Samsung DROID Charge Review

Samsung DROID Charge seems to be an amazing phone from the outside. The design itself is enough to rouse the curiosity of onlookers, mostly because everything about it seems to be so cool – from the screen to the camera. But apparently, that’s all there is to it.

 

 

This review will tell you exactly how the experience was.

Design and build quality

 

 

The points to improve:

• Samsung DROID Charge is made of plastic. It is most likely done to bring down the manufacturing costs because Samsung gets no other benefit from the plastic build aside from that.
• The cover for the battery does not look premium at all and can easily be scratched and smudged
• Similarly, the cover for the HDMI port looks cheap and feels like it breaks easily
• You need to apply force just to plug the headphone jack.
• The power button becomes “sticky” after a period of usage, presenting, once again, the disadvantages of a plastic build.
• It is also easy to accidentally press the volume button and the power button because the two are just parallel from each other.

 

On the contrary, you can address these problems with the design and build quality of the Samsung DROID Charge by buying a case or skin for it.

 

Display

Samsung DROID Charge has an amazing display with the latest AMOLED technology.

 

The good points:

• The screen is 4.3 inches and uses SuperAMOLED Plus
• Brightness is great. Even when you use the device outside on a bright, sunny day, the display is still readable.
• Exemplary color reproduction, as well as the contrast
• The device also has excellent viewing angles

 

 

The points to improve:

• Samsung DROID Charge does not have Corning Gorilla Glass. As such, it is prone to getting scratch marks. It is highly recommendable to get a screen protector for your phone if you decide to get the DROID Charge.
• So-so resolution of WVGA 800×480. This is a minor drawback, but since most phones now are running on a higher resolution of 960×540, Samsung might want to consider updating it for the next devices

 

Calls and connection

The good points:

• The 4G LTE connectivity of the DROID Charge is one of its strongest features. Together with the connection from Verizon, the data connectivity of the device is unstoppable.
• The Samsung DROID Charge is reliably This could be thanks to the 4G LTE network of Verizon which runs at 8mbps to 13mbps, but still, the phone was able to keep up quite well.
• Mobile connection is also very reliable. You can easily have 19mbps when the signal conditions are great, and 10mbps at the lowest. This is remarkably better than the speed that AT&T has to offer.

 

 

The points to improve:

• Samsung DROID Charge does not work well on 3G. The phone drops the 3G connection at random, and you have to restart your phone by two to four times just to get the 3G connection back.
• The DROID Charge has a narrow speaker bar so it is extremely hard to hear what the person on the end of the line is saying. Similarly, the person on the other end of the line also cannot hear you properly.

 

Battery Life

The good points:

• The phone has a 1,600 mAh battery
• Samsung DROID Charge has a good battery life that is better than most of its competitors, notably the Thunderbolt.
• A good feature of the Samsung DROID Charge is that it automatically reduces the screen brightness to save battery whenever it display several white pixels such as when you are browsing the web.
• The battery lasts for a full day with moderate usage.

 

Camera

The good points:

• The 8mp rear camera of the DROID Charge is exceptional.
• The rear camera has a flash
• The device also has a 1.3mp front camera
• The front camera has a secondary microphone

 

Software

Just to acquaint you with the basics, the Samsung DROID Charge uses a 1GHz Hummingbird processor and has a 512mb RAM and a 512mb ROM.

 

 

The good points:

• Some features of TouchWiz are actually great, such as two style options for your lock screen. It also has a hardware-accelerated menu.
• The good news is you can expand the phone’s storage. It has a slot for a micro SDHC card

The points to improve:

• Samsung DROID Charge still uses the Android 2.2 Froyo platform, which would have been better if it uses Gingerbread. The platform utilized is ridiculously outdated.
• It takes a long time for the display of the device to wake up.
• Verizon’s VZW Navigator takes a long time to open (approximately 2 to 3 minutes) because it still downloads maps and other things necessary, asks you to update Market, and downloads the map (again) after the update.
• Also… the TouchWiz 3.0 overlay. TouchWiz is a useless piece of UI – it lacks the functionality to justify its existence. It has no contribution whatsoever to providing an enjoyable user experience. All it does is make your Android phone look like an iPhone.
• The widgets of TouchWiz becomes a reason for the DROID Charge to slow down.
• As always, Samsung’s DROID Charge is still a bloated piece of device. The worst part is that you cannot even uninstall these crap. DROID Charge has a total of 2gb internal storage, but 800mb is already used for the bloatware. Only 1.2gb is left for the users to utilize and fill with their own share of apps and files.

 

The verdict

Samsung DROID Charge looks like an amazing device that can easily catch the attention of many people. While it has plenty of good points, DROID Charge is also riddled with some problems.

 

 

Below is a summary of the good points and the not-so-good points regarding the Samsung DROID Charge:

 

The good points:

• The design of the Samsung DROID Charge is exceptional. It can easily catch the attention of people because it looks classy and premium.
• The display of the Samsung DROID Charge is very remarkable. Like most other Samsung devices, the Super AMOLED Plus technology of Samsung once again did its magic of providing the high-quality display that any user would love.
• The device has bright colors that are sharp and vivid.
• Anything displayed on the screen is readable even in bright sunlight because of the good display brightness.
• The 4G LTE connectivity of its Verizon network is fast, with a minimum speed of 10mbps, and reaching as high as 20mbps in a location with a really good signal.
• Battery life is not great but is good enough for the device. It can last a full day on moderate usage.
• The camera produces good photos.
• The device can have an extra 32gb of storage space because of the micro SDHC card

The points to improve:

• The design is good, but the build quality isn’t. The materials used look obviously cheap. The plastic build did a good job of making the phone look trashy
• The phone is prone to scratching, so you’d better ensure that it is protected from the moment you buy it.
• It uses an old version of Android. On Froyo.
• TouchWiz 3.0 is slow and is not even functional.
• There are issues with 3G network connectivity. The DROID Charge randomly drops the connection, and you have to struggle to regain the connection again.
• Waking the display takes a long time
• For $300, the Samsung DROID Charge is an extremely expensive. It would have been more acceptable if the device price is $100. That would have made it a decent enough phone.
• The phone is riddled with bloatware. Too much bloatware, to be honest.

 

The Samsung DROID Charge would have been a good device – and it is if Samsung can address all of the issues mentioned above. Frankly, it is a premium-looking phone with old, crappy materials. Lowering the price would have been a compensation. Is it recommendable? If you care more about the looks of the device and don’t need a high-performance phone, then yes, go for the device. It would suit most tasks quite well.

What can you say of the Samsung DROID Charge?

Tell us about your experiences!

 

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