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  • phillipefelut - Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - link

    Verizon is all about the Galaxy S re-hash.
  • ImSpartacus - Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - link

    Verizon is all about the single core re-hash. All the other carriers have dual core 4G phones, but Verizon is stuck with not one single core 4G phone, but three.

    I hope they don't mess up the Bionic!
  • nickb64 - Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - link

    the other carriers, besides sprint (who doesn't have an available dual core 4G phone), have bullshit 4G
  • cmdrdredd - Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - link

    The other carriers who have claimed 4G have 4G that is shit slow. Dual core in a phone? What for? Really...are you going to tell me angry birds doesn't run well enough on a single core 1Ghz? You aren't doing photo retouching on it in photoshop either.
  • Symelian - Saturday, May 14, 2011 - link

    so your argument is that you have no use for more powerful hardware cause the software (that you are using as an example) wasn't made with that more powerful hardware in mind??

    what kind of crap is that? - if you make more resources available to developers they will make software that makes use of it ... - look ahead, not at what your doing now ...
  • extide - Wednesday, May 4, 2011 - link

    NONE of the current carriers have what is technically actually 4G as defined by ITU-R.

    Verizons LTE is the closest, Sprint's WiMax is probably second, but much more widely spread, and then AT&T & T-Mobile are calling HSDPA+ 4G, which isnt even CLOSE to the actual 4G specs.
  • extide - Wednesday, May 4, 2011 - link

    Sorry I meant HSPA+ not HSDPA+
  • ant1pathy - Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - link

    If you have that new scanner for cell phone screens, can you throw up a chart of all of the different phones you have lying around to see how they all measure up?
  • Brian Klug - Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - link

    That's the plan for sure ;)

    I don't expect much to change on the LCD devices honestly, but the AMOLED ones might change a bit. Actually these readings I just took are pretty close to what I was measuring earlier.

    -Brian
  • alphacheez - Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - link

    does this mean the lifetime of the display will suffer?

    Is text a lot clearer than PenTile AMOLEDs? That and possible color banding are the main drawbacks I recall about PenTile displays. It's ok if you just answer these concerns in the main review, I understand this is a quick announcement of what's arrived for testing.

    People who follow you on twitter, @nerdtalker, already know you were getting a charge out of CHARGEing (sic) your charge on it's charger until it's charged. Looking forward to you chargeing into this review.
  • calyth - Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - link

    That's a welcomed addition. I bloody hated those touch sensitive buttons that didn't respond, nor have any feedback when pressed.
  • eddman - Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - link

    You said HTC Thunderbolt was the first Verizon LTE smartphone. Now you say Samsung Charge is the first. Am I missing something here?
  • cjl - Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - link

    The Charge is the first LTE Droid. The Thunderbolt wasn't branded as a Droid.
  • eddman - Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - link

    OK, but what's the significance of the droid brand anyway? Aren't all android phones referred to as droids?
  • Stuka87 - Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - link

    No, Droid is a trademarked name that Motorola uses for their phones. They actually licensed it from Lucas Films, who owns the trademark on "Droid".

    So while some people may say all android phones are Droids in passing, from an actual naming scheme, only the Motorola's are Droids.
  • dagamer34 - Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - link

    Motorola didn't pay LucasFilms for the trademark, Verizon did. That's why there are HTC Droid phones like the Droid Eris and Droid Incredible.
  • evan919 - Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - link

    Droid is a brand licensed by Verizon, not Motorola. There was a none Motorola Droid device last year, the HTC Droid Incredible. The Droid Charge is the second non-Motorola Droid device.
  • eddman - Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - link

    Still, it's not a significant branding at all and IMO does not deserve a special title like that, because it's misleading and might result in people thinking that it's verizon's first android LTE phone.
  • RNC91325 - Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - link

    The Droid branding is supposed to be for their top end Android phones.
  • synaesthetic - Sunday, May 8, 2011 - link

    Well I guess it makes sense if the Charge is faster than the Thunderbolt.

    Since the Thunderbolt is already slower than my MT4G for whatever reason, despite using the exact same CPU...
  • cmdrdredd - Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - link

    It's bullshit...Droid is a proprietary name licensed from Lucas Film. It has NOTHING to do with the pjone, quality of the device, promotion of said device by verizon, or the price of tea in china.
  • Brian Klug - Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - link

    That's right - the Thunderbolt is the first Verizon LTE smartphone, the "Droid" Charge is the first official Droid tier LTE enabled smartphone.

    It's just a subtle point that's interesting to me since arguably the Thunderbolt should have been a Droid level phone. Verizon probably sees the Charge as being a better phone all around due to the SAMOLED+ display and smaller form factor, hence the Droid label. I'm intrigued by their selection criteria and why the Charge gets that branding instead of the Thunderbolt.

    Note as well that the LG Revolution hasn't been quite branded a "Droid" either, though the Bionic has.

    -Brian
  • Conficio - Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - link

    Hi Brian,
    thanks for bringing us so many interesting tests. However, I'd like to encourage you to find a better photo location. The photos on the white stone surface in bright sunlight are washed out and lack detail. Better take an umbrella to shield against the bright light or take the photos at dawn when the place is in shade.

    Kind regards,
    Kaj
  • Brian Klug - Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - link

    Kaj,

    I actually couldn't agree more - I'm in the process of moving and had to take down my lightbox and photo equipment the day it came in. I thought I'd shoot outside because of the lighting situation indoors being so bad (without flashes, softbox, e.t.c.).

    It'll get better in a few days ;)

    -Brian
  • DocB - Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - link

    Any comparison to the upcoming LG droid?
  • cmdrdredd - Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - link

    It looks like Samsung brought out another phone that is too fat to begin with.
  • weiln - Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - link

    Brian,

    If the Charge only has a single MDM9600, how can it handle multiple connections? The Thunderbolt has two chips that can handle CDMA (MSM8655 and MDM9600) which allows for simultaneous Voice/Data over both CDMA/LTE, however the Charge only has one chip. Can the MDM9600 handle both LTE and CDMA simultaneously? I tried a brief search but couldn't find any information like this.

    Previously voice/data was only available with wifi because it was a separate chip, and likewise the Thunderbolt has two chips...so I was just curious how the MDM9600 can handle multiple connections simultaneously with one chip.

    I know voice/data doesn't sound like a big deal...but when I'm streaming a game, or downloading data, it's supremely irritating to keep getting text messages that interrupt.

    Nathan
  • RicheemxX - Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - link

    I was really curious about that one as well?? I can't seem to find anything that confirms the phone does simultaneous voice and data.
  • Brian Klug - Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - link

    Nathan,

    That's exactly correct, as we outlined in the Thunderbolt piece. So the Charge has an MDM9600 which apparently can indeed simultaneously tune 4G LTE on 700 MHz and 1xEVDO (either 1x or EVDO) on CDMA2000.

    I've seen it documented a few places that the Charge does indeed support simultaneous voice and data but only in 4G markets, for example Amazon Wireless: "With 4G LTE, you'll enjoy simultaneous voice and data capabilities, allowing you to check e-mail, browse the web, download an app, and check directions on Google Maps while on a call" - http://wireless.amazon.com/Samsung-DROID-Android-V...

    There were some leaked slides as well which were Verizon internal that noted the same thing, simultaneous voice and data but when you're in a 4G LTE market.

    We're going to thoroughly test that out ;)

    -Brian
  • sooper_anandtech12 - Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - link

    I don't know why people feel that these PenTile displays are worth their hard earned cash. First, it was the Nexus 1. Slews of owners came out to defend their device's display. Then the Galaxy S came out, and again, owners backed the AMOLED display with PenTile pixel structure. Now, Atrix owners touting their qHD displays, again sporting PenTile architecture. Samsung has openly come out and denounced their past practices and come out with a normal RGB set up with the sA+ displays. Why do people still support these PenTile devices? Stop buying them and send a message to OEMs that it's just not acceptable. The qHD display on the Atrix is plan horrible. The pixelation above is obvious with plain sight.
  • synaesthetic - Sunday, May 8, 2011 - link

    I understand pentile subpixel arrays for AMOLED because the blue elements degrade so much faster than the red or green elements--by using less blue the display lasts longer (theoretically, anyway).

    For LCD though, pentile grid is just... mind-boggling. Why would you even bother other than to save a buck.
  • Wwhat - Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - link

    I for one am not too interested in run-in-the-mill phone news on sites like anandtech, if it is going in depth about a new technology yes but if it's about your 'news' about what the latest phone some US carrier has I think you should either read it in their newsletter, or on sites like engadget.

    You might as well report on what deodorant you use when you go for 'articles' like this
  • KaRRiLLioN - Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - link

    Dear Troll,

    All my deodorants and, in fact, toiletries, are Anand-Tech reviewed and approved.
  • tayb - Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - link

    Really? This phone will launch without outdated hardware save the LTE radio and running an OS that was replaced 5+ months ago.

    Hooray for Android fragmentation where it is totally cool and acceptable to do such a thing.
  • NCM - Wednesday, May 4, 2011 - link

    The current state of the art in 4G handsets suggests that if you use 4G data much then you'l spend quite a bit of time with your phone on charge.

    The upside? Well, unless you actually live in one of the few areas with meaningful 4G coverage the occasion won't arise too often. I realize we have chickens and we have eggs, but it's hard to get excited about 4G at this point. Call me again in 2012.
  • synaesthetic - Sunday, May 8, 2011 - link

    With all this dual-core, LTE stuff, what I'd like is someone to figure out how to match my Glacier's performance with a solid two or three days of battery life with HEAVY use.

    Guys? The tech's outpacing the batteries!
  • ol1bit - Wednesday, May 4, 2011 - link

    It sucks that the Galaxy II is already out in Europe, and Samsung pulls this turd out and says hey look at our brand new/old phone!

    Sure LTE is faster, but I'm not buying a phone that will be yesterdays tech in 3 months!

    sigh...
  • Htc Evo 3d man - Sunday, May 8, 2011 - link

    Verizon is great for 2010 products all their devices are nothing more than that..With the rate their LTE network is going DRAINING THE LIFE AND BATTERY out of all their devices the upcoming bionic has NO SHOT TO IMPROVE THEIR NETWORK....SPRINT RULES......
  • Omid.M - Friday, May 13, 2011 - link

    Brian,

    Not sure if I posted this here, but please, if you can cover:

    1) GPS -- duh, we're talking Samsung here...
    2) LTE speed, power drain vs. Thunderbolt
    3) Call quality, speaker volume
    4) RFS vs EXT4 file system -- which is it?
    5) Rootability (can you comment on this at all?)

    Looking forward to the review!
  • Omid.M - Friday, May 13, 2011 - link

    Brian,

    Not sure if I posted this here, but please, if you can cover:

    1) GPS -- duh, we're talking Samsung here...
    2) LTE speed, power drain vs. Thunderbolt
    3) Call quality, speaker volume
    4) RFS vs EXT4 file system -- which is it?
    5) Rootability (can you comment on this at all?)

    Looking forward to the review!

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