Bionic vs Charge?

[ghurty]

From what we know about the bionic, how does it stack up against the samsung charge?


Thanks

 

[Noble.Four]

It has a dual core processor, a gig of RAM, qHD screen, no cheesy physical buttons, allegedly rockin battery. The only department the charge might win in is screen quality. But all around, Bionic is miles ahead of the Charge. I honestly thought the Charge was an awful filler LTE phone. So I might be biased.

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk

 

[ghurty]

What about physical dimensions?

 

[KillerG]

From what we know about the bionic, how does it stack up against the samsung charge?


Thanks

It has a dual core processor, a gig of RAM, qHD screen, no cheesy physical buttons, allegedly rockin battery. The only department the charge might win in is screen quality. But all around, Bionic is miles ahead of the Charge. I honestly thought the Charge was an awful filler LTE phone. So I might be biased.

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk

Basically what he said, but do pay attention that some people are very picky about the Pentile screen. Also, we can't forget that there will be 32GB of space available stock thanks to a 16GB SD card and 16GB internal storage. The battery should be about 1700 mAh compared to the 1500 mAh battery in the Charge. Motorola's got some of the best battery management too, so that will add to the amazing battery life we've been seeing and hopefully will be getting. Also, the LTE radio in the Charge is different from the Bionic, Motorola made their own radio. I don't remember, but I don't think that the Charge could do 1080p video capture either. Your main difference is that dual core CPU and twice the RAM, it really makes a difference; single core phones seem just SO SLOWWWWWWWWWWwwwWWWwwwWW compared to a dual core CPU, especially when coupled with 1GB of RAM.

 

[Noble.Four]

Physically, I think the Bionic might be thicker? Idk. But the Charge is made of cheap plastic. I think the Bionic is more solid.

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[Rominucka]

I think a lot of this dual core vs single core debate is blown way out of proportion.
I've played with plenty of Droid 3s extensively and anyone who thinks a single core is soooooo muuuuuuuuch sloooooower must be able to perceive time in such a way that they deserve the attention of the greatest minds in science because they are at a new advance stage of evolution.
The only problem with the Charge is that it doesn't have the best kernel and TW3 is boring.

With a stock linux kernel and TW4 the Charge is awesome. It also never heats up unlike every Motorola phone I've ever touched. It also has a 1600mah battery and I wouldn't be too surprised if the Charge ends up having better battery life than the Bionic. Even without any modifications my Charge had better battery life than the X, X2 and D3.

Sent from my Samsung Droid Charge 4G-LTE

 

[Grumple]

If you're trying to decide between the two, you might as well just wait til the Bionic comes out then go to a Verizon store and play with them, that way you can see which one you like best.

 

[corymcnutt]

The D3 is dual-core

I think Rominucka's was saying he's played with the dual-core D3 and comparing it to his single-core Charge, he sees no difference...but they are forgetting the Bionic has more RAM than either the D3 or the Charge, and that's what Killer was trying to say...Dual-core, coupled with 1GB (DDR2 RAM) is what really makes the difference in speed. It really is hard to compare when only one phone is actually available...all should be revealed soon!

 

[brocklee137]

Now even though the bionic trumps the charge in almost all aspects, we can't forget that the charge is considered an old phone by now (released over 3 months ago) . It is also available for free now from amazon, which is definitely a huge plus in today's economy.

 

[corymcnutt]

Now even though the bionic trumps the charge in almost all aspects, we can't forget that the charge is considered an old phone by now (released over 3 months ago) . It is also available for free now from amazon, which is definitely a huge plus in today's economy.

Most people are calling the Bionic "old" as well, even though it's not even out yet! It will still be the FIRST dual-core LTE phone with 1GB of DDR2 RAM, as well as an entirely new radio designed and built by Motorola...all of the "newer" phones have no release dates yet; they are where the Bionic has been...all kinds of assumptions, but no offical announcements; they could be delayed months for all we know.

 

[brocklee137]

Most people are calling the Bionic "old" as well, even though it's not even out yet! It will still be the FIRST dual-core LTE phone with 1GB of DDR2 RAM, as well as an entirely new radio designed and built by Motorola...all of the "newer" phones have no release dates yet; they are where the Bionic has been...all kinds of assumptions, but no offical announcements; they could be delayed months for all we know.

Yes, people calling the Bionic "old", even though completely agree with you on the new-ness of the Bionic. Regardless, the 3 month gap means that it is nearly (or just plain is) a generation ahead of the Charge. Directly comparing the Bionic and the Charge is rather meaningless if you only look at specs. As mentioned before, the only ways the Charge is superior are it's screen and current selling price.

 

[Rominucka]

Ok let's get down to brass tacks, shall we?

I don't like Motorola phones...I don't hate them but I don't like them. It's 75% Motoblur, 15% screen, and 10% of being slightly unfamiliar with how things are laid out compared to Samsung. NOW....the new Motoblur for the D3 and Bionic is actually great and leads me to overlook the bleaker looking screen (compared to the SAMOLED). I'm a pretty well balanced appreciator of smartphones. I'm 50/50 when it comes to simple aesthetics and functionality.

The amount of lag and stutter found with an out-of-the-box Charge is small enough that it only affects the aesthetic aspect of the phone for me and never have I felt that it was a poorly fucntional device. When rooted and properly ROMed (not overhyped or overclocked) the Charge is probably the best single-core device out there to date, and overall, better than most current dual core devices.

The Bionic is cool, but the problem now is that we're not too far away from having truly next-generation devices. Where as the Thunderbolt, Charge and Revolution were considered "last year spec" devices, what made them next generation was that they were super-fast LTE phones. Even if the Bionic came out 3 months ago, it would've helped it feel like something special...like the bridge between yesterday and tomorrow. Even with its fantastic specs, the Bionic now feels like the period at the end of the first LTE sentence, and not the transitional statement that it should have been.

And in terms of speed and smoothness of (at least) the UI, few Android phones (single or dual core) are going to be as smooth and snappy as an iPhone or even a Windows 7 phone, due to the lack of hardware integration. The true test of smoothness is not how well it looks when you zip back and forth from homescreen to homescreen, or how quickly you can get your notification bar down, it's how smooth it is when you very slowly slide from homescreen to homescreen and slowly pull the notification bar down. When there is absolutely no stutter or unnatural feel to the movement is when you're cooking with Crisco!

Supposedly the GS2 has hardware integration of the UI, but I will never find out or care, for that matter, because VZW ain't getting it. Hopefully future devices will follow suit.

 

[bworley50]

Most people are calling the Bionic "old" as well, even though it's not even out yet! It will still be the FIRST dual-core LTE phone with 1GB of DDR2 RAM, as well as an entirely new radio designed and built by Motorola...all of the "newer" phones have no release dates yet; they are where the Bionic has been...all kinds of assumptions, but no offical announcements; they could be delayed months for all we know.

I don't know how many times I have said 9/8.

 

[ChevyNovaLN]

I don't know how many times I have said 9/8.

I think you took cory's statement incorrectly (unless i did?). I think he's saying OTHER phones are where the Bionic 'has' been, not where it currently 'is'. Pretty sure 9/8 (most likely 9/1) is marked prominently on his calendar

 

[trailblazen]

Yeah knowing cory he ment the other rumored phones have nothing official like bionic was a few months ago and not enough info to expect any sort of imminent release. Bionic is literally around the corner.

Oh and to the sammy fanboi you can keep your oversaturated/overblown colored crayon box of a screen. I owned a charge and yea it was crisp but the colors are far from natural and detract from the crispness. I heard the sgs2 was supposed to have a setting to change saturation but I can vouch from firsthand charge does not and that's a dealbreaker for me. And bionic like its been said is still the first dualcore lte and will be so for at least the next few months until one of the "rumored" phones actually come up with something besides vapor when they get farther along in their development cycles.

 

[corymcnutt]

Ok let's get down to brass tacks, shall we?...The Bionic is cool, but the problem now is that we're not too far away from having truly next-generation devices. Where as the Thunderbolt, Charge and Revolution were considered "last year spec" devices, what made them next generation was that they were super-fast LTE phones. Even if the Bionic came out 3 months ago, it would've helped it feel like something special...like the bridge between yesterday and tomorrow. Even with its fantastic specs, the Bionic now feels like the period at the end of the first LTE sentence, and not the transitional statement that it should have been...

I understand what you are saying, and I respect your opinion, even though it may be somewhat tainted by your dislike of Motorola phones...I just have to disagree, especially about your feelings that we're not too far away from the next generation devices. I do not consider the Vigor/Prime/HD etc., next generation (a slightly larger screen and from 1.0 - 1.5 ghz processors does not make them next generation) and by the time the batch of phones after those come out with 2nd generation chips that handle VoLTE, that could be 2QTR2012. With its Motorola built LTE radio, 1GB DDR2 RAM, 1080p HD Video, Wireless printing, LTE speed, etc...I'd say the Bionic is anything but the end of the first generation LTE phones.

 

[terrapin01]

I think of the Bionic as generation 1.5 of LTE phones. First gen being single core and 2nd gen being > 1 Ghz & HD screen.

 

[irl Panda]

2nd-gen phones usually need to have a 2nd-gen radio and processor. We don't know what the Vigor is using, but if it's using a 1.5GHz Snapdragon then the Vigor is actually the outdated phone. That chip is based on A8 architecture while the Tegra 2, OMAP, and Exynos are all based on A9, which is obviously newer and presumably performs better/more efficient. The Snapdragon processors definitely leave something to be desired in real world performance as well when you compare them to the OMAP and Exynos.

The Nexus might have a 4460 if you're lucky, but again, that's not a 2nd-gen chip either. The Bionic's 4430 can pump out the same performance if overclocked that the 4460 can achieve, just not quite as efficiently. However, if the 720p resolution screens are true, we might see a performance hit while trying to power up all of those extra pixels. Other than that, I think we will find that the two phones are quite similar. I probably won't even be able to tell the difference between the screens anyway. If we had something as clear as Apple's retina display, I'd have another opinion. This is why I'm not excited about the Nexus. I don't care for vanilla Android, and a "better" screen isn't worth waiting 2-3 months for.

For the sake of having a relevant device, I'd buy almost any dual-core phone over a single-core. My major concern with Samsung phones is that my Fascinate has never successfully locked onto my GPS location, and I can sometimes get spotty coverage. My Droid does all of this just fine. This is just my impression with Samsung phones. I love Samsung, but I haven't seen a great phone by them until the SGSII, which sadly, the American versions are just going to be hollow shells of what the Euro beast is.

 

[Rominucka]

Screens all come down to preference. I prefer the overhyped look of Samsung screens and I was never like that when it came to TVs. I always have my TVs set with slightly less color than most because they never look good hyped, and the colors tend to bleed. Samsung got it right. And even with the pentile matrix, I never was bothered by Motorola's screens, but like I said, I prefer SAMOLED color.

Motorola scores better than even the iPhone when it comes to color. Motorola screens have the most natural color display, and the only thing that the iPhone has on Moto is the resolution, but it's negligible in my opinion.
With the advent of the new Motoblur I am a FAN of Motorola phones now...I'm not bashing them at all. I love playing with people's D3s and I know I will have a blast with the Bionic, but I won't buy it (unless a load of money falls into my lap, which might actually happen between now and Dec).

I am a Samsung fanboy and proud of it. And I guess it's hit and miss when it comes to the functionality of things like GPS cause with my only smartphones being Samsung, I've never had GPS problems, or any of the common problems people have with them.

By the grace of God, if a motherload of cash happens to float my way in the next few months or so, I will buy (out-right) that new LTE Verizon version of the GSII-like phone on steroids (I have a good feeling about this) and the Bionic. I get this weird/sick sense of freedom being able to swap SIMs at will with no pain in the ass ESN changes.

 

[Droid800]

2nd-gen phones usually need to have a 2nd-gen radio and processor. We don't know what the Vigor is using, but if it's using a 1.5GHz Snapdragon then the Vigor is actually the outdated phone. That chip is based on A8 architecture while the Tegra 2, OMAP, and Exynos are all based on A9, which is obviously newer and presumably performs better/more efficient. The Snapdragon processors definitely leave something to be desired in real world performance as well when you compare them to the OMAP and Exynos.

The Nexus might have a 4460 if you're lucky, but again, that's not a 2nd-gen chip either. The Bionic's 4430 can pump out the same performance if overclocked that the 4460 can achieve, just not quite as efficiently. However, if the 720p resolution screens are true, we might see a performance hit while trying to power up all of those extra pixels. Other than that, I think we will find that the two phones are quite similar. I probably won't even be able to tell the difference between the screens anyway. If we had something as clear as Apple's retina display, I'd have another opinion. This is why I'm not excited about the Nexus. I don't care for vanilla Android, and a "better" screen isn't worth waiting 2-3 months for.

For the sake of having a relevant device, I'd buy almost any dual-core phone over a single-core. My major concern with Samsung phones is that my Fascinate has never successfully locked onto my GPS location, and I can sometimes get spotty coverage. My Droid does all of this just fine. This is just my impression with Samsung phones. I love Samsung, but I haven't seen a great phone by them until the SGSII, which sadly, the American versions are just going to be hollow shells of what the Euro beast is.

I briefly contemplated waiting for the Vigor over the Bionic, but unless it comes with an 8960 its not worth buying. The 8660 is a crap processor that can't match the performance of the A9-based handsets. Judging by the pics, the Vigor has a pasted-together LTE setup, since it looks about as thick as the Thunderbolt does.

As for the OP:

Save yourself the headache of the Samsung and wait for the Bionic. I had a Charge for a month, and just sold it and got an X2. (YES, I ditched an LTE-enabled handset for a 3G handset. The Charge is that bad) The Charge has a hideous UI overlay, is stuttery and slow, and is extremely subpar for the price. The only things it has going for it are the LTE and gorgeous screen. So, avoid the Charge at all costs and wait for the Bionic.