After using the Droid Charge for some time, I am left with some mixed feelings. To start, the Droid Charge was not released with any mind-blowing specs; they were about the same as phones released in 2010. With the Charge, I experienced great earphone and speakerphone quality as well as great microphone quality for the people on the other end of the call. The Droid Charge is very similar to the Samsung Fascinate, which was released in 2010. Although, the Charge features Verizon’s new 4G LTE service which boasts home internet speeds.
Droid Charge Unboxing
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFO3nCF6_r4&feature=channel_video_title[/youtube]
Hardware
The Droid Charge features a beautiful 4.3” Super AMOLED plus display. Besides the gorgeous display, the Charge features an 8MP camera with 720p HD video recording, and a front facing 1.3MP camera. One great feature on the Charge would be the 4 standard Android buttons (home, menu, back, search), which are hardware keys instead of capacitive buttons. The Charge is very thin with a slight reverse chin and a pointed base. The Charge offers a 1 GHz Hummingbird processor, 512MB of ram, and comes with a pre-installed 32GB MicroSD card. The speed of this phone doesn’t disappoint, and neither does the battery. The Droid Charge offers a 1600 mAh battery, which lasts me a full 14 hours of light use and 8 hours of heavy use. Overall, I was very pleased with overall design and battery life of the Droid Charge.
Droid Charge Hardware Tour
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMbk1U3l1Cs&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL[/youtube]
Software
The Droid Charge runs Samsung’s TouchWiz 3.0. The whole view of TouchWiz is very reminiscent of Apple’s iOS, with square icons, a 4-icon dock bar, and a horizontal scrolling app drawer. Underneath TouchWiz, the Charge comes loaded with Android 2.2 a.k.a. Froyo, and will definitely be receiving a Gingerbread (2.3) update in the future. With TouchWiz, the whole phone is given a cartoon-style look. I personally love the look of TouchWiz, although the feel did not cut if for me. When I was using the launcher, I felt a slight lag between each screen and quickly decided to put ADW Launcher on for the time being. Another flaw I found with the Charge was the keyboard. Since the Droid Charge is a slate form factor, you rely on a software keyboard. The Charges comes with a proprietary Samsung keyboard, as well as Swype. The Samsung keyboard constantly misjudged my spelling with its auto-correct feature, and after many misspelled tweets and texts, I put Smart Keyboard Pro on the phone to finish out testing.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n29J7LiPzg&feature=relmfu[/youtube]
Data Speeds
While using the Charge, I took a quick trip up to NYC to test the 4G capabilities, and they blew me away! Once in NYC, I ran about 5 speed tests and averaged at about 21Mb/s up and 5Mb/s down. After doing so, I tested my computer and realized that the speeds of 4G LTE are faster than my home internet connection. Although these are just numbers, in real time use I noticed a major speed bump, web pages loaded instantly, and I could upload images via TwitPic as fast as a normal tweet. Take a look at all my results below.
Photo/ Video Quality
While using the Droid Charge, one of my favorite things to do was act like a photographer and take some stunning pictures. I will let you be the judge, so I posted a few pictures using the 8 mp camera on the Charge below. I took standard indoor/outdoor pictures and pictures in the dark using the built-in LED flash. Also, I have attached some pictures using the front facing 1.3 mp camera.
Not only was the photo quality outstanding, the 720p video capture was great too. Below I have posted a video of 720p HD footage taken and uploaded directly from the Charge. *Please Note* I did not post any footage samples of the front facing camera’s video quality; it was not horrible although nothing like the HD rear camera.
Droid Charge 720p Video Camera Test
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xNyn9ni2qA&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL[/youtube]
Overall
So overall, the Charge is a great phone, although it needed some alterations, like the keyboard and the TouchWiz launcher. The size of the Charge was great however weird to get use to after using my 3.7” Droid Incredible. The 4G coverage on this phone is amazing and is a great improvement over 3G, and even WiFi. With a price of $299.99 (with a new 2yr contract), the Droid Charge is a great option if you are looking for a powerful phone that’s fast and has a great camera.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJ-Y7Mc7Nz4&feature=channel_video_title[/youtube]
Order a Samsung DROID CHARGE 4G from Amazon.com
For the record, you were experiencing download speeds of 21Mb/s NOT 21MB/s.
1 byte (B) = 8 bits (b).
Therefore, the phone was seeing ~2.5MB/s down and ~600KB/s up.
This is a pretty good review. You’d never know the reviewer is only 5.
seriously
stopped reading the review after the reviewer stated that the charge uses a snapdragon processor. It does not. Uses a hummingbird. Slight detail that might not matter but does matter as far as it reflects on the reviewer’s preparation for writing this.
It says hummingbird, not snapdragon.
Too freaking expensive specially when you would be stuck with a 2yr contract too.
Love this comment “….Charge comes loaded with Android 2.2 a.k.a. Froyo, and will definitely be receiving a Gingerbread (2.3) update in the future.” Sammy said the same thing about the Fascinate being upgrade from 2.1 to 2.2. What a joke. Seems like it took 8 or 9 months for the update on the Fascinate. Don’t buy a Samsung unless you like the version of Android it is running!!!!! The delays in getting updates are ridiculous.
@eddy Your an idiot
i bought the Samsung charge and very happy with it. Loads quick and the has a ton of memory. I actually am partners in one company and employed at another. Very easy to keep my business in line with interfering with my personal use on the phone. I would definitely recommend this phone to others. As far as the battery is concerned, you can tell there is a bigger drain than usual , but I have been using the phone a few times over the past six hours and I still have over 80% battery life left. So I cant complain.,