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752 of 771 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Battery Life/Pretty Good Phone too!!, May 18, 2011
This review is from: Samsung DROID CHARGE 4G Android Phone (Verizon Wireless) (Wireless Phone)
I've been watching the HTC Thunderbolt 4G phone and finally gave up on it due to all the bugs and horrible battery life. So after reading several reviews on the Samsung Droid Charge, I decided to take the plunge. Here's how my first few days with the new phone went - the good and the bad. First some qualifiers - I live in the Maryland suburbs outside DC where there is 4G service. My previous phone was a Blackberry Storm 2 (touch screen - no physical keyboard). The first three things you notice are how big the phone is, how bright the screen is and how surprisingly light the phone is given its size. You should go to the Verizon store and check this phone out before you buy just to make sure you are comfortable with the size. The screen is as big as my Garmin screen! For me, it was a good thing. Web pages, email, maps, etc are generally easier to read. Day 1-I bought this phone midday on the Monday following its release. There was a software update that installed even before leaving the Verizon store parking lot. No problems with the install. The phone felt a little buggy afterwards. So I did a restart which cured all problems. Coming from a Blackberry, there was a learning curve. So, I spent some time reviewing the included tutorial to learn the phone and get comfortable with the different features. I had to call Verizon tech support to figure out how to set up my POP3 email account. I have my own email server and couldn't find all the settings. Kudos to Verizon for being so helpful. I installed a compass & Sudoku apps from the Android Market (very cool) and paired the phone with my Plantronics Voyager Pro + headset. The volume on the headset was actually louder with this phone than with my old Blackberry. This was a welcome surprise. The HTC Thunderbolt has had problems with its bluetooth functionality. I'm happy to say the Samsung Droid Charge has caused no problems for me so far. I found the Contacts function to be missing one feature that my Blackberry had. I can't program the phone "Not" to ring when a particular person calls me (we all have one in our life). The silent ringer function exists in other places in the phone. It just didn't make it to the Contacts feature. Samsung, please fix this. Both the Samsung keyboards (regular & Swype) are far superior to that on my touch screen Blackberry! Day 2-I'm happy to say that on my first full day of use, the phone made it through an entire day without charging (7 AM to 11:00 PM) with apx 40% battery life left when I went to bed! I used the phone normally - a little web browsing, phone calls, email, a few apps and 4G turned on and working all day!! I did turn off Wi-Fi and the GPS. Though, I turned the GPS back on while using the maps and a compass later in the day. I like the phone! I saw no noticeable problems or bugs with the phone. 4G is incredibly fast!! Sound quality is good too - both for me and for the person I'm calling. Day 3-I spent a lot of time using the phone today. The included calculator is too basic - missing the memory buttons (M+,M-,MC,MR) which I need. My Blackberry calculator had them. While it's not a big deal given all the available apps in the app store, Samsung could have done a better job with a few of it's features and widgets. I spent the day doing everything I normally do (see Day 2). In addition, I downloaded 4 different calculators, uninstalled those I didn't like and installed Angry Birds! I now understand why people like that game so much. I also spent some time in an appointment out in the mountains where there is no cell reception. This causes your phone to constantly search for service and torches the battery. My old Blackberry did the same thing. So when 5:53 PM came, I got a low battery warning. So today, the phone made it from 7:00 AM to 5:53 PM without a charge and everything but Wi-Fi turned on. My advice... Buy a car charger! I discovered problems later in the day. I couldn't sign into my voicemail from my cell phone. I called tech support. Again, kudos to the Verizon guy for being so helpful. He confirmed that this was a problem with the phone and that Samsung is working on a maintenance update. I also found out that the Samsung Media Hub only works in 4G (not sure I really care - I have no intentions of buying any music, etc from Samsung). One other odd problem I had was with the Music Player. It keeps turning itself on periodically throughout the day. Samsung has a widget called Program Monitor that I REALLY like. It takes the place of an app killer app like you need on the Thunderbolt. It automatically tells you if any programs are running in the background and gives you the ability to easily turn them off, either one at a time or all at once. Doing this extends battery life. While talking to tech support, I shared the Music Player thing. He said he would include it with the info Verizon sends to Samsung. Getting back to my voicemail problem, I remembered all the app installing and uninstalling I did earlier in the day. The tech guy said it wouldn't hurt to restart the phone and try dialing voicemail again. This fixed the problem. Lesson learned - after installing or uninstalling apps or software updates, restart the phone! Spent the balance of the evening playing Angry Birds and messing with the phone. These new phones really are pocket computers. You notice this as you move from one app or function to the next. This phone seems to handle everything you throw at it very smoothly and with very few hiccups. Day 4-Phone off the charger at 7:00 AM. Everything seems to work fine. The music player turned on 4 times during the day - don't know why or if it even matters. I turned it off using the Program Monitor widget. There was not as much time spent on the phone today. I did take a couple of test shots with the camera. It seems to do a really good job for a cell phone camera. Shut down at 9:00 PM with 50% power left on the battery. Everything was turned on except Wi-Fi. Day 6-Saturday-Hardly used the phone today. Turned on at about 8:00AM. At 9:24PM, I still have 74% battery life left with everything turned on except Wi-Fi. Samsung has cured the 4G battery problem!! ***Update Wednesday 5/25***Day 10-This phone does have a few bugs beyond those already mentioned. The phone stopped making phone calls last Sunday. I got this loud screeching/static sort of sound right in the middle of a conversation. I ended the call and tried to redial. At that point, I could not make or receive calls without hearing that screeching sound. I called Verizon for the third time since purchasing this phone. They were good to talk to, but had no suggestions other than to restart the phone. This DID fix the problem. I have not had any more problems of any kind with the phone since last Sunday. My guess is this phone could use a maintenance software update from Samsung to improve stability. Verizon could still be having some 4G problems too. These bugs aren't that big a deal. Every problem I've experienced has been fixed by turning the phone off and then on again. It is something for you to be aware of though. I still like the phone!***End of Update*** ***Update Sunday 6/5***Day 21-This phone has two bugs that I am aware of. The first - The Mobile Hotspot feature has stopped working. According to Verizon tech support, it's a Samsung problem. Verizon and/or Samsung are working on an update. Until that update is released, at least some of the Droid Charge phones won't have the ability to use the mobile hotspot feature. 4G and everything else seems to work just fine. The second - I'm having a very occasional problem using my Plantronics Voyager Pro+ headset with this phone. It seems the first call made with my bluetooth headset after powering on the phone has a problem where I can hear, but the person I'm talking to can't hear me. Verizon tech support wants me to go to a store and demonstrate the problem for one of the techs. I'll update this again after this has been completed. It would be interesting to know if anyone else is having this bluetooth problem. Verizon suggested that the bluetooth problem could be something that would allow for a replacement phone. The last item is minor. The power button is finicky, but only when trying to turn the phone on. I turn off the phone at night. The next morning, it requires just the right (firm) touch to turn the phone back on. All other functions supported by this button work fine. These are the first real problems I've had with this phone. While there is no excuse for the problems, this phone has far fewer bugs than phones like the Thunderbolt. I dropped my rating from 5 to 4 stars until they fix the problem. I'm still happy with "the rest" of this phone and have my fingers crossed for a quick fix/update to the hotspot feature.***End of Update*** ***Update Saturday 6/11***Day 27-I just installed the maintenance update Verizon/Samsung prommissed us. It fixed a number of things - mobile hotspot works now, 4G reception is improved (I consistently have one extra bar of reception sitting here in my living room), battery life improved, the screeching noise I previously mention fixed, mild performance increase and a number of other improvements. There still seems to be an occasional issue with my bluetooth headset. This could be the phone or the headset. I just can't say right now. I'll update this review when I have more info.***End of Update*** ***Final Update 6/16***Day 32-The last update seemed to take a day or so and a few restarts before it really took effect. It appears my bluetooth headset problem is the headset's fault. Plantronics replaced it for me under warranty. The predictive text seems to work better with the new update. Previously, it made you work a little too hard to...
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120 of 129 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An everyday users review, May 5, 2011
This review is from: Samsung DROID CHARGE 4G Android Phone (Verizon Wireless) (Wireless Phone)
I have had it only a few days. So this quick review is based upon that. I am your typical user. I use it as a phone, email, text, FB etc.
1. Build quality its nice and light feels good in the hands. I like the 4 physical buttons compared to capacitive touch buttons.
2. The super amoled + screen is the best on any phone out there..... No comparison
3. Using the phone I have no real issues with the Touchwiz interface. If coming from another phone you may not like it but its what you get used to. The phone is powered by a 1ghz hummingbird processor it works O.K. Sometimes the phone lags a bit. If anything that is my only complaint with the phone. Its not a deal breaker but when your pushing the limits of these processors for what you want the phone to do. You get the occasional hiccup. Of course this could be software related and it gets smoothed out in the future. Its really not that bad but something you notice once in a while.
4. NO notification LED's Really unforgivable Samsung. Would have been nice to look at the phone and see a blinking led to see if you have a VM, EM or PM. but nope. They do have a program out there that turns the screen into a LED since the screen uses such little power. (NOLED)
5. The biggest surprise. Unlike the Thunderbolt that I had that would constantly die in about 4 hours of use. I can get a day maybe a day and a half with out a charge. This is what a phone should be. You should not be afraid to use your phone for fear its going to die. With that being said keeping a charger around would not be a bad idea. After all you pretty much have a pocket computer in your pocket. Gone are the days of phones that just make phone calls and text messages and last for a week on a charge.
6. 4g LTE. What can I say it is seriously fast. If you use your phone on the 4g network and are forced to use the 3g network you will cry and find your self getting frustrated. The easiest way to compare this is the first time you used Cable internet, then had to go back home to your crappy dial up. That is what 4g to 3g is like. If you don't live in a 4g network area or will not use it for some time. You may want to look at the HTC incred 2. Its the Tbolts little brother pretty much. Same hardware - the lTE antenna.
7. In summary, great phone you can get it for 250.00 Here on amazon or 299.99 pretty much any other place. I think the price is a little to high for what your getting. For 80% of the users this phone will last you until the next contract is up. For that 20% of us, when the duel core phones start rolling out at the end of the year, and we still have a year left on the contract we might find our selves itching for more power, and paying the off contract price for those phones are not going to be pretty.
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81 of 86 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Phone despite some flaws, May 19, 2011
This review is from: Samsung DROID CHARGE 4G Android Phone (Verizon Wireless) (Wireless Phone)
Overall the phone is a great 4G device, the screen is unmatched by any other vzw phone on the market today. It does have some flaws that makes you wonder who handles Samsung's QC.
::Pluses::
~Screen- Readable in all lighting, including sunlight. Text and Graphics are crisp
~Keyboard- I found no problems typing on the included interface
~Volume- Phone Ringer is very loud and easily heard in noisy environments
~Camera- Takes solid pictures & has many options for taking the picture such as face detection, blink detection, etc
~4G LTE- Service is very fast & generally runs above the advertised speeds of 6-12mb
~LTE Switch- You can turn off the 4G radio when your not going to use it, saving battery life
~Battery Life- Big improvement from the Thunderbolt, last for about a day with moderate use. If you remember to turn the 4G off when your not using it, it last even longer
::Neutral::
~Responsiveness- The touchscreen is generally responsive with no lag time when using it. The only time it begins to tire out is when your running many apps at once due to the small amount of RAM installed on the phone
~Samsung's Touchwiz interface- not much to say other then you either love it or hate it
~Call Quality- Callers say I sound fine on their end but when listening to them while loud and clear sound somewhat robotic
::Minuses::
~LED Indicator- There is None! Seems like someone in quality control overlooked this. There is no indicator light telling you that you have text messages or missed calls
~Bloatware- The phone comes pre-installed with 3 pages worth of apps(48 total), most are useless and you cannot uninstall them, you can only reorder them in your app list
~RAM- It only comes installed with only 328mb of ram. If you run many applications at once you will notice the phone slowing down a bit, which can be fixed by going into the built-in task mgr & ending apps/processes running that you don't need. For a high-end phone, more ram should have been included.
::Final Word::
I would buy this one for the battery life, the built-in ability to turn off the LTE, and because it has the best screen available on vzw today
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