[nrk]

Hi all, currently looking at new phones to get and I am debating being upgrading to a Charge or waiting for the SG2 or the Bionic (if ever actually comes...).

I've been browising the forums for a little bit, so I wanted to see if I could get some users opinions on the pros/cons of the Charge.

So far my list based on reading/interaction would look as follows:

PRO

• LTE
• AMOLED screen clarity
• Root/Rom friendly

CON

• 512 MB RAM
• AMOLED color staturation
• Single Core
• Form facture/plastic

I excluded battery life for the moment, since there seems to be some debates. I'd be in an LTE-area so I'd mostly be running on that. Just wanted some input, feel free to express what you agree/disagree with - just trying to get a good picture overall of the phone since I know a lot of people are happy with it. If I choose to upgrade now instead of waiting it's likely the phone I'd go with.

Thanks!

[shobuddy]

Hi all, currently looking at new phones to get and I am debating being upgrading to a Charge or waiting for the SG2 or the Bionic (if ever actually comes...).

I've been browising the forums for a little bit, so I wanted to see if I could get some users opinions on the pros/cons of the Charge.

So far my list based on reading/interaction would look as follows:

PRO

• LTE
• AMOLED screen clarity
• Root/Rom friendly

CON

• 512 MB RAM
• AMOLED color staturation
• Single Core
• Form facture/plastic

I excluded battery life for the moment, since there seems to be some debates. I'd be in an LTE-area so I'd mostly be running on that. Just wanted some input, feel free to express what you agree/disagree with - just trying to get a good picture overall of the phone since I know a lot of people are happy with it. If I choose to upgrade now instead of waiting it's likely the phone I'd go with.

Thanks!

To me the 512MB RAM is a big con. I'm running stock and get "your phone is low on memory" messages a few times a week. The phone is also laggy to me but everyone says flashing a custom rom resolves lag issues.

I'm not familiar with the Amoled color saturation?

I don't really notice the plastic feel.

Some other PROS : HDMI

CONS: Samsung being really slow to roll out updates, no back clip on phone like Thunderbolt, cannot do simultaneous voice and data in 3g area like Thunderbolt.

[nrk]

To me the 512MB RAM is a big con. I'm running stock and get "your phone is low on memory" messages a few times a week. The phone is also laggy to me but everyone says flashing a custom rom resolves lag issues.

I'm not familiar with the Amoled color saturation?

I don't really notice the plastic feel.

Some other PROS : HDMI

CONS: Samsung being really slow to roll out updates, no back clip on phone like Thunderbolt, cannot do simultaneous voice and data in 3g area like Thunderbolt.

Ohhh, didn't know the 3g voice/data thing. Interesting. (I'll be 4G mostly, but that's nice to know).

HDMI out is big time for me. So that's a big plus.

Amoled color saturation is really a small thing - some people complain that the screen has too "cartoony" of colors. I personally think it's a personal thing (I don't really have an issue with it, but others complain about it). I think it's something thats not editable in stock but is editable if rooted (?)

Thanks for your input.

[gattaka451]

I rooted mine and have zero issues with lag. I've never seen errors about low memory either. I bought a case for it as well, so the plastic feel is a moot point. I have no idea what you're talking about with color saturation either. Mine has always been pretty sharp whether playing games or watching a video.

[vols fan]

This phone is awesome! I have mine rooted and the gummycharged ROM and its fast. I too have had no issues from anything plastic.

[nrk]

Thanks everyone for their input so far!

[shobuddy]

IMHO, if you are looking specifically for a 4G phone then the Charge is probably the best option. If 4G is not important to you then there are better alternatives out there.

[sv_one]

You might look here for some pro's/con's compared to iPhone 4. Is Samsung's Droid Charge a good phone to upgrade to from an iPhone? - Quora

[turkishcoffee]

I run my Charge stock and am very pleased with it. I get excellent battery life by managing what services are on. I only turn on what I need when I need it (i.e. WIFI, mobile data, GPS, bluetooth) and I only have to charge the battery every other day. I'm not a "power user" (about 500 MB data use per month), but I do regularly use the phone as a phone and for messaging and email. I frequently use the camera and occasionly use WIFI and mobile data for media streaming (i.e. Pandora). Overall the phone meets my needs quite well and I would recommend it to others.

[davey11]

Ppl who say the colors are too saturated don't own a charge and they jealous. Screen is the best on the market. Just hold it side by side with ANY other phone... no contest.
If, you can hold out for the SGS2, then wait. No word on whether it'll be lte or not, but a dealbreaker if no lte.
Message sent from Tapatalk

[tintn00]

Ppl who say the colors are too saturated don't own a charge and they jealous. Screen is the best on the market. Just hold it side by side with ANY other phone... no contest.
If, you can hold out for the SGS2, then wait. No word on whether it'll be lte or not, but a dealbreaker if no lte.
Message sent from Tapatalk

I own a Samsung droid charge. I do think the screen is much more saturated than any phone or computer screen I've ever used. Photos displayed on via droid charge look much more saturated. It really depends if you're particular about it or not. I was a professional photographer and can easily notice the difference. It doesn't really bother me too much since I never do anything color critical on my phone anyway.

Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk

[davey11]

I own a Samsung droid charge. I do think the screen is much more saturated than any phone or computer screen I've ever used. Photos displayed on via droid charge look much more saturated. It really depends if you're particular about it or not. I was a professional photographer and can easily notice the difference. It doesn't really bother me too much since I never do anything color critical on my phone anyway.

Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk

Ok, granted your photograper eyes are much more critical than a layperson (me) would be.
I can see how the word 'saturated' would bring about a more critical asessment of the colors.

How about we call it more vibrant?

[piizzadude]

another Pro might be that it has Gorilla Glass. I assume the S2 will have it but I am not sure the Bionic will. I have been running my Fassy without any protection and I am not that careful of a user. Still no scratches....

[dhp106]

I did so much research on almost all current phones on all carriers before I purchased the charge. It seriously is a great phone. A couple gripes I have

The back camera style. It kooks childish I think. Like a robot.

Not dual core/wish had more ram.

Needs gingerbread now (and ice cream later)

But the best things are

Battery life compared to others

Lte. Duh.

Vibrance of the screen

Call clearity

Speaker volume

Ease of rooting (running gummy charged)
Its super light

Extended batteries available

I like the hard buttons and they light up.

The camera is good enough I think.

Running gummy charged I seriously have zero problems. I love it. I hated stock charge Samsung touchwiz is crap. I prefer HTC sense but the sensation was on T-Mobile. Whatever.

This is a great phone. Depending on what cmthe bionic and s 2 offer I will look that way. I do wish it was sdual core. HDMI does nothing for me.

The power button on the right is odd coming from an iphone but I got used to it. Also the big screen is nice but sometimes I feel its harder to use one handed.

Hope this helps.

Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk

[fundragon]

PRO

• LTE
• AMOLED screen clarity
• Root/Rom friendly

CON

• 512 MB RAM
• AMOLED color staturation
• Single Core
• Form facture/plastic

I'd call the color saturation a plus - I happen to like the vivid colors, I don't rely on photographic color accuracy on my phone, and it helps make the display visible under bright sunlight.

Plastic is also a plus, for me, as it decreases the weight of the phone in my pocket. Like others, I have a case, and the phone feels solid enough that I'm not worried about it being damaged.

I'm not sure what the con is for form factor? The 4.3" screen size helps me to read and type on the screen - one reason I didn't get an iPhone is that its screen was too small for my fingers to type.

Single core and 512MB RAM may be a big drawback - yesterday my voice was completely garbled in all calls until I rebooted, my hypothesis is that something was running on the phone and either taking all the CPU bandwidth or causing memory thrash, so the phone couldn't process my voice... if this is true, dual core and/or more RAM might have helped. This could be a garbage hypothesis, because the voice of the person on the other end of the line sounded fine... but rebooting the phone fixed the problem. I'm running stock kernel, non-rooted.

[dman2275]

Hi all, currently looking at new phones to get and I am debating being upgrading to a Charge or waiting for the SG2 or the Bionic (if ever actually comes...).

I've been browising the forums for a little bit, so I wanted to see if I could get some users opinions on the pros/cons of the Charge.

So far my list based on reading/interaction would look as follows:

PRO

• LTE
• AMOLED screen clarity
• Root/Rom friendly

CON

• 512 MB RAM
• AMOLED color staturation
• Single Core
• Form facture/plastic

I excluded battery life for the moment, since there seems to be some debates. I'd be in an LTE-area so I'd mostly be running on that. Just wanted some input, feel free to express what you agree/disagree with - just trying to get a good picture overall of the phone since I know a lot of people are happy with it. If I choose to upgrade now instead of waiting it's likely the phone I'd go with.

Thanks!

Hi,

I had an OG Droid, then picked up the iPhone in April. I did not really like iOS so I did the research (like you are doing) and picked up a Charge on eBay.

You will love this phone. Super FAST on 4g, the screen is amazing. The phone is very lightweight and feels perfect in your hand. Battery life is great (even better if you root, although I have not rooted yet) - I am getting 12-14 hours on 3G. Sound quality has been outstanding for me. I picked up the desktop dock (with the spare battery) so I never have to worry about battery issues. I run the task manager a couple times a day to shut off programs and free RAM up.

The only negative of this phone is the RAM but it does not affect using the phone as a phone. If they put more into this phone, it would be perfect.

Go for the Droid Charge, you will not regret it.

[plong#AC]

About the RAM... aren't you guys giving it too much credit with 512mb? When I go into task manager, it only shows 328 mb of RAM, and the stock phone always uses at least 200 mb, so there's only really 128mb of RAM for apps and the like. This is by far the biggest drawback to the phone that I've found so far.

Phone's aren't like desktop towers, right? I can't just buy a 1GB phone RAM chip and slam it in there, can I?

[libertao]

About the RAM... aren't you guys giving it too much credit with 512mb? When I go into task manager, it only shows 328 mb of RAM, and the stock phone always uses at least 200 mb, so there's only really 128mb of RAM for apps and the like. This is by far the biggest drawback to the phone that I've found so far.

Phone's aren't like desktop towers, right? I can't just buy a 1GB phone RAM chip and slam it in there, can I?

If I were you I'd just hold out until the Galaxy S2 says whether it will be LTE and if it will release in the next 2 months. Otherwise wait for the Bionic reviews to come out and jump on that unless it has a lot of issues.

[nrk]

Thanks to everyone for their input so far in this thread. It has been extremely helpful. It sounds like everyone is pretty satisfied with their Charge and would recommend it, with the 512 RAM being the biggest complaint (somewhat as I expected).

I love the Android community.

[infg3570]

To me the 512MB RAM is a big con. I'm running stock and get "your phone is low on memory" messages a few times a week. The phone is also laggy to me but everyone says flashing a custom rom resolves lag issues.

I'm not familiar with the Amoled color saturation?

I don't really notice the plastic feel.

Some other PROS : HDMI

CONS: Samsung being really slow to roll out updates, no back clip on phone like Thunderbolt, cannot do simultaneous voice and data in 3g area like Thunderbolt.

I always thought you could only do 4g data + voice simultaneously on cdma network. Didn't think it could be done with 3g.

[SoDev]

I always thought you could only do 4g data + voice simultaneously on cdma network. Didn't think it could be done with 3g.

Na, it works on 3g too.

I'd like the HDMI and to be able to see my screen better in the sun, and the larger stock battery, but the 512ram is a big neg. to me, same with the physical home keys but that's just preference.

Glad you guys like your phones. They all have their perks.

[fundragon]

I always thought you could only do 4g data + voice simultaneously on cdma network. Didn't think it could be done with 3g.

It can be done with 3G if you have two separate radios in the phone specifically for that purpose... that's how the Thunderbolt does it.

[cganoe]

Pros (really like this phone):

• nice, big screen
• 4G LTE, fast
• lightweight relative to size, nice feel to it
• like the way the home screen works and the widget options for it

Cons:

• battery life, seems like with typical use 1.5 days is about it (basically means you need to charge every night)
• "Network not available" bug
• front facing camera, but no video Skype
• refresh on some of the home screen widgets is unintuitive (some things refresh, yet I have to manually tell it, tiny button, to go get new news)
• never seems to want to eject/unmount correctly when configured as USB storage; if I eject it from the Mac, it just re-appears; if I stop USB storage from the phone, my Mac thinks it's still connected and complains

I could probably ramble on about the features I like. My other cons are probably more Android/Verizon specific, since I switched from an iPhone and AT&T.

Android cons:

• must have GMail account to access Android Marketplace; sorry I should not need to have yet another email account just to own a phone

Verizon cons (nickel/dime on everything):

• $2.99/mo for visual voicemail - WTF!!!
• charge for hotspot (is it $29.99/mo?!?!?)
• just got some CityId popup about $1.99/mo

I had an iPhone for 3 years and never had stuff popup prompting me to subscribe to this service or that. Charging for visual voicemail is just plain lame. I declined and am now dealing with Verizon's 1980s voicemail prompts.

Other than the above, the phone is great!

[papa54]

It can be done with 3G if you have two separate radios in the phone specifically for that purpose... that's how the Thunderbolt does it.

I just got my charge yesterday and the bloat ware is a big con but in a few minutes it should be gone, my signal is stronger than what my fassy had to offer and the power seems strong. as for data and phone, welp i never thought much bout that untill someone said it couldnt be done,, i had gps running and made calls in and recieved calls all while on gps and i also did some searching while on gps navigate (googles not verizon)
it appears as we all know.. each phone from any box of same name title etc and same ratings are all diferent...
my biggest complaint is a game icon that can not be removed from the charge i got yesterday.. its name is "Lets Golf" Samsung and Verizon have to be laughing their arses off cause it has a cost of 5 bucks..
its in the programing i guess cause i couldnt find any file to delete or rename to get rid of it.. once tapped by mistake.. it runs and cant be stopped.its to fast install to remove battery for a stop..

i can live with my charge cause it works at my home where the fassy was tempermental..
but i feel cheated when i only install free apps Period...

over all the charge is good...

[piizzadude]

Pros (really like this phone):

I had an iPhone for 3 years and never had stuff popup prompting me to subscribe to this service or that. Charging for visual voicemail is just plain lame. I declined and am now dealing with Verizon's 1980s voicemail prompts.

Other than the above, the phone is great!

I am pretty sure there is an app for that....even google voice will give you a transcript