What generation Android device is the Charge?

[shobuddy]

I'm new to Android and smartphones. I'm curious as to whether the Charge is considered a 1st generation Android device. I don't know what criteria is used in defining devices as such but I've heard that dual-core devices are considered next generation so where does the Charge fall under...if there is such a categorization.

 

[jkeene81]

Thats a tough one, dont really think Android phones go by generation as much as OS upgrades such as Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread. That being said the first phones to come out had 600-800 MHz processors, the next group such as Droid Incredible, HTC Evo, or the Droid X started showing up with 1 GHz processors and Froyo came into its own with Flash capabilities and alot of good OS upgrades. Now the dualcore processors are popping up all over the place and if you read alot of the reviews they are great phones however until IceCream( Googles newest OS update) comes out you really can't take advantage of all their capabilities( gaming is a different story though! wow talk about good graphics!). But for the average Android nerd you need to weigh the fact that most people have to usually sign a two year contract and how you plan on using your phone. There might be alot of people that disagree with me on this point but if you just like to use your phone to surf the web, check facebook and play angry birds then 1GHz will be plenty for you! If serious gaming and Quadrent bragging rights are your thing then shoot for dualcore. If you are signing a two year contract you can get a single core phone now and if not afraid of Ebay sell it later for a dual core or just wait for a dual core phone that you want to come out.

 

[Droid800]

Thats a tough one, dont really think Android phones go by generation as much as OS upgrades such as Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread. That being said the first phones to come out had 600-800 MHz processors, the next group such as Droid Incredible, HTC Evo, or the Droid X started showing up with 1 GHz processors and Froyo came into its own with Flash capabilities and alot of good OS upgrades. Now the dualcore processors are popping up all over the place and if you read alot of the reviews they are great phones however until IceCream( Googles newest OS update) comes out you really can't take advantage of all their capabilities( gaming is a different story though! wow talk about good graphics!). But for the average Android nerd you need to weigh the fact that most people have to usually sign a two year contract and how you plan on using your phone. There might be alot of people that disagree with me on this point but if you just like to use your phone to surf the web, check facebook and play angry birds then 1GHz will be plenty for you! If serious gaming and Quadrent bragging rights are your thing then shoot for dualcore. If you are signing a two year contract you can get a single core phone now and if not afraid of Ebay sell it later for a dual core or just wait for a dual core phone that you want to come out.

I would lay out the generations as such:

First-G1, Hero, Eris, etc.
Second-Droid, up until the nexus one
Third-Nexus One until the Galaxy S
Fourth-Newer generation single cores (Thunderbolt, Incredible 2, etc.)
Fifth-Dual core, and higher power single cores

The Charge, I think, would fall somewhere between third and fourth. The processor is the older hummingbird, but the screen and camera are Galaxy SII parts, so its sort of a mix.

 

[dubge]

I dont know if I agree with that, droid being 2nd and Eris being 1st, the droid came out BEFORE the Eris.

I would think the G1 is first gen, Droid and Eris would be 2nd and then there would be a grey area with all the 1ghz phones, they could be lumped into 2nd gen or they could be 3rd gen. Then would the 4G phones be there own gen or get grouped in with the the other 1ghz phones? The duel core would definitely be its own gen for sure.

 

[Droid800]

I dont know if I agree with that, droid being 2nd and Eris being 1st, the droid came out BEFORE the Eris.

I would think the G1 is first gen, Droid and Eris would be 2nd and then there would be a grey area with all the 1ghz phones, they could be lumped into 2nd gen or they could be 3rd gen. Then would the 4G phones be there own gen or get grouped in with the the other 1ghz phones? The duel core would definitely be its own gen for sure.

The Eris was a glorified Hero. The Droid was a completely different beast. The reason I put them as separate was because the Droid had 2.0, and the Eris had 1.6 and last-gen hardware.

I actually wouldn't put the 4G phones as their own (especially Verizon's) because they're all based on older chipsets. They're still perfectly capable, but they're older.

Just to clarify my own little roadmap thing:

First-G1, Hero, Eris *any phone that was released with sub-2.x releases*
Second-Droid to Nexus one *the middle step from 1.x to the more advanced 2.1*
Third-Nexus one, Galaxy S, Desire, etc. *all the 1Ghz phones that exploded on the scene at the same time.
Fourth-Newer generation single cores, like MyTouch 4G, Thunderbolt, Revolution, Droid X, Droid 2, Cliq 2, etc.
Fifth-Dual cores

Like I said, I think there's a 4.5-gen category too, which the Charge falls into. The Nexus S could too.

 

[jkeene81]

I agree with your generations but there are so many grey areas with chip overlaps and RAM bumps here and here or refreshes that it gets a little difficult to really define the different generations.

 

[s14tat]

You really would put a lousy droid x and g2 over a galaxy s in terms of gen? I would say they are the same gen esp since the galaxy s is the better peforming phone.

 

[bl4ke360]

Generations are defined by time, so anyone that's ranking these phones by hardware performance needs to download a dictionary app.

 

[jkeene81]

I think Shobuddy just wanted to stir the pot here becuz you could debate this forever and noone is going to agree!!

 

[Cruiserdude]

There aren't well-defined generations of hardware for Android devices, but there tends to be a big upgrade in hardware every year or so, after which all top-tier devices tend to contain similar specs until the next major upgrade. Last year it was 1ghz processors, this year its dual-core. But our phones have a Cortex-A8 processor, so you could argue that it is a second generation device.

However, it is definitively a first-generation LTE device, and so far the best.

 

[TrivialTweeter]

My 2-cents on this would be there are 3 official generations, with the 4th generation of hardware starting to come out.

When I say official, I mean as defined by Google:
1st Gen.: HTC G1 - 528MHz Processor, 192 MB RAM, 256 MB ROM, 3.2" screen

2nd Gen.:HTC Nexus One - 1 GHz Snapdragon CPU, 512 MB RAM & ROM, 3.7" AMOLED screen

3rd Gen.: Samsung Nexus S - 1GHz Hummingbird CPU, 512MB RAM & 16GB Onboard Storage, 4" Super-AMOLED screen, NFC

4th Gen.: Nexus Prime? OMAP4460 1.5GHz Dual-Core Processor, Super-AMOLED HD 720p Display? LTE?

With all that being said, The Charge would be a 3rd generation device. I'd put almost any Dual-Core phone in the 4th Gen. category