# my OFFICIAL review of the droid charge!



## fixxxer2012 (Jul 31, 2011)

since i keep getting my ass chewed for every comment i make about the charge i figured id just make a thread on my initial thoughts, complaints and compliments about the droid charge. this might be good for noobs considering buying the phone as well.

THE GOOD:

battery life... much better than the tbolt i came from, even with 4g on.

phone is fast even stock, no need to overclock even though right now we do not even have this option.

hdmi port, i do not use this but it's nice to have as an option.

light weight and sleek design. easy to fit in your pocket. doesn't feel cheap as the epic 4g did.

better signal, i get full bars compared to the continuous fluctuating signal i had on my previous phone.

3g/4g speeds are faster, makes me believe the radio in the charge is much improved over the thunderbolt.

no random reboots as i had with my tbolt. again probably because of an improved radio.

the lcd and amoled display are very nice and i can easily see my screen in the direct sunlight.

the overall volume is very crisp and clear/loud compared to any htc phone ive owned. this is the first time i have not needed to use volume+ from the market.

rooting is a breeze compared to having to do s-off. odin is extremely useful and quick to use.
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THE BAD:

the camera, maybe it's just the app but i do not like the quality of the camera at all.

the amoled display while nice, seems to over-saturate certain colors. wallpapers i used on my previous phones do not look right on this phone model. especially blue & black colors.

if the battery drops below 15% the lcd goes extremely dim and is barley readable. this may be a built in power saver feature but i find it useless. i like to drain my phones completely for better battery calibration.

the 4 hardware keys. this is a personal preference but i like capacitive buttons over hardware ones.

no led notification, this is a big one in my book. not sure why samsung doesn't put these in their phones? i know there is some apps on the market but it is no where near the same functionality wise.

very slow charging. compared to htc the droid charge takes hours to fully charge up. not ideal if your in a hurry or on the go. "this could be a kernel limitation?"

the battery gets very warm after being on a phone call for an extended period of time. this may be normal but it does raise concerns.

very few roms and development, no cm7. for me this is actually a good thing as my previous phones i had to constantly deal with updating my roms. but for some who are addicted to flashing i could see this being an issue for you. i will say even with limited development the roms/tweaks/kernels that are offered are very good with limited bugs.

not alot of free ram left on the phone. now i understand the charge has less ram than lets say the tbolt and even when it drops below 99mb free the phone doesn't lag but it would be nice to see better memory management. this is probably more of a personal preference for me as im used to seeing well over 200mb-300mb free on my phones. in my experience the dialer seems to chew up alot of ram after using it.

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overall im pleased with the phone and i do not regret getting it as a replacement. i just have a few quirks that bother me. i tend to replace my phones very often and try new ones. to anyone considering getting the charge as a phone you can take what i listed above and compare them to your wants and needs.

if i can think of anything else as i test the phone ill list them for you. please feel free to contribute to this thread and PLEASE no bashing or trolling in here. i have the right to state my opinions and i think people need to stop taking that personally on here and xda.


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## Birthofahero (Aug 18, 2011)

I would agree with mostly everything that you said. However, I think the camera is stunning. I have taken some macros that look incredible. Im not a fan of the boring camera ui tho. 
But this phone is great, especially with the new leak.


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## fixxxer2012 (Jul 31, 2011)

Birthofahero said:


> I would agree with mostly everything that you said. However, I think the camera is stunning. I have taken some macros that look incredible. Im not a fan of the boring camera ui tho.
> But this phone is great, especially with the new leak.


yeah i think it's just the camera app, i always used the miui camera but it doesn't seem to work on the charge right now.


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## anoninja118 (Aug 3, 2011)

I would agree with most things here except the RAM issue, while it is low for a phone of this caliber (noticed samsung does this a lot with their phones, low RAM and small internal storage compared to say HTC) it is not an issue as the less free RAM the better meaning android is managing the system well... this is how I see it anyway

Sent from my Infinified 4G Droid Charge using RootzWiki Forums


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## zeuswsu (Jun 23, 2011)

The ram is the biggest issue I have with the phone. Especially with the new gingerbread leaks, often times there isn't enough ram available for me to even open plants vs zombies. Closing everything through task manager still doesn't clear out enough ram to open up the game. And I love that game so....anyway I agree with pretty much everything you said. I personally like the camera.


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## fixxxer2012 (Jul 31, 2011)

zeuswsu said:


> The ram is the biggest issue I have with the phone. Especially with the new gingerbread leaks, often times there isn't enough ram available for me to even open plants vs zombies. Closing everything through task manager still doesn't clear out enough ram to open up the game. And I love that game so....anyway I agree with pretty much everything you said. I personally like the camera.


id love to see the miui cam or even a port of the htc camera. maybe ill do some digging later today. also as far as the ram, maybe when the kernel source drops the devs can make more aggressive memory tweaks.


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## wyllic (Sep 5, 2011)

You completely misunderstand how Android and Linux in general handles memory. While it's true this phone does have less overall memory, the amount of "free" memory is pointless. I would explain it to you but I'm sure numerous people already have.

Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk


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## Grillrd (Jun 6, 2011)

What does "OFFCIAL" mean?


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## nuva_ring (Sep 28, 2011)

cool story bro


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## Rythmyc (Jul 23, 2011)

fixxxer2012 said:


> since i keep getting my ass chewed for every comment i make about the charge i figured id just make a thread on my initial thoughts, complaints and compliments about the droid charge. this might be good for noobs considering buying the phone as well.
> 
> THE GOOD:
> 
> ...


While you have the right to express your opinions, you do NOT have the right to call this thread an "OFFCIAL droid charge review thread" thread. Especially when you couldn't even spell all of the words in the title correctly. You are FAR from a very reliable source for information on a phone, much less for people to actually take advise from. You litter every forum that you happen to buy a phone for with incoherent blabber and half-truths about your misconstrued opinion on the phone. It's sad when an entire community posts a thread trying to get donations to get you another phone so you do not return to that community. If that doesn't say something about your character and advise. I don't know what will.


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## shrike1978 (Sep 2, 2011)

wyllic said:


> You completely misunderstand how Android and Linux in general handles memory. While it's true this phone does have less overall memory, the amount of "free" memory is pointless. I would explain it to you but I'm sure numerous people already have.
> 
> Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk


I've tried to explain it to other people and it never sticks. I came to Android from iPhone, and people were just as bad about it on that platform as well, even though it wasn't as visible. People just can't seem to understand on *nix in general, and mobile devices in particular, free memory is completely wasted. The more apps you can stuff into available memory, the faster, smoother, and better your user experience will be. My phone runs worse at first boot with little in memory than it does once my commonly used apps get loaded into memory.


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## zeuswsu (Jun 23, 2011)

"shrike1978 said:


> I've tried to explain it to other people and it never sticks. I came to Android from iPhone, and people were just as bad about it on that platform as well, even though it wasn't as visible. People just can't seem to understand on *nix in general, and mobile devices in particular, free memory is completely wasted. The more apps you can stuff into available memory, the faster, smoother, and better your user experience will be. My phone runs worse at first boot with little in memory than it does once my commonly used apps get loaded into memory.


Then how do you explain plants vs zombies not opening? I can play it fine after a fresh reboot, but if I let my memory fill up after using my phone for a while, then I get an error and the game wont open. I make sure all other apps are closed, clear memory, etc.


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## fixxxer2012 (Jul 31, 2011)

Rythmyc said:


> While you have the right to express your opinions, you do NOT have the right to call this thread an "OFFCIAL droid charge review thread" thread. Especially when you couldn't even spell all of the words in the title correctly. You are FAR from a very reliable source for information on a phone, much less for people to actually take advise from. You litter every forum that you happen to buy a phone for with incoherent blabber and half-truths about your misconstrued opinion on the phone. It's sad when an entire community posts a thread trying to get donations to get you another phone so you do not return to that community. If that doesn't say something about your character and advise. I don't know what will.


you know man, did i do something to offend you? i don't care if i get banned or an infraction your an idiot. apparently you cannot read either as i specifically said to not troll which you seem to have a habit of doing. your not even worth the effort, your on ignore.


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## fixxxer2012 (Jul 31, 2011)

Grillrd said:


> What does "OFFCIAL" mean?


since there is some grammar nazi's i corrected the title.


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## wyllic (Sep 5, 2011)

> > Originally Posted by wyllic
> > You completely misunderstand how Android and Linux in general handles memory. While it's true this phone does have less overall memory, the amount of "free" memory is pointless. I would explain it to you but I'm sure numerous people already have.
> >
> > Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk
> ...


I blame windows for making people think that's the only way things work.

Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk


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## wyllic (Sep 5, 2011)

zeuswsu said:


> Then how do you explain plants vs zombies not opening? I can play it fine after a fresh reboot, but if I let my memory fill up after using my phone for a while, then I get an error and the game wont open. I make sure all other apps are closed, clear memory, etc.


There's a lot of reasons that could be happening, none of which are that Android handles memory like windows.

Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk


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## fixxxer2012 (Jul 31, 2011)

wyllic said:


> I blame windows for making people think that's the only way things work.
> 
> Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk


im not the only person to say the memory management is not great on the charge either.

also to update trying different cameras on the charge. both the miui cam and aosp cam do not work as ive tried various ones with no luck. i did find one that works from the sg2 but you get a force close when trying to preview the cam thumbnails.


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## shrike1978 (Sep 2, 2011)

fixxxer2012 said:


> im not the only person to say the memory management is not great on the charge either.


You're also not the first person to think everything is like Windows. It isn't. I dont' have any problems with the memory managment on this phone. I run imo's GB kernel, I don't get launcher redraws, and everything works. Who cares how much memory is free? Why obsess over how much free memory you have when it doesn't matter?


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## fixxxer2012 (Jul 31, 2011)

shrike1978 said:


> You're also not the first person to think everything is like Windows. It isn't. I dont' have any problems with the memory managment on this phone. I run imo's GB kernel, I don't get launcher redraws, and everything works. Who cares how much memory is free? Why obsess over how much free memory you have when it doesn't matter?


as i said it could be a samsung deal here with the ram. i just pointed out what i was seeing. it's more a personal quirk i have, no need to get soo upset about it. my old nexus s 4g had the same issues. as i did say i didn't notice any slow downs, i was just saying the amount of free ram is much less on this phone model.


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## Rythmyc (Jul 23, 2011)

Still wondering how this makes your post "offcial". When you become a reliable source for reviews on a phone. You would be considered official. As it stands, you're not.


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## wyllic (Sep 5, 2011)

fixxxer2012 said:


> as i said it could be a samsung deal here with the ram. i just pointed out what i was seeing. it's more a personal quirk i have, no need to get soo upset about it. my old nexus s 4g had the same issues. as i did say i didn't notice any slow downs, i was just saying the amount of free ram is much less on this phone model.


I understand what you're saying, but you're promoting this review like it has something important to say. And your information is just wrong, it's why everyone is jumping all over it. And your problem with the amount of "free" RAM is just so incorrect on face that it has to be pointed out because we don't want people reading this to think that way, because then it's all about correcting misconceptions.

You know you'd catch a lot less flack if you just renamed this thread to "My Opinion of the Pros and Cons of the Droid Charge" at least be up front that this is all just conjecture and opinion and not fact.


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## fixxxer2012 (Jul 31, 2011)

wyllic said:


> I understand what you're saying, but you're promoting this review like it has something important to say. And your information is just wrong, it's why everyone is jumping all over it. And your problem with the amount of "free" RAM is just so incorrect on face that it has to be pointed out because we don't want people reading this to think that way, because then it's all about correcting misconceptions.
> 
> You know you'd catch a lot less flack if you just renamed this thread to "My Opinion of the Pros and Cons of the Droid Charge" at least be up front that this is all just conjecture and opinion and not fact.


why would i rename it when most of the people agree about what i said? it's just a few of you that have a hard on for me here. it's simple, if you don't like me or the thread then don't respond. i feel i gave the phone a fair review and nowhere was i bashing it. if anything this could help lurkers make up their minds if they want this phone or not. i really don't see why some of you seem to care soo damn much. i thought this place wasn't like xda...guess i was wrong in thinking that!


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## wyllic (Sep 5, 2011)

Most people agree with you? Dude, like 90% of this thread is bashing you and the review. So...

http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=the+definition+of+the+word+most


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## fixxxer2012 (Jul 31, 2011)

wyllic said:


> Most people agree with you? Dude, like 90% of this thread is bashing you and the review. So...
> 
> http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=the+definition+of+the+word+most


 funny as the first page of users mostly agree with my review. and as i said it's MY review, not yours. if you do not agree fine but why bash what i said? seems to me yourself and 1 other individual want this thread locked. the charge is a nice phone but no where near what id call perfect. it's called freedom of speech, deal with it!


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## wyllic (Sep 5, 2011)

I never said to lock it, you are completely entitled to your opinion. I just said that you should state it as such, your opinion, and not some kind of official review.


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## fixxxer2012 (Jul 31, 2011)

wyllic said:


> I never said to lock it, you are completely entitled to your opinion. I just said that you should state it as such, your opinion, and not some kind of official review.


 ... whatever, just to please you ill change the thread title. :androidwink:


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## Raziel36 (Aug 14, 2011)

"fixxxer2012 said:


> funny as the first page of users agree with my review. and as i said it's MY review, not yours. if you do not agree fine but why bash what i said? seems to me yourself and 1 other individual want this thread locked.


Only so much drama can follow one person before it starts to become clear what the problem is. You'll notice that most of, if not all, the recent negativity in the forums involves you. That should strike you as something to take notice of. You are very confrontational, and can't take criticism at all.

You've had this phone for less than a week, but you have the "official" review? Of a phone that people have been using for months now.. really?! If you can't see why that's rubbing people the wrong way, then there's something wrong with the way you think.


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## bond32 (Jul 14, 2011)

LOL, you said to your "old" samsug nexus s... That phone ain't old! Heck I would take it over my tbolt sometimes LOL

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk


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## fixxxer2012 (Jul 31, 2011)

bond32 said:


> LOL, you said to your "old" samsug nexus s... That phone ain't old! Heck I would take it over my tbolt sometimes LOL
> 
> Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk


by old i meant one of my previous phones. it was a decent phone but sprints network was a mess and still is. i don't regret leaving them for verizon. plus at the time of release the phone had serious data issues that supposedly were fixed by an update. i couldn't say as i had already returned it.


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## fixxxer2012 (Jul 31, 2011)

Raziel36 said:


> Only so much drama can follow one person before it starts to become clear what the problem is. You'll notice that most of, if not all, the recent negativity in the forums involves you. That should strike you as something to take notice of. You are very confrontational, and can't take criticism at all.
> 
> You've had this phone for less than a week, but you have the "official" review? Of a phone that people have been using for months now.. really?! If you can't see why that's rubbing people the wrong way, then there's something wrong with the way you think.


no people from xda who always had issues follow me here to create drama. you call it me being defensive i call it i just speak my mind. this was my review of the phone, it shouldn't bother anyone. it's not like it will drive people away from it. most of what i said is well known anyways if you do a google search. i asked for you guys to stay on topic but apparently you cannot do this in any thread i make. think about who's causing the drama now!

and yes i can take criticism just fine but what has been said in here is bashing and nothing more. of course ill retaliate back. i cannot really see how anyone can put down someones opinion on something. disagree yes but bash it?


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## Birthofahero (Aug 18, 2011)

Ugh...


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## Cruiserdude (Jun 23, 2011)

I have to agree that there weren't really any problems like this in the forums until you came along. That's not a jab against you, its just a fact.

Now, I understand it could be frustrating to feel that everyone is against you, not a fun place to be. However, if you do truly believe that this is unfair, and they are the ones with the problem rather than you, then prove it. By prove it I mean be the bigger man and move on. Take note of what people are saying, and act accordingly. If you want to be a contributing member to the forum, then fine, we welcome that. But I have to say that so far I have seen alot of conjecture and misinformation, and not alot of helpful input or respect for our devs. Complaining about hardware features and how this phone will soon be outdated aren't things that contribute to the community.

But continuing to complain about how people respond to you, while getting an attitude won't help things. Again, read the forum rules, follow suggestions and advice, and be a contributing member. Or gtfo, like any other forum.


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