Samsung Droid Charge Review - Droid Goes LTE
by Brian Klug on June 22, 2011 7:47 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Samsung
- LTE
- 4G
- Droid Charge
- Mobile
WiFi, Hotspot, Audio Quality, Speakerphone, GPS
The Charge is yet another smartphone to use Broadcom’s BCM4329 for Bluetooth 3.0 + EDR and 802.11b/g/n WiFi. Thus, it connects at 72 Mbps using one spatial stream on 2.4 GHz WiFi. Range is just what I’m used to seeing with the Charge, there’s nothing to report here that’s out of the ordinary, as the Charge hands on and off of WiFi predictably well just like every other BCM4329 based device.
Likewise the Charge supports WiFi hotspot creation, though Samsung rolled its own software for the Charge and doesn’t use the native Android hotspot utility.
The Charge originally received a lot of press for being able to support 10 WiFi clients on 4G LTE and 5 on 3G EVDO, which has been free thus far. Hotspot functionality worked fine through the end of May, at which point it stopped working unless you manually set your date back inside May. After the EE4 update, functionality was restored, but I’ve encountered some problems of my own despite the free LTE hotspot creation period being extended.
Though it’s a bit wonky, the Charge hotspot software is relatively standard fare and lets you do the usual things like set an SSID, WPA/WPA2 pre-shared key, timeout, and view details on individual connected clients. I didn’t get around to trying to have 10 devices connect, but I’m sure it would have worked. As an aside, it seems odd that Verizon’s 4G LTE handsets support more attached users than their dedicated portable hotspot products, and the latter come with tiered data. Something is very wrong with that picture.
I know that audio performance is another huge concern for many smartphone shoppers, and I’ve heard more than one request for some analysis going forward. We’re absolutely going to start doing so, for now however I can say that the Charge has the same Wolfson Microelectronics WM8994 multi-channel codec as Galaxy S. I listened to lots of Google Music tracks on the Charge using some Shure SE535s and the whole thing sounded great to me.
Samsung Droid Charge - 1x Voice by AnandTech
The other important voice quality metric is how actual calls sound. The Charge of course has a unique baseband, and thus I was initially curious to see how calls were going to turn out. I don’t remember ever thinking calls were bad sounding before the update, but after the update things sound excellent. I took a recording using the same method we used in the Thunderbolt to illustrate how good the Charge sounds - there’s no squealing or random drop-outs. I’m actually very impressed.
Next up is speakerphone volume which is another important metric. We measure using a digital Extech sound-level meter while calling that same number on speakerphone at maximum volume. The Charge is nice and loud here, and that extra loudness is especially useful for more than calls – it’s also nice to have when using Google Navigation.
I guess that brings me to GPS performance. The original Galaxy S series had some big headline-grabbing GPS problems, and the Verizon variant seemed to never quite shake them either.
I tested anywhere between 4-10 seconds from complete reboot to a good GPS fix on the Charge’s GPS with WiFi turned off. This is a far cry from how broken GPS used to be with every other device. I used the Charge for Google Navigation and drove just north of 800 miles without GPS ever flaking out - trust me, this GPS is tested and passes. That said, that time to fix could still be a bit faster, and you do need a large swath of unobstructed sky for things to work nicely, but it isn’t anywhere near the flustercuck that was Galaxy S GPS.
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tdenton1138 - Thursday, June 23, 2011 - link
Edit:strike: both phone for people
insert: both phones from people
NAblue - Thursday, June 23, 2011 - link
i don't like hard keys anymoreworldbfree4me - Thursday, June 23, 2011 - link
I'm happy to see that the NEXUS line particularly the NEXUS S can hang with the latest and greatest, while running a non-skinned OS and a single core chip. That formula seems to be the winner IMO. I only wish that future phones from any manufacturer would began life like the new Samsung Galaxy Tab, no skin from the factory, but add-on skins available via the market or the individual manufactures web store. This would enable Goog to keep the latest OS on more handsets from beginning and give end users even more options without having to root or hack the phone risking BSOD or worse voiding the factory warranty. Having said that, NEXUS 3G will certainly be a beast if NEXUS S is the ground floor! Thanks for another superb analysis ANANDTECH!!Nexus S 4G stock
jamdev12 - Friday, June 24, 2011 - link
Hi Brian,Thanks again for the great article. I've had an OG Droid since it came out November 2009 and lately, I've been looking for a phone to go to. I want to get into the unlimited plan which I've had since I bought that device and don't want to loose the privilege, even though I don't use 3G that often. I was seriously thinking of getting the Charge because of some of the reviews I had read on other sites, but was eagerly waiting on your recommendation. I now come to the conclusion that buying this phone is not in my best interest. I would love some 4G love, but the fact that battery life is outrageously in comparison to the LG and HTC LTE phones, I will have to see what the Bionic will bring. Like you stated in the previous article about the LG, battery life will likely not increased until the LTE radio is embedded in the phone CPU, which Qualcomm is working on right now. I guess I will try to grandfather my plan and see if Verizon will let me replace my phone when the Galaxy II S comes to the states.
Thanks again for the great article. I love Anantech for the indepth coverage you guys provide to all products. Informed consumers is what we need.
Jamdev12
360fish - Saturday, June 25, 2011 - link
all existing unlimited data plan customers are grandfathered in until ... further notice. I have this info from a leaked verizon document but ... sorry too lazy to find link right now. July 7 is the deadline to get grandfathered in, as I recall.Belard - Saturday, June 25, 2011 - link
Overall, the new data plans are a rip-off and hurt the abilities of these new phones.$25 for 10GB a month should be the min. One one company will drop to 2G when you hit the limit (rather than send you a $2000~4000 bill).
But when the caps are so low at 2~5GB, whats the point of having a 4G high performance internet phone when you can make out your data plan in 1-3 weeks?
They are promoting video and music downloads, streaming - that'll kill you. And google maps / GPS... that'll eat data as well.
Belard - Saturday, June 25, 2011 - link
It really shouldn't be this hard.- Thin doesn't always mean better. Strike a balance.
- Light-weight, if its feather-weight or poorly made, it may break easily.
- SIZE, sure its nice that phones come in various sizes... but as they get bigger, they become harder to get out of our POCKETS.
I have a Samsung Galaxy S Captivate (at&t)... the screen is great, the metal back looks nice.
But its design is flawed like all Galaxy S phones.
A) - Power button on the side, hard to feel (only on Captive)
B) - speaker on back = BAD BAD, I prop my phone a bit to hear the weak alarm.
C) - TOP and BOTTOM look exactly the same... HELLO? The Charge is better because YOU know instantly which side is up.
D) - my previous SONY phone, which I used for 2+ years still looks as new as my Captive (6 months old)... the whole bottom isn't flat and is not cheap plastic.
E) - REAL BUTTONS!! I like the charge already. Having a REAL HOME button is nice. Its location is STUPID as its the most use button on the phone but its NOT on the edge, nope... its in the middle? Should be: HOME / BACK / Menu / Search (Search can go away thou)
F - if using physical buttons, make the search a SHUTTER button when phone is in camera mode.
The Android interface FROYO fixed most of the GPS issues, but is somewhat DUMBER than 2.1.
- They removed NON-REPEAT function from the Alarm? STUPID!
- The Alarm profiles move around!! WTF?!
Heres a REALLY STUPID ONE...
The PHONE LOGS are defaulted to ALL, including MESSAGING?! The 2.1 had ALL or Phone Only... in 2.2 Froyo, they added some more, but TOOK OFF PHONE ONLY?! What idiot did this? Who the hell wants to SEE their TEXTING LOGS with their PHONE LOGS?! So I have to use SHOW only MISSED or SHOW ONLY incoming, etc... not just ALL phones. Again, STUPID.
Home button issues... Using an Ipad has shown how a HOME button is supposed to work. With my Android phone with its hard to find power button, I'm constantly turning the phone ON again, even in a phone call so I can see the screen. A Physical home button should always bring back the screen (if blank) rather than the power button. I hate getting a TEXT notification, and I could be in the middle of a swipe to unlock the phone to go to the text, and the PHONE shuts off.... gotta press the power, do the swipe all over again.
I like the flexibility I get from Android - but the User Experience is still crap . Having a WindowsPhone7 style launcher makes the phone much more usable.
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prakashpk - Sunday, July 31, 2011 - link
The article says that the phone has 512 MB RAM and 2 GB internal storage. However, my phone's task manger displays only 328 MB RAM and about 1.17 GB internal storage. Are there different versions of the phone?nitink - Monday, August 1, 2011 - link
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