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.
Related
I just got a Thunderbolt about 2 weeks ago and am fed up with the poor battery + occasional random reboots(already tried everything and still not satisfied)... so since I'm still under Best Buy Mobile's return policy, I'm thinking of taking it back and getting either the Incredible 2 or the Droid Charge this thursday.
I primarily use my phone for mobile data(internet browsing, downloading) followed by watching videos/games, then lastly actual talking. I'd like something decent where I can watch a movie on it or do some web browsing/music/games a bit before going to bed and not have to worry if the phone's still going to have power when i get up the next morning.
I do like the bigger sceen on the Charge, but the Incredible seems to have a bit more RAM(granted the Incredible will not have LTE capabilities but they won't be offering LTE service in my area for some time anyway).
What do you guys think?
voxigenboy said:
I just got a Thunderbolt about 2 weeks ago and am fed up with the poor battery + occasional random reboots(already tried everything and still not satisfied)... so since I'm still under Best Buy Mobile's return policy, I'm thinking of taking it back and getting either the Incredible 2 or the Droid Charge this thursday.
I primarily use my phone for mobile data(internet browsing, downloading) followed by watching videos/games, then lastly actual talking. I'd like something decent where I can watch a movie on it or do some web browsing/music/games a bit before going to bed and not have to worry if the phone's still going to have power when i get up the next morning.
I do like the bigger sceen on the Charge, but the Incredible seems to have a bit more RAM(granted the Incredible will not have LTE capabilities but they won't be offering LTE service in my area for some time anyway).
What do you guys think?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Incredible 2. I don't trust Samsung, plus the Charge just looks ugly. The Incredible 2 (aka Incredible S) is also being released in other countries in a GSM flavor, so updates should be quicker anyways.
I would think the Incredible 2 will overall be a much better experience and I think it's cheaper.
Yeah Incredible 2. If you aren't going to have LTE in your area anytime soon, why bother? they pretty much have the same specs, except for screen size and some other things. Plus the inc 2 is a world phone, so if the need arises, you can take your phone with you around the world. Plus htc sense is a lot better than samsung touchwiz in terms of custom overlays. HTC has a better track record in quality, and software updates. You should be fine with the inc 2. I have the OG inc, and it is an awesome phone. I can imagine the inc 2 will be just as good and better.
Neither one.
Definitely the Incredible 2 that phone looks so awesome. To bad your not with T-Mobile the Sensation is going to be amazing and its going to have 1080p video recording along with Sense 3.0!
Well I read it somewhwhere that you can switch back to a 3g phone from a 4g sim card. I guess once you move your number to a sim that's that. So you might have to get a new number but I'd go with the incredible 2. Awesome home keys that turn with you turn the phone. Gl
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA Premium App
I'd go with the Inc 2. I'm a bit surprised VZW granted a Samsung phone the "Droid" moniker.
droid charge! i dont like htc, poor battery life :/
I'd go with the Inc2, I have the Inc and it is simply incredible (pun intended). The battery life on the stock ROM wasn't great but after rooting it I have it setup to give me a good 12-14 hours of uptime and I have the same usage as you except roll in a heavy work schedule that I use my phone for also.
The Droid Charge is $300. Totally not worth it.
Product F(RED) said:
The Droid Charge is $300. Totally not worth it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Best Buy Mobile is doing it for $249... so when i take the Thunderbolt back tomorrow it would be a straight swap.
i suppose with the Inc 2 being $199 that's an extra $50 back for all-you-can eat sushi! õ_Ô
voxigenboy said:
Best Buy Mobile is doing it for $249... so when i take the Thunderbolt back tomorrow it would be a straight swap.
i suppose with the Inc 2 being $199 that's an extra $50 back for all-you-can eat sushi! õ_Ô
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I mean the upside is it gets free Mobile Hotspot, but then again you get that from rooting...
The question should be Fascinate or Charge... No point in paying $100+ more for a worse screen and GPU.
this post brought to you by Swype
have you tried the radio update found in the developers section? it fixed my issues and you dont have to be rooted to do it.
I would say go with the Inc2 as it looks very nice and I have heard noting but good things about it! Besides, the Charge is going to have an encrypted bootloader and that is going to prevent you from being able to do much as far as rooting and ROMing is concerned.
Kratos
I have the droid charge and i most say it worth every penny. Screen is awesome, battery life 10x better the htc senseless, and I'm not just throwing shhh out there because I own the thunderbolt as well and I pick the charge.
king kratos said:
I would say go with the Inc2 as it looks very nice and I have heard noting but good things about it! Besides, the Charge is going to have an encrypted bootloader and that is going to prevent you from being able to do much as far as rooting and ROMing is concerned.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where are you getting this FUD? No Samsung has an encrypted bootloader. It's the Inc that's locked down: the GSM version has been out for months and still doesn't even have permanent root!
droid charge! i dont like htc, poor battery life :/
Aside from being pissed by the 1x at the top of the screen I was able to do everything I wanted to do. Sent text messages all day on Google Talk and Skype, downloaded the Amazon free app of the day (business calendar) in about 40 seconds. Updated a few other apps in about a min., received and responded to multiple emails all day long, uploaded a pic to facebook with no problems, And made calls... All on 1x!
Well there is a much bigger difference between 1x and 3G than there is between 3G and 4G…. So why would I ever sacrifice battery life on this device for that difference?
Crazy!
Unless you are using your phone for internet access for your PC via tether… I think everyone is just wasting battery life for nothing.
Then you bought the wrong phone. Better luck next time.
Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk
Dbagjones said:
Then you bought the wrong phone. Better luck next time.
Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did not buy the wrong phone at all!! I love the speed of the phone for running the apps. I love the screen, the 8MP cam, the great front facing cam. I bought this phone because it could run the Android OS very fast and smooth. Not at all for 4G.
Are you telling me you bought this phone just for the 4G???? If that’s the case I think I bought the phone for much better reasons than you did!
HawkStream said:
I did not buy the wrong phone at all!! I love the speed of the phone for running the apps. I love the screen, the 8MP cam, the great front facing cam. I bought this phone because it could run the Android OS very fast and smooth. Not at all for 4G.
Are you telling me you bought this phone just for the 4G???? If that’s the case I think I bought the phone for much better reasons than you did!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
Love How Stable and Hackable HTC Phones are. Good Size screen, More Ram for Multi Tasking, Front Camera, Kickstand. This thing is a Beast Overclocked. Im Not in a 4g City bit when I go out of town (Which I do Often) 4G Is just Icing on the Cake.
HawkStream said:
I did not buy the wrong phone at all!! I love the speed of the phone for running the apps. I love the screen, the 8MP cam, the great front facing cam. I bought this phone because it could run the Android OS very fast and smooth. Not at all for 4G.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are plenty of better phones out there as far as performance and features go. The Thunderbolt is an inefficient beast; in the class of smartphones, it's metaphorically similar to the 17" Desktop Replacement laptop. In other words, it's big, heavy, and very power-hungry, relative to other members of its device class.
If you had waited until the May or June launch of the Samsung phones with the Tegra 2 dual core SoC with Nvidia graphics, that thing will absolutely blow your socks off, and probably also ship with Android 2.3 or 2.4 if it's out by then. Why buy a phone still using the old PowerVR SGX core if you are crazy about graphics performance, when the SGX is just a few months away from being eclipsed by Tegra 2 phones?
HawkStream said:
Are you telling me you bought this phone just for the 4G???? If that’s the case I think I bought the phone for much better reasons than you did!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's the first LTE smartphone to market. Ever. Period. In the whole world. And you're telling me you bought it because it's fast? Pssh -- as far as the non-networked components go, it's basically no better than a Droid 2. It's the last model to use 2009-2010 era SoC, and the only reason it doesn't use something more cutting-edge is because the brand new chips are still being debugged and tested, and they needed a phone out in March.
The Thunderbolt has a separate radio chip for the CDMA/EvDO and the LTE. This is highly suboptimal from both a power standpoint and size/weight. Qualcomm says they can probably have chips available by early 2012 that offer both traditional CDMA, voice, and LTE in a single integrated circuit, which would also probably use smaller fabrication process technology for even less power consumption and weight. The Thunderbolt is a "hack" as far as smartphones are concerned; it's very unusual for any kind of phone to have two radios in it (even if it supports more than one radio protocol, they're usually supported together on a single chip). The phone was rushed, hence why they couldn't wait for Qualcomm to get their integrated LTE+CDMA chip together.
You can rip the Thunderbolt apart this way by looking under the hood and pointing out its many limitations and flaws. The only thing that stands out -- the only killer feature that sets this apart from the Droid 2 or any other 2010 Android-based 3G phone -- is the LTE. If not for the LTE, the Thunderbolt is just a power-hungry, heavy version of the Droid 2 (or Droid X, I guess, since it lacks a hardware keyboard too).
Since Verizon locks you in to a two year contract, you should really be planning ahead a bit unless you have $600 - $750 to sink on a retail smartphone. If you had waited for just a few more months to get the more killer "core specs" (CPU, GPU, RAM) on the phones coming out in the latter half of 2011, you would be getting the first round of the next generation of the CPU/GPU bump. And since that's what you seem to value (moreso than the bandwidth), that's probably what you should have waited for.
Now you're stuck with a phone (as am I) that will have significantly underpowered specs by the time the two year term is up -- it's entirely possible that new Android apps and games written in Q1 2013 (the last stretch of your 2 year term) will not run at all on your Thunderbolt, or lag so badly that they're unusable, because they are tuned to run on e.g. the Tegra 2 or later dual core platforms.
But I don't play games on my phone, so that doesn't matter to me. The LTE is why I value this phone so much and bought it, and since I don't exercise the CPU/GPU as highly as cellphone gamers, it probably won't matter a lick to me that in early 2013 I won't be able to play Angry Birds 3 on my Thunderbolt. I'll be satisfied that I got a full two years worth of fast LTE service, and that's what's important to me.
So just saying, if you don't care about the extra bandwidth, you made a fairly bad choice. The other aspects of the Thunderbolt are gonna be obsolete pretty quick because the non-network parts of the phone are built around a late 2009 platform, so unless you want to shell out retail when Tegra 2 phones hit, you might come to regret your purchase in about a year.
In comparison to graphics cards, it'd be like buying a Nvidia GTX 280 (supporting DirectX 10.1) a month before the Fermi cards hit the shelves (supporting DirectX 11).
Yeah guys, this was a 4G phone first and foremost. The screen, processor and ram are all average. Actually the screen is already outdated with QHD screens out. Not to mention the phone is a heavy beast with a tiny battery. Don't get me wrong I love the TB, It looks great and is fairly powerful, but the main reason I bought it was to have 4G. Now I can get rid of my cable modem. But to the point of the OP, when not tethering it actually works great with just 1x or 3G
If I didn't care about 4g I would have waited for a dual core, qhd device to come out. I wanted the Bionic which has all of the above, but they keep pushing it out amid massive development problems.
I cant download roms on the fly with Rom Manager, or update CM7-alpha while im out of the house on 1x.. thats really the only thing I saw
allquixotic said:
It's the first LTE smartphone to market. Ever. Period. In the whole world.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
uhm...no. MetroPCS beat Verizon to the punch on that one.
HawkStream said:
Aside from being pissed by the 1x at the top of the screen I was able to do everything I wanted to do. Sent text messages all day on Google Talk and Skype, downloaded the Amazon free app of the day (business calendar) in about 40 seconds. Updated a few other apps in about a min., received and responded to multiple emails all day long, uploaded a pic to facebook with no problems, And made calls... All on 1x!
Well there is a much bigger difference between 1x and 3G than there is between 3G and 4G…. So why would I ever sacrifice battery life on this device for that difference?
Crazy!
Unless you are using your phone for internet access for your PC via tether… I think everyone is just wasting battery life for nothing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So sell your Thunderbolt, get a RAZR, it seems that should suit you fine. Plus then you don't have to worry about battery life.
Your post today has taught me how much I don't care about what you say.
1X for a day made me have the exact opposite realization. I live in a 4G area and I am getting so spoiled by the lighting fast speeds (sometimes faster than my home broadband connection). When I had 1X, I couldn't send MMS, browsing the web was painfully slow and it was generally all around a miserable experience.
Wasn't able to steam anything at all. No AudioGalaxy, YouTube, Hulu, other Flash content. Web browsing was ridiculously slow. Downloading and installing updates was painful.
I have missed my LTE. Sorry you don't use your phone to its full capacity but some people do. I'd rather my phone not be limited to the speed of the network. If you're cool with it, congrats.
drumz0rz said:
1X for a day made me have the exact opposite realization. I live in a 4G area and I am getting so spoiled by the lighting fast speeds (sometimes faster than my home broadband connection). When I had 1X, I couldn't send MMS, browsing the web was painfully slow and it was generally all around a miserable experience.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So agreed! Even when I got it to go onto 3G I still was like "Ughhhhhh!" Yeah, 3G is decent, but 4G is incredible. If >10X faster doesn't make a difference to you, maybe this isn't the phone for you. I noticed the difference all day. Sure, it doesn't take that long to download an app on 3G, maybe 30 seconds to 2 minutes, but you can't tell me that waiting 2 minutes is the same experience as it happening virtually instantly. On my phone, I want things happening quickly. I wanna be able to get it out and get to what I wanted to do quickly so I'm not just standing there waiting on my phone on the sidewalk. I mean, come on, with 4G most things are practically instant -- 3G there's always some waiting. If waiting is something that's okay, maybe conventional ovens are just as good as microwaves and cable internet is just as good as fiber optic, etc.
HawkStream said:
Unless you are using your phone for internet access for your PC via tether… I think everyone is just wasting battery life for nothing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can't tell; is this a troll thread?
Having a 4G thunderbolt without 4G connection was the least enjoyment i've ever got out of this phone.
I've literally been twitching from the withdrawal.
4G is a night and day difference from 3G, no questions asked.
I used Wifi at Home and Work, so I was unimpacted.
And to the one guy with the long story, true this is a 2009-2010 phone, and I ONLY bought it to lock myself into cheap 4G/LTE pricing before it gets out of control and data caps, etc...
...but unless gaming is your thing, the Thunderbolt will do 90-95% of everything you need for at least the next two years. Sure I was holding out for the Galaxy SII, and I will probably sell the TB and buy a Dual Core phone off contract with the money that I make, but that is not even an issue at this point because this phone does EVERYTHING I need.
Eddog4DROID said:
I used Wifi at Home and Work, so I was unimpacted.
And to the one guy with the long story, true this is a 2009-2010 phone, and I ONLY bought it to lock myself into cheap 4G/LTE pricing before it gets out of control and data caps, etc...
...but unless gaming is your thing, the Thunderbolt will do 90-95% of everything you need for at least the next two years. Sure I was holding out for the Galaxy SII, and I will probably sell the TB and buy a Dual Core phone off contract with the money that I make, but that is not even an issue at this point because this phone does EVERYTHING I need.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I love my TB, i haven't even gotten to use 4G yet and i love it compared to my Eris. I think 3G is fast enough now that I have a phone that can handle using it lol. Also every Android phone will be obsolete after a year, this forum is proof that the hardware cannot keep up with the advancements in technology. I agree with you on selling my TB to get a phone with a Dual Core or a nicer video card but this phone gets me through the day and more using "Mobile Network" only when i need it because you don't need that sh!t on to text or call. Everyone that complains this thing is a heavy beast you are a retard imo, its a F'n phone its in your pocket and you don't feel it 95% of the day. When you hold a phone its usually for just over a minute maximum. If your holding off on the purchase of a phone because of weight you are a dumbass.
WOW at this thread lol espcially wow at the guy who said 1x was fine. I know personally I do tons of stuff that require the internet. Facebook/twitter/youtube/email/browsing. All that sucked on 1x it was like being on 56k I could only do one thing at a time and on top of that it did it slowly. Now my 4G is back I can surf the net pop over to facebook and twitter and still stream music/youtube with out missing a beat. 4G is serious
allquixotic said:
It's the first LTE smartphone to market. Ever. Period. In the whole world.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope...
PJnc284 said:
uhm...no. MetroPCS beat Verizon to the punch on that one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1, this is exactly what I was thinking when I read that post.
Turns out that I did care. My home WiFi happened to crap out the day before. While I did what I could to fix it, it became a lower priority with this phone. D'oh!
As to the larger issue of why buy this phone, I will chime in. Until VZW recently turned on LTE where I live, I thought it was going to be at least a year out. I was wrong. I had planned on buying a Dinc 2, as I loved my Dinc, and it would hold me out until LTE was where I was, and by then i'd have a number of choices.
Why I bought the Tbolt 2 weeks ago: 4G locked in at this price for at least 2 years. Can't predict the future, but this matters to me. Next: developer support. I don't like Moto, and devs really do an amazing job with HTC phones. I worried that the Dinc 2 would get no (or less) love. The LG and Sammy phones may turn out to be great but they are not released yet, and who knows what kind of dev support there will be.
Lastly, the sooner I upgraded (I was sitting on an early upgrade for almost a year), the sooner I can upgrade to the next or next next gen phone.
Phone has a bug or two, but no regrets at all (already rooted), and as I said I had thought my rooted Dinc was awesome.
Get a droid incredible
sent from planet snarf
Everyone has a butthole and everyone think theirs is more special than the other person but you shouldn't go around flaunting your asshole and telling others theirs should be like yours.
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...
Hey guys,
Currently have the incredible and love it but I need a bigger screen. Im due for an upgrade and like the charge. Would Anyone who upgraded to it from an incredible be down to post their experiences?
Thanks,
Sent from my 2.3.5 Incredible Obsession
bigsapz said:
Hey guys,
Currently have the incredible and love it but I need a bigger screen. Im due for an upgrade and like the charge. Would Anyone who upgraded to it from an incredible be down to post their experiences?
Thanks,
Sent from my 2.3.5 Incredible Obsession
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It depends on you want. There is not nearly the amount of roms to choose from as there is for the DInc, but the ones we do have are great. If I had an upgrade, and was in your situation, I'd wait for the SGS2 or HTC Vigor. The Charge is a great phone but I wouldn't use an upgrade on it considering what is coming in the near future. Just my opinion though.
I did this in a roundabout way in that I used the Incredible for a year before getting my Charge, but I didn't use an upgrade (one of my kids had the Fascinate, but since he doesn't live in a 4G coverage area, I replaced his Fascinate with my Incredible and appropriated the Charge). I can say that I'm much happier with the phone having gotten it for free than I would be if I had paid for it, but overall quite pleased.
The Charge has has better:
-Battery life (by around 40%)
-Screen (I had both the SLCD and OLED DIncs- SAMOLED+ blows both away)
-Usability (screen size is much better for typing accuracy)
-Multimedia experience- SGX540 trounces the rather dated Adreno200
-Audio quality- especially with Voodoo Sound
-Bootloader design- ODIN mode is great for recovering from ****ups
Things that really don't impact my opinion
-4G is incredible in theory- in practice, Google Music and Netflix could both stream just fine over good old EV-DO RevA, and for anything else I need to download I have home wifi and 25Mbit Comcast Xfinity, so it's still sort of unnecessary. It is cool to be able to say my phone has a faster broadband connection than my home.... I'm regularly seeing 30mbit down/6 up. I'm not using it as a hotspot as I don't feel like either shelling out or risking my service, and I will say that I'm using 3-4x the data on LTE than I did over 3G, with better battery life as previously mentioned.
-Overall usability- the Hummingbird is a tad quicker than the Snapdragon, but overall I always found the DInc to be a quite responsive phone- no problems with either
-Call quality- though the Charge has a dual mic setup, they both sound the same on my end. Hard to find fault with Verizon.
Things that I still have to hand to the Incredible
-I have the Charge in an Otterbox Commuter to protect its incredibly vulnerable back shell. While this gives it a great solid feel in the hand, it also makes it a bit on the difficult side to slide in and out of pockets. The DInc was a very convenient size.
-ROM selection is way better for the DInc- though, let's be honest, I didn't care about anything else once CM7 for DInc was out. Here's hoping it hits the Charge soon.
Final thoughts- rumor has it the Bionic could be out within a week, but even if that's premature it's certainly not more than a month away. The Galaxy S2 and HTC Vigor are also both right around the corner. The Charge is about to be replaced as a flagship model. My approval of it is tempered by the fact that I got it for free. You may want to hold off a bit.
I came from the Droid incredible as well and echo the posts above. The charge is an upgrade but at this point just wait for gs2, vigor, or nexus.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA App
I came from the Dinc which I treasured. The dev community was awesome for the Dinc but I love eclipse.
Not sure why you would wait for the sgs2, it may not have 4G.
And the Bionic is just a bigger droid 3 with 4G. Of course to each his own, and I personally saw the samoled+ and just had to have it. I could have waited for the bionic or sgs2 but why? Whatever phone you get, im sure you will love. Afterall, they all do just about the same thing.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA App
I upgraded from the Dinc a couple of months ago and I'm semi happy with my upgrade. The 2 main reasons to upgrade to this phone are the screen and 4G. I guess it depends how important those two things are to you. All the phones coming out in the next couple of months will probably have those two things AND have upgraded processors, RAM, etc. So if I were in your shoes, I would wait a couple of months to see what else is coming out.
I came from the Incredible and am in love with mCharge. Has the hardkey buttons and 4g. Plus the screen it was everything I wanted. Before I got the Charge I was considering waiting on the Bionic but I personally am happy with the choice I made.
Sent from my GummyCHARGED Charge using Tapatalk
MillionManMosh said:
I did this in a roundabout way in that I used the Incredible for a year before getting my Charge, but I didn't use an upgrade (one of my kids had the Fascinate, but since he doesn't live in a 4G coverage area, I replaced his Fascinate with my Incredible and appropriated the Charge). I can say that I'm much happier with the phone having gotten it for free than I would be if I had paid for it, but overall quite pleased.
The Charge has has better:
-Battery life (by around 40%)
-Screen (I had both the SLCD and OLED DIncs- SAMOLED+ blows both away)
-Usability (screen size is much better for typing accuracy)
-Multimedia experience- SGX540 trounces the rather dated Adreno200
-Audio quality- especially with Voodoo Sound
-Bootloader design- ODIN mode is great for recovering from ****ups
Things that really don't impact my opinion
-4G is incredible in theory- in practice, Google Music and Netflix could both stream just fine over good old EV-DO RevA, and for anything else I need to download I have home wifi and 25Mbit Comcast Xfinity, so it's still sort of unnecessary. It is cool to be able to say my phone has a faster broadband connection than my home.... I'm regularly seeing 30mbit down/6 up. I'm not using it as a hotspot as I don't feel like either shelling out or risking my service, and I will say that I'm using 3-4x the data on LTE than I did over 3G, with better battery life as previously mentioned.
-Overall usability- the Hummingbird is a tad quicker than the Snapdragon, but overall I always found the DInc to be a quite responsive phone- no problems with either
-Call quality- though the Charge has a dual mic setup, they both sound the same on my end. Hard to find fault with Verizon.
Things that I still have to hand to the Incredible
-I have the Charge in an Otterbox Commuter to protect its incredibly vulnerable back shell. While this gives it a great solid feel in the hand, it also makes it a bit on the difficult side to slide in and out of pockets. The DInc was a very convenient size.
-ROM selection is way better for the DInc- though, let's be honest, I didn't care about anything else once CM7 for DInc was out. Here's hoping it hits the Charge soon.
Final thoughts- rumor has it the Bionic could be out within a week, but even if that's premature it's certainly not more than a month away. The Galaxy S2 and HTC Vigor are also both right around the corner. The Charge is about to be replaced as a flagship model. My approval of it is tempered by the fact that I got it for free. You may want to hold off a bit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I came from the Incredible as well, and I echo everything this guy said. Although I did pay for the phone instead of free (lucky guy lol) I feel like it was worth it. I still use my Incredible (deactivated, but still works on wifi) just for random games and testing out custom roms because we all know the Inc has some great developers. Charge development is looking great too though and I can't wait to see the likes of CM7, MIUI, etc on this phone. It's not perfect, but if you convert from RFS to EXT4 it's really close.
DINC to Charge
bigsapz said:
Hey guys,
Currently have the incredible and love it but I need a bigger screen. Im due for an upgrade and like the charge. Would Anyone who upgraded to it from an incredible be down to post their experiences?
Thanks,
Sent from my 2.3.5 Incredible Obsession
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I echo all the "good" comments as I came from the DINC a month or so ago. The only thing I miss is the LED that the "DINC used for letting you know it's charging. The Charge experience is a little different than the HTC experience but it just lets you know what else is out there.
I would hold out for the Bionic. I upgraded from Dinc to Charge because Verizon was changing their unlimited tier plans and I was afraid of missing the boat so I used my upgrade to lock myself in. The Charge was the best at the time but if you can wait until the Bionic comes out 9/8-ish I would. Dual core, 4G, 4.3 inch screen plus the ability to use the Motorola dock/laptop thingy (if you're interested) is a def plus. I can't remember RAM and storage specs but I think they beat the Charge as well.
One thing I did notice coming from Dinc to Charge was the snappiness of the ROMs. Once lagfix was enabled though it was pretty hard to distinguish the difference.
wenzer said:
I would hold out for the Bionic. I upgraded from Dinc to Charge because Verizon was changing their unlimited tier plans and I was afraid of missing the boat so I used my upgrade to lock myself in.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You do realize if you were already on an unlimited data plan, you were locked in?
Anyway to the OP. I came from the Fascinate to the Charge. I got in on the free exchange. The Charge is a great phone. I would say it's a Fascinate 2. I don't think I would have used (wasted) an upgrade on this phone. I think it's best to see what the Bionic, Vigor, SGS2 & iPhone 5 bring to the table. This is especially true when you consider Verizon did away with 1 year contracts.
On a side note, my daughter has a Dinc. She absolutely refuses to upgrade her phone. She says it's simply "Incredible". Lol.
I'm months overdue from getting rid of my Touch Pro 2, and the Charge is one of my top contenders. I was holding out for the Bionic (or rumored Verizon Nexus S), but after researching the X2 and Droid 3 and seeing the Dev community having issues achieving root, I'm now leaning back towards the current single core LTE handsets.
The brief time I've spent looking around, it looks like the battery life is great considering the usual LTE excess drain. Obviously the phone is rootable, there are kernels and roms available, and the dev community seems to be very active with the phone in general.
I haven't specifically seen any mention of overclock ability or "stealth" tethering, but I would have to assume these are all doable considering the kernel and rom availability.
If anybody wouldn't mind sharing some general feedback, I would greatly appreciate it!
* In general, how happy have you been with your Charge, and why?
* Why did you choose it over, say, the LG Revolution?
* Anyone unhappy with their decision to go with the Charge (after-the-fact) over something else, and if so, why?
Thanks again in advance for any comments, they would be much appreciated!
Cheers!
I like my charge. I also came from a TP2 like you. The battery life is decent but the 4g is awesome to have. It flies. I use stealth tethering via wireless tether for root users. The dev community is very active. The main issues I have are bluetooth related. I often have to reboot before I get into my car so I know there will not be bluetooth disconnects. Now that netflix is available I like the phone even more. Also I love swype.
Good luck and smart idea asking the questions that you are asking.
Sent from my VZW SGT running a Gingerbread Sprint Rom
I came to the Charge from the Revolution. I liked the feel of the Revo, it was heavier, felt solid and well made and it was also a much faster phone than the charge out of the box giving me Quadrants in 2k to 22k range. On 4g Speed tests the Charge is faster.
But when I had two Revolutions brick themselves so hard that I could not get into a factory reset, nor anything else in the space of 30 days I had VZW upgrade me to the Charge.
So far the Charge has beena pretty decent phone (considering I've rooted and ROMed it.) Stock I hated it.
I'm using Humble 1.42 as my ROM and I'm happy so far.
Time to upgrade buddy. Humble 1.51 is sick.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk
omnia38 said:
Time to upgrade buddy. Humble 1.51 is sick.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
**** humble he is nothing but a thief gummy is where it's at.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA Premium App
schick79 said:
* In general, how happy have you been with your Charge, and why? Very happy. 4G is lightning fast; the screen is the best out there; I personally find the Samsung TouchWiz UI to be very friendly. Others don't; each to his own. Battery life seems at least as good as any other Android phone; I can get 9-12 hours, which is all I need, unless I'm in a fringe reception area.
* Why did you choose it over, say, the LG Revolution? LG phones generally seem to be more troublesome from what I've read. Plus the screen is greatly inferior.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Red comments above.
schick79 said:
I'm months overdue from getting rid of my Touch Pro 2, and the Charge is one of my top contenders. I was holding out for the Bionic (or rumored Verizon Nexus S), but after researching the X2 and Droid 3 and seeing the Dev community having issues achieving root, I'm now leaning back towards the current single core LTE handsets.
The brief time I've spent looking around, it looks like the battery life is great considering the usual LTE excess drain. Obviously the phone is rootable, there are kernels and roms available, and the dev community seems to be very active with the phone in general.
I haven't specifically seen any mention of overclock ability or "stealth" tethering, but I would have to assume these are all doable considering the kernel and rom availability.
If anybody wouldn't mind sharing some general feedback, I would greatly appreciate it!
* In general, how happy have you been with your Charge, and why?
* Why did you choose it over, say, the LG Revolution?
* Anyone unhappy with their decision to go with the Charge (after-the-fact) over something else, and if so, why?
Thanks again in advance for any comments, they would be much appreciated!
Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry for quoting this long, its hard to look back at posts on your phone. I came from an LG Versa. That phone was complete ****, but I was 13 or 14 and something appealed to me. This is my upgrade. I love it, except for the battery life. We have 2 main custom roms, GummyCharged and Eclipse. (Humble is just a spinoff/kang of GC), and 2-3 kernels - PeanutButtaJellyTime (plus an OC edition, you mentioned you didn't see it), Nameless, and imoseyon's kernel, which you will only find on his Twitter page. "Stealth Tethering" is still available with Wifi Tether Beta3 on Google Code. I chose this over the Tbolt and Revolution because a verizon rep told me this was the 4G phone with the least issues and most positive customer feedback, plus I thought this one had the most support from XDA (the tbolt has a lot too though). My only peeve with this phone is its lack of support from Samsung. We basically have to do everything ourselves because Sammy hasn't given us good source. We don't get TW4 (although we have our attempts at porting it), and GB is FINALLY almost here. The Wolfson DAC is amazing, but the GPS (Yamaha?) leaves something to be desired. But in closing, I love this phone and im glad I got it.
Sent from my Droid Charge running GummyFroyo 1.9.1
kvswim, thanks VERY much for that! Quick question, though (or for anyone else), not actually having an Android phone yet, I have no idea what TW4 or DAC means.
Great to know OC is an option, as well as stealth tethering.
Also appreciate the scoop on the different flavors of roms/kernels/etc.
If I end up going with this phone (which is now far ahead in the lead), that will be the first thing I do upon opening up the box.
Thanks again!
schick79 said:
kvswim, thanks VERY much for that! Quick question, though (or for anyone else), not actually having an Android phone yet, I have no idea what TW4 or DAC means.
Great to know OC is an option, as well as stealth tethering.
Also appreciate the scoop on the different flavors of roms/kernels/etc.
If I end up going with this phone (which is now far ahead in the lead), that will be the first thing I do upon opening up the box.
Thanks again!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
TW4=TouchWiz 4, Sammy's 4th generation of their UI overlay, similar to HTC's Sense or Motorola's Motoblur. We have TW3. Also, the stock theming is HIDEOUS. Poop color EVERYWHERE.
The Wolfson DAC is the audio chipset in most (all?) Samsung Galaxy phones. It is amazing compared to other phones, it's audiophile quality. Plus the EQ and amplifier outputs can be modified with the Voodoo Control app (you can also change Voodoo lagfix in it).
PROTIP on selecting ROMS: If you like the stock feel go with Eclipse. If you like more of an Android Open Source Project (AOSP) feel, use GC. I highly reccommend trying both and seeing what you like more. Also, as of now, Gingerbread is completely up to you, as all we have in GB are leaks and no source (its completely unnoficial). Our Froyo builds are built from official ROMS and source.
Oh yes, we have stuff like MIUI and CM7 and OMFGB in development. Protip: NEVER ask for ETAs.
Sent from my Droid Charge running GummyFroyo 1.9.1
Gotcha, thanks. I do have a Xoom, but considering that's on Honeycomb, I didn't think there would be any relation between it and any phone.
When you said DAC the only thing that came to mind was digital to analog converter, but I didn't think that would be it. Guess I was wrong! That's another huge plus as my phone is always my mp3/flac player.
Will definitely check out all roms if/once I get the phone.
At this point I'm pretty much sold on the Charge as opposed to the Revo or TB, and even the Bionic. However, I am wondering if it's worth waiting a couple weeks until the rumored September release date for the Bionic to see if the price points fall. All things being equal, they should.
Again, thanks for all the help!
I got my charge 2 days ago...via a sweet craigslist deal. Anyways, I'm coming from the THunderbolt. I still haven't rooted the phone yet but the tbolt was perma rooted running a GB rom. Now I know you said LG rev but I'm going to go on a little rant here based on my initial thoughts.
I gotta say, I think the charge is an underrated phone. So far the battery life on the charge is DESTROYING the thunderbolt. The real test will be tomorrow when I'm at work with a poor data signal. I think the phone itself looks great, it is much better in person than you see in pictures. In pictures it looks fat and weird, I think its pretty sleek for a 4.3" LTE phone. Nice metal accents, good form factor, I could've done without the android hardkeys, but I don't mind them.
Samsung phones get knocked for build quality, but my galaxy s when I was on tmobile took a ton of abuse, the screen never scratched and even the "metal" accent trims don't scratch much. Also, I personally like the lighter weight feel of the samsung phones (galaxy, nexus, charge, etc).
Take that in comparison with HTC phones and the thunderbolt... I seroiusly don't know what kind of HTC koolaid people drink but I've never been impressed. The thunderbolt's screen is NOT very scratch resistant, the kickstand peel reaked of sh*t quality, I ended up polishing mine. When I had my nexus one, the power button felt like crap. When I had my HD7, the battery cover squeaked like hell. Like I said, I don't get how HTC gets so much credit.
Moving on to slam HTC more, if you ask me, HTC sense sucks, its so intrusive and blocky to me. Maybe I'm in the minority there but I'm sick of the stupid HTC clock widget, the menus, etc, just isn't my thing I guess. Lets not to mention the messages app in the thunderbolt freezing ALOT. Of course I ditched sense with the AOSP rom I was running but still, initial frustration. People give touchwiz heat, but I really don't mind it.
Reception - I'm getting FAR better 4g connectivity with the charge. I don't know what was up with my tbolt but once I'd drop to 3g or 1x, I could never get back to 4g unless I rebooted. Multiple radios - same issue.
Finally, the screen. Sorry but one of the most rewarding things with a phone is the screen, every time you turn it on, you obviously see it, and with the charge, thats a good thing because the super amoled plus is just excellent. Destroys the thunderbolt and most other phones in general.
Forget quadrant scores (people get wayyyy hung up on QS), dual cores, everything else. At the end of the day, if the aesthetics of the phone are good - size, weight, pocketability, the screen, the device is snappy (and the charge is smooth for me in stock form), and battery life is good, I'm gonna be happy. With all those things into account, I think the charge is a great phone so far and I'm really surprised its kind of slid under the radar and not given credit because people are waiting for the bionic and gs2.
Sorry to do tbolt vs charge since thats not what you're looking for, but as far as general feedback - I think you're going to be happy with the charge, its quite honestly a very nice phone. I'm glad I gave another LTE phone a chance before I lost faith in it.
Thanks Dale, I actually do appreciate the TBolt comparison. It was originally my #1 or #2 pick, so this reaffirms that it is rightfully at the bottom of my list.
It just hit me that Super AMOLED is probably the same as SAMOLED. I saw another article (about a completely different phone, actually) that was raving about SAMOLED. Good to have some additional confirmation on that.
I was originally hung up on Quadrant scores and having that dual core. However, after I thought about it, I'm really not sure how important it is considering what I would use the phone for. I have my Xoom, and that is my real "mobile workhorse" now, so that's the device that I'm more concerned about performance on. The phone will primarily be for web browsing, work e-mail, music, tethering, and that's pretty much it. Any other heavy lifting would probably be done by the Xoom. All that being said, I've pretty much convinced myself I won't miss not having the second core. Plus, I'm sure the battery life is better with only 1 core versus 2.
I'm actually pretty stoked after reading all of this feedback, especially the feedback from people who had another LTE phone. I feel good about going with this phone in the very near future.
Again, thanks to all!
schick79 said:
Thanks Dale, I actually do appreciate the TBolt comparison. It was originally my #1 or #2 pick, so this reaffirms that it is rightfully at the bottom of my list.
It just hit me that Super AMOLED is probably the same as SAMOLED. I saw another article (about a completely different phone, actually) that was raving about SAMOLED. Good to have some additional confirmation on that.
I was originally hung up on Quadrant scores and having that dual core. However, after I thought about it, I'm really not sure how important it is considering what I would use the phone for. I have my Xoom, and that is my real "mobile workhorse" now, so that's the device that I'm more concerned about performance on. The phone will primarily be for web browsing, work e-mail, music, tethering, and that's pretty much it. Any other heavy lifting would probably be done by the Xoom. All that being said, I've pretty much convinced myself I won't miss not having the second core. Plus, I'm sure the battery life is better with only 1 core versus 2.
I'm actually pretty stoked after reading all of this feedback, especially the feedback from people who had another LTE phone. I feel good about going with this phone in the very near future.
Again, thanks to all!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
"Super AMOLED" and "SAMOLED" are the same thing, however the Charges' screen is SAMOLED+ But yeah I think it was pretty solid upgrade for me, I love the screen, 4G is blazing fast, build quality and durability are pretty decent and the included 32gb sd card is plenty of room for music, videos and apps
schick79 said:
I'm months overdue from getting rid of my Touch Pro 2, and the Charge is one of my top contenders. I was holding out for the Bionic (or rumored Verizon Nexus S), but after researching the X2 and Droid 3 and seeing the Dev community having issues achieving root, I'm now leaning back towards the current single core LTE handsets.
The brief time I've spent looking around, it looks like the battery life is great considering the usual LTE excess drain. Obviously the phone is rootable, there are kernels and roms available, and the dev community seems to be very active with the phone in general.
I haven't specifically seen any mention of overclock ability or "stealth" tethering, but I would have to assume these are all doable considering the kernel and rom availability.
If anybody wouldn't mind sharing some general feedback, I would greatly appreciate it!
* In general, how happy have you been with your Charge, and why?
* Why did you choose it over, say, the LG Revolution?
* Anyone unhappy with their decision to go with the Charge (after-the-fact) over something else, and if so, why?
Thanks again in advance for any comments, they would be much appreciated!
Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dude...
Don't get the Charge.
While it's very true there will alwaya be devices that outperform * it'a safe to say the Charge seemed rushed from development to market probably because they were tapped to do so because of either HTC or Motk dropped the ball...
While rooting can solve the much outdated 2.2 joke made at our expense and even though many people have been forced to look at a front face camera (that takes back assward pics no less) and that isn't working across the board for many video chat users....you are forced to deal with an unrecoverable error such as the laughable RAM, arguably necessity of a notifcation LED, and ****ty build quality Samsung (in this device) exemplifies times 10.
Wait and be patient is the best intelligent decision considering the norm will (soon) be:
4.3-4.5 screen (hd res)
1gb of RAM
16gb internal storage
Up to date operating systems...
That said, I enjoy and dislike my Charge.
It's better than my O.G. DROID.
It takes THE best pictures and video of any phone Verizon offers...period.
Do I enjoy the squeaky hard buttons?
Do I like seeing particles of dust (a la bb storm 9530) ?
Do I enjoy ****ty plastic that easily scratches?
Nope.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA App
schick79 said:
I was originally hung up on Quadrant scores and having that dual core. However, after I thought about it, I'm really not sure how important it is considering what I would use the phone for. I have my Xoom, and that is my real "mobile workhorse" now, so that's the device that I'm more concerned about performance on. The phone will primarily be for web browsing, work e-mail, music, tethering, and that's pretty much it. Any other heavy lifting would probably be done by the Xoom. All that being said, I've pretty much convinced myself I won't miss not having the second core. Plus, I'm sure the battery life is better with only 1 core versus 2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For what it's worth, running overclocked and undervolted on Froyo Eclipse, my Quadrant scores were 1800-1900, which was about double the original score. Not the best but not terrible. Still had solid battery life, great stability, etc. Definitely glad I got this phone, but that's mainly because I rooted it and fixed so many of the things I didn't like originally. Playing on the EP1Q GummyCharged GBE ROM now and still loving it, just get to use the FFC for video chat.
Honestly, yes there will be VZW devices that out-spec it soon, but I've not found it lacking anything (that couldn't be fixed thanks to the dev community). Very happy with it.
You have the Motorola Bionic and the Galaxy S2 dropping within the month, I'd hold out. Not to say that the Droid Charge isn't good, but, those phones are going to be right around the same price and will smoke the Charge in performance.
The Droid Charge isn't that great. I only got it because I needed something to get in on Unlimited data and the Charge was supposed to get better battery life than the other two LTE phones.
First, the battery life is just OK. Only around 4-5 hours of music streaming.
Second, the 4G reception is incredibly spotty. The phone will drop to 3G for seemingly no reason. Sometimes data cuts out completely or goes to 1x (this is a widespread problem).
Like other Galaxy S phones, this has GPS issues. Sometimes GPS will stop working until you reboot the phones. I've never seen it reports an accuracy of more than 5 meters.
Even after trying the GPS fix posted in the other topic, I was only getting 10-18m accuracy outside with 7-9 satellites in view.
The Super AMOLED+ screen is pretty much amazing though.
It seems like Samsung is decent at hardware but bad at software. And there aren't any ROMs available here that aren't based on Samsung software.
I'd at least wait and see about the Bionic or Nexus Prime.
schick79 said:
* In general, how happy have you been with your Charge, and why?
* Why did you choose it over, say, the LG Revolution?
* Anyone unhappy with their decision to go with the Charge (after-the-fact) over something else, and if so, why?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) I'm VERY happy with my Charge. It's probably because this was my first smartphone but I'm simply blown away by it. Especially considering we have Cyanogen & OMGB/OMFGB coming our way(in-fact, they just got CM working! Not finished, but it's a start)
2) I looked at all the phones that were out and coming out and decided on the Charge. I didn't look into the dev support for other phones I was just looking at specs/reviews to make my decision.
3) Lets get this straight, I am in no way unhappy with my Charge and did not "settle" when picking this phone but in all honesty the Prime/GalaxyS2/Bionic look great and if they were released at the time of me picking out a phone I would have gotten them in that order. Only downside to this phone is the fact that it's not on GB and most likely won't ever get TW4. If you can get around that you'll love this phone. Also, once you see the screen you will never go back to a non Amoled, qHD ain't got **** on this baby!
My wife an I both got charges a couple of months ago. I am rooted and she is stock. When I pick up her phone and mess around with it, I absolutely hate it. I love mine (gummy charged). I don't know how people can use this phone stock.
el_brio said:
My wife an I both got charges a couple of months ago. I am rooted and she is stock. When I pick up her phone and mess around with it, I absolutely hate it. I love mine (gummy charged). I don't know how people can use this phone stock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im almost in the same exact situation and couldnt agree more