Image via CrunchBase
Recently released on Verizon Wireless the Samsung Droid Charge is the first Samsung 4G Android phone on the Big Red Network. Boasting a large 4.3″ touch screen and a 1GHz processor, the Charge is a top of the line Android phone worthy of the Verizon 4G LTE network.
The Samsung Charge is a candy bar shaped touch screen device ath is 5.11in x 2.66in x .46in. The device only weighs 5.04 oz which is 1.19 oz lighter than the other 4G phone from Verizon the Thunderbolt. The weight difference may seem small but in your hand the Charge is noticably lighter. The charge is equipped with a 1600 mAh battery that is good for approx. 11 hours. As you can see the phone doesn’t stick to the standard candybar shap as the bottom of the phone comes to a slight point. The phone is slightly larger at the bottom near the mouth piece. The phone is assembled with plastic sides and battery cover. The battery cover is grey with a darker grey dot design to it. The sides of the Charge are black and the bezel is silver. While the plastic feels sturdy and the phone feels well built, the plastic makes the phone slick to hold in dry hands. If your picking up this phone make sure that you pick up a silicone or Otterbox case to prevent accidental drops.
The Screen is a 4.3 in 480×800 pixel Super AMOLED Plus Capacitive touch screen. What does this all me for you the consumer. It means that this is by far one of the best screen you can find on a cell phone. From the moment you turn on the phone and the Samsung logo comes on you know you are holding onto something special. The touch screen was responsive to all comands and always kept up with my touch. The Super AMOLED display is nothing short of amazing. For movies this is the best smart phone screen out there. The picture is movie quality and there is no picture lag and no color banding at all. (Be advised that your results may very depending on the quality of MP4 movie you are watching.)
The Samsung Charge has a 8.0 megapixel auto focus rear facing camera and a 1.3 front facing camera. The Charge is video calling capable as well as capable of recording 720p HD video at 1280 x 720. As you can see the pictures are crisp and clear and have a great quality to them. One of the neaT features of the Charges’ camera is the panoroama setting. With this enabled you can youse your Charge to take panoramic photo’s.
The Charge is powered by a 1 GHz single core Hummingbird processor. The Hummingbird processor is well suited for this phone. There is no noticable lag when switching between apps, and when multitasking the phone keeps up with whatever you can throw at it. While multitasking I noticed no noticable heat increase from the battery like I have with some other test units. The Charge and it’s 1600 mAh battery give the phone a respectable battery life on moderate to heavy use. Unfortunatly I don’t have exact power up times for you but I could average about 8 hours charge in 4G and Wi-Fi coverage with minimal phone usage. Most of the battery use was from streaming music and internet.
Memory on the Charge is roughly 1GB usable internal storage on my test device on powerup. There is also a included 32GB microSD card to store all of your music, pictures,video’s and apps. Be advised your usable internal storage may very depending on apps and preconfiguration of your device. There are preinstalled VZW apps on this phone.. Most of the Apps that are “installed” on the charge simply appear to be links to download whatever the icon is for and doesn’t appear to take up any memory space.
Some other features of the Charge include a microUSB port with mass storage mode and USB charging, the port is USB 2.0 standard. The Samsung Charge is Bluetooth v 3.0 capable. There is a HDMI port to connect to your Charge to your home HDTV. Not into cables? The Samsung Droid Charge is also Allshare capable, with this feature you can connect via your Wi-Fi network to your compatable Samsung device. My Samsung Series 6 TV is Allshare capable and the video streaming is great. With a good home network you can acheive perfect streaming from phone to tv with no buffering issues. This is great for if you take a home video on your Charge and want to share it with friends and family when they come over. The Allshare is good for showing the great pictures you have taken with you phone also.
The Samsung Droid Charge for Verizon Wireless also have internet browsing with support for HTML, HTML5, and Flash. There is also built ins support for Myspace, Facebook, Picasa, and Twitter. There is also a included Youtube app preinstalled.
Overall my experience with the phone is great. The phone ran great on the Verizon Wireless 4G network while I tested it out. With Download speeds averaging 8.2 MB/second and a hummingbird processor that can keep up with all that you can throw at it makes this a top of the line phone for someone that is looking to upgrade to a 4G device on the Verizon Wireless Network.
The Samsung Droid Charge is available at VZW.com right now for 299.99 with a new 2 year contract.
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