Charge has excellent battery life on 3g sense 4g won't be on till July 21st for me. The Thunderbolt was good to with the right rom/kernel combo, but the Charge wins and also wins in the display department. Like another poster said the TB seemed to get dirty/scratched easy don't know why I had cases and screen protectors and never could manage to keep it looking good the Charge has yet to get any marks/ other then a cheap back that will proly wear fast, but then again can be replaced for $10. All in all I love both phones, but when it comes down to it I more then anything want a working phone which thus far seems to be the Charge.

If you're looking for a Verizon LTE phone now, the main thing is to not wait. Get a TB or Charge now and sell it later if you hate it. Its worth locking in the unlimited data before it goes away. I was wavering between all 3 LTE phones, as what I'm really waiting for is a Droid Bionic (in whatever form it finally comes in...) but at this point the unlimited data is more important to me than an extra core and some more memory. SAMOLED and battery life is what swung me from the TB to the Charge, but the TB seems to have a more lively dev community, not to mention much better dev support from HTC than what Samsung provides. Its all a tradeoff...

How happy are you with your Droid Charge?

I'm up for a contract renewal with Verizon next Tuesday, a week from today. I currently have a Droid Eris and want to get rid of it as soon as possible! One of the phones I am considering is the Charge. I am also looking at the Xperia Play and the Droid X2. Basically the choice is going to come down to Dual Core vs 4G (I currently AM in a 4G area) vs. taking the cheap way out (Play is free online) and getting the added bonus of the game pad.
I am trying to gather information from people who have used the phone for a few months, rather than reviewers who generally only test phones fore a few days or even hours.
I am mainly concerned about battery life and general performance (lag between button presses in actions such as opening the keyboard, pressing buttons on the keyboard, opening apps, switching home screens, etc.)
My daily tasks include:
Facebook-probably checked about 5 or so times per day, or more often if I get a notification
Email- approximately 10-15 emails per day from 2 seperate google mail accounts
Weather- generally checked in the morning and evening, but with weather alerts ON and having the temperature indicator on screen refreshed at a decent interval would be nice
Texting- approximately 50-60 texts per day. keyboard MUST be responsive while texting, this is the single most annoying thing on my current phone
Phone Calls- About 30 minutes per day in a relatively strong signal area
Web Browsing / Pulse News- About 20-30 minutes per day
Music Listening - about an hour a day
Youtube / Music Videos - 20-30 minutes per day
And probably around 30 minutes up to an hour (on a heavy day) of gaming
All this on 4g, and I would prefer NOT to have to turn 4G on and off, but I am curious how much of a power savings that gives.
Would it be reasonable to expect the Charge to last through this type of usage with a single charge? Most of the gaming and video viewing is done when I get home anyway, so plugging in wouldn't be a huge deal, but it would be nice to make it through a whole day.
Also, are there any applications that feel limited without a dual core processor? I was originally looking at the Droid Bionic, but the price on that is a little steep.
What is the picture/video quality like on both the front and rear facing camera?
Is Netflix available for the Charge?
What is the support supposed to be like for the Charge? (Will it be updated past gingerbread?)
And in general, are there any nitpicky or buggy aspects of the device that should be known before choosing it?

the charge is a great phone and has great developers but i would suggest you get the droid bionic which is suppose to be release this Thursday. also the bionic is suppose to be worth 300 which is how much the droid charge currently cost's. it might drop in price when the bionic comes out, but i doubt it

Though I am not sold on the Bionic being all that it might be, you can have the best of both worlds with it, dual core and 4G.
that being said, the Charge is fantastic, some complain about this and that, and they may have legit complaints, but in a solid 4G area I think you will find it fits the bill rather well. I am in a 4G area and I have no drops of any kind, battery life is really good and overall just very nice.
The picture quality is very nice. I believe it is a 5 MP on the back and 1.3 on the front. The standard card is lacking if you want to record video in HD (why ship it with a crappy card samsung?!?!?) but normal video is good.
I never had a dual core phone, but with the Charge I havent come up against anything that has been laggy or wouldnt run.
I think Netflix is supported now on the charge, but check me on that.
One thing about Samsung and Verizon, the updates take FOREVER. We will get GB more sooner than later, but do not expect ICS until the turn of the year (even though it is out in October). Even that may be optimistic. if you are into rooting and ROMs, I am sure that we have a few good ones coming down the pike once we get a final on GB, include the possibility of CM7.
One thing that should not be overlooked is the 4G. It is HUGE and hellafast. You will wonder how you got along without it
From the phones you mentioned, I would go with the Charge or the X2.

I suggest the bionic as well. I use to have an evo 3d with Sprint before I moved to Verizon with the charge. I thought man if I had this phone with Verizon with 4g id have the best phone possible. That phone with its dual core never showed any signs of lag whatsoever. I switched to Verizon for better coverage and faster 4g. I love my charge but I do wish it was a dual core so the bionic is what id go with. Or u can wait until hopefully the nexus prime comes out....
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA Premium App

I love my charge.
As far as the bionic goes you know thats going to be a battery hog.
I am very happy on where the devs are going on this device couldn't be happier.

If you can deal with the screen, I recommend the Bionic. The SAMOLED+ is really the only thing the Charge has going for it.

Kyledoo said:
I am mainly concerned about battery life and general performance (lag between button presses in actions such as opening the keyboard, pressing buttons on the keyboard, opening apps, switching home screens, etc.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There was some lag when I first got it, mainly when switching tasks, returning to home screen etc. Rooting and modifying the phone has improved this tremendously. Also, running the latest stock leak of Gingerbread appears to have fixed these issues as well. It's really a pretty quick phone when "optimized". Just as a meaningless benchmark, overclocked to 1300 and 1400 Mhz I was getting Quadrant scores similar (if not a bit faster) than a stock HTC Thunderbolt.
Kyledoo said:
All this on 4g, and I would prefer NOT to have to turn 4G on and off, but I am curious how much of a power savings that gives.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Massively. Wifi and 3G sip power compared to 4G.
Kyledoo said:
Would it be reasonable to expect the Charge to last through this type of usage with a single charge? Most of the gaming and video viewing is done when I get home anyway, so plugging in wouldn't be a huge deal, but it would be nice to make it through a whole day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you're at home, I'd use wifi when you can. If not, I doubt you could get through everything you listed while on 4G all on one charge. Streaming video, rendering in the games, plus all the screen on time, plus the 4G...I think you'd be pushing it.
As far as battery, it's really dependent (for me) on 2 things: network signal and method of data. When I'm at work, I have about 1 bar and it's constantly searching. The battery will drain from this within 6-8 hours usually (with wifi on as well). When I'm at home with full service (and on wifi) I can pretty easily get through the weekend one one charge (with moderate use).
Kyledoo said:
Also, are there any applications that feel limited without a dual core processor? I was originally looking at the Droid Bionic, but the price on that is a little steep.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe some emulators would perform better, I was playing Zelda: Ocarina of Time and it did have a bit of slowdown with the panning camera. Other than graphically intensive things like that, I dunno...
Kyledoo said:
What is the picture/video quality like on both the front and rear facing camera?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Like a high resolution camera phone? I dunno. Still not a replacement for a good camera but it works in a pinch.
Kyledoo said:
Is Netflix available for the Charge?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes
Kyledoo said:
What is the support supposed to be like for the Charge? (Will it be updated past gingerbread?)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes
Kyledoo said:
And in general, are there any nitpicky or buggy aspects of the device that should be known before choosing it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stock filesystem is RFS which is not "ideal", but you can convert this to the quicker EXT4 filesystem, which helps to reduce lag. The latest Gingerbread leak is RFS though and performance is still much better than Froyo.

I am very happy i thought the evoke was great but this phone is superior i love everything about it
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA App

I have a coworker who is up for renewal and we have been discussing what she should do. Verizon is dropping at least 4 new phones within the next month.
The Boinic comes out Sept 8,
HTC Vigor on Oct 6,
LG Revolution 2 on Oct 20, and
Samsung Droid Prime sometime in Oct.
I would considering holding out past the Bionic and picking up the next flagship Samsung phone that is dropping next month. It should be the first Icecream Sandwich Android phone and will likely be dual core/4g.
I say hold out for the greatest so that you won't be stuck with 6 month old technology (Boinic and Charge) as soon as you use your technology update.

I had the Fascinate and have been on the Droid Charge for a while now. I have been extremely happy with it.
I believe the Charge has the best screen you can get. Period.
Battery life: That is going to vary. I think it will hold up, but if it doesn't there is a pretty handy dock with an extra battery available.
I didn't use my phone a lot last night. From 6pm to 6am this morning used 25% of my battery. During that time, my phone performed a complete backup and a couple other automated operations I have scheduled. It also sync's data at that time. I also used my phone a little bit, but by far the most power was used by the backup operation which is processor and storage card intensive.
So, I'm pretty happy with this... 25% in 12 hours means that with light to moderate usage I'd have 50% used in 24 hours.
As for the menus / responsiveness of the phone. I was okay with it. I would have liked it to be a little snappier, but I wasn't annoyed by the time it took to bring up most things. I did switch over to the Go Launcher to replace the default home screen because it was far more customizable and it was a little snappier that way.
Of course, yesterday, I did just flash my phone with the leaked GingerBread build since it has been reported as being pretty stable... so that battery life I mentioned is on GingerBread and not on Froyo. The GingerBread TW Launcher (home screen) is better, but I still switched back to Go Launcher because it gave so many more choices / controls over how it behaves and how it works.
JuiceDefender has not been working very well on the Droid Charge, but it seems like the developers are finally working on fixing it for the Droid Charge, so that should help. You'll get a lot better battery life if you let JuiceDefender turn off your radios / data when you don't need it.

Charge is a great phone. You can start to find cheap deals on it if you upgrade online now too. There will always be something better a few months down the line. So upgrade to something a little older for free or close to it or upgrade to something brand new for $200-300.
The choice is all yours.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using xda premium

quarky42 said:
I had the Fascinate and have been on the Droid Charge for a while now. I have been extremely happy with it.
I believe the Charge has the best screen you can get. Period.
.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree.
I was very happy with my Liberty ROM DroidX & was waiting on the Bionic. Recently however, I fell in love with the awesome screen in the Charge & decided to buy one (it had dropped to under $200 on Amazon).
I turned on the new Charge & on the very first boot I flashed it to Gummycharge 1.9.1 & I absolutely LOVE the thing. I was still planning on replacing it with a dual core 4G phone when they became available, but at this point I like the Charge & that screen so much I don't think I will do that.
I have found that by far the best battery saving tip is to lock it in on 3G except when you are actively using 4G. Where I work, my phone was constantly switching back & forth between the two which absolutely KILLED the battery life.
With setting it to 3G & lowering the screen brightness to 18% except when I'm out in the sun, my battery life is just fine.
One thing I really don't like in the design of the Bionic is the way all Motorola screens are kinda tall & skinny compared to the Charge/iphone etc that have a little wider side to side design which helps when reading web pages etc.
~John

I meant to add that the price of the Charge is $120 on Wirefly with free shipping. It is not worth the $300 that Verizon is asking for it. Of course, I have had very good luck with taking in the best offers and asking a salesperson to do their best to beat those offers. I tell them that I would rather do business with them directly, but I need them to try and beat these deals that I have online. Sometimes you get someone that isn't interested in putting in the effort or you get a stubborn manager who won't budge... but it is worth a try.
Otherwise, just buy it on Wirefly that way and wait the 2-3 days that FedEx takes to deliver it to you. $180 can sure buy a few days of waiting.

I had the fascinate and got the free upgrade to the charge. If the charge was designed like the fascinate it would definitely top my list. I love the screen on the charge, but thats it's main pull. If i had went to the store and picked out my 4g phone (at the time only option was charge, thunderbolt and revolution) i would have picked the thunderbolt. My favorite phone ive ever owned was an EVO 4g which i had for about 3 weeks but sprint sucked.
That being said im not dissatisfied with my Charge, but things could be better.

quarky42 said:
I meant to add that the price of the Charge is $120 on Wirefly with free shipping. It is not worth the $300 that Verizon is asking for it. Of course, I have had very good luck with taking in the best offers and asking a salesperson to do their best to beat those offers. I tell them that I would rather do business with them directly, but I need them to try and beat these deals that I have online. Sometimes you get someone that isn't interested in putting in the effort or you get a stubborn manager who won't budge... but it is worth a try.
Otherwise, just buy it on Wirefly that way and wait the 2-3 days that FedEx takes to deliver it to you. $180 can sure buy a few days of waiting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most places (verizon included) will not match wirefly's price. They claim that it's because with wirefly you are essentially signing a second contract, that you will keep your phone for at least 6 months before cancelling. If you break that, they charge you a $300 ETF on top of what verizon charges. They can sell the phone cheaper because they know for sure they will either get $300 from the customer or whatever the commission from verizon is.

foister82 said:
Most places (verizon included) will not match wirefly's price. They claim that it's because with wirefly you are essentially signing a second contract, that you will keep your phone for at least 6 months before cancelling. If you break that, they charge you a $300 ETF on top of what verizon charges. They can sell the phone cheaper because they know for sure they will either get $300 from the customer or whatever the commission from verizon is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All I can attest to is my first hand experience. I bought my Fascinate and my wife's Droid2 for LESS than what Wirefly and Amazon were advertising by taking the printouts into Verizon and telling them that I would rather do business directly with Verizon, but I needed their help in beating these prices. The salesperson talked with his manager and they made it happen. It was through a combination of service credits, instant discounts, and a mail in rebate, but the fact was my final price was far less than what was advertised elsewhere.
Oh, and I bought my Fascinate back in September of last year... the day they launched. I hadn't even heard about the Fascinate before that day. I had decided to buy an Android phone and was researching what was out there and it happened to be available so I priced it out. I didn't realize until later that it was the launch day for that device.
If you get a sales rep that doesn't want your business, kindly take your business elsewhere.

foister82 said:
If i had went to the store and picked out my 4g phone (at the time only option was charge, thunderbolt and revolution) i would have picked the Thunderbolt
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not disagreeing, but wondering why you would prefer the t-bolt to the Charge??
I had a t-bolt for a couple weeks (a Verizon rep loaned it to me) and I hated it. I had the choice of either one when I bought my Charge and I prefer the Charge hands down.
I actually liked my old Liberty ROM DroidX better than the t-bolt except for the lack of 4g
~John

I love my Charge. It is a great all around phone with an amazing screen. The bionic is out tomorrow, so definately check that out as well.

Isn't there an htc phone coming out soon for Verizon? I believe its supposed to have dual core, 4g, a gig of ram, etch. Its going to replace the thunderbolt. But u would be losing the super amoled plus... which I happen to love on the charge.
Oh and htc phones are better suppported by developers. I learned the hard way after leaving the EVO for my charge.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA App

Things I love:
Super AMOLED screen. It's only 800x480, but it doesn't matter, still second to none (or the iPhone)
4g. It's super fast and luckily in alot of places I frequent in NJ.
32GB memory. Thoughful
Things I hate:
Touchwiz. Die please, thank good for LauncherPro.
Single Core Processor. For a phone this expensive...come on. I'm sure gingerbread will speed things up thought, it's not a major concern. Fast enough I guess.
Battery Life. I guess I'm used to my LG Thrive (ATT Optimus One), but it's pretty weak, no real difference between 3g and 4g use from my observations.
Gets hot. Plug it in to charge (no pun intended) and play angy birds...ouch.
Connectivity. 3g is bad with data drop outs, too bad I'm 3g at home . 4g works nearly flawlessly and is impressively fast.
Free RAM. 80MB after a reboot? Come on!!! To be fair, about 150 after I kill all the bloatware, but still, my Optimus One had more than that, like 100mb more!
I just feel for a flagship phone it skimped on some expectations I had...
I'd give the phone a 7/10, with MAJOR points added for the screen.