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Droid Charge review and rumor

tednaciousd

Newbie
May 22, 2011
11
3
Hi,

So I have some good news. First is that I got the Droid Charge a week ago, and after a lot of usage I can say that I like it, a lot. The second is that it's going to be supported, and sooner than you thought.

1.

The Charge is a multimedia powerhouse. Photos, videos, and music are good stuff. First, you have the SuperAMOLEDplus screen, which makes photo and video look amazing. Then, an 8 megapixel camera that takes incredible photos and HD video. Everyone knows these things. But the real unsung hero is the headphone jack. The biggest annoyance for me with the OG droid was that headphones did not fit snugly, and audio quality was awful. If you plan to use the 32GB SD card on the Charge for your music library, you are going to be very happy with performance. Download WinAMP and you don't need an iPod anymore. Except for maybe a shuffle for the gym.

4G LTE is incredible. I live in Boston, and we're hooked up. I get 4G everywhere but office buildings and trains. I'm in those places a lot, but the times I do get 4G are worth it. It does drain battery, but just turn off data when you're not using your phone for an extended period of time. It's a good habit to get into and it's worth it to have 4G when you are using your data.

-First thing you should do is get Launcher Pro. There is no lag and it's a better UI than TouchWiz. I don't see why people even bother to review TouchWiz...

2. The Droid Charge is going to be updated to Gingerbread in the first week of June. I'm not a huge smartphone fanboy so I'm interested in your thoughts about the implications.

You're going to hate me for the lack of supporting evidence, but here goes. I'm hoping that someone with better knowledge of Twitter search will be able to dig up what I'm referring.

In my pre-purchase research, I checked Twitter closely for Charge reviews. My search was: "Droid Charge" -buy
I subtracted a term because it removed a fair amount of spam. The search result I'm referring to must have been posted around May 16. The result was tweeted by a person whose last name was Subramanian. His Twitter name included the name "subra." He first reported the update roadmap, so don't give me credit. But I doubt anybody saw it because he has few followers.

So, I did some stalking. I found a Picasa album that led me to a Samsung employee outing in Southeast Asia. That leads me to believe that Subramanian works for Samsung and has insider information into the update.

I'll try to hunt it down, but I personally believe it's good news that Gingerbread is coming to the Charge very soon.

Thanks and happy charging.
 
I'm sure he has observed a real correlation over time, but there are so many factors nowadays in getting a phone to market. The phone was introduced in January at CES on 2.2. We only know of it being delayed once but it could have been delayed multiple times. For all we know they could have been working on an update for at least 5 months. It might not have made it to launch, but I don't see why that would have any real bearing on an update roadmap post-launch.
 
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typically I'd agree with you but I'm sure Samsung is trying to change their reputation. I think a quick update could be a "rolling thunder" approach to the Charge to keep the phone relevant as long as possible, recharge sales, and take another shot at the Tbolt.
Even if samsung approves gingerbread. Verizon still has to allow it and add or take out what they want.
 
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Do you have any source indicating that gingerbread is coming to Charge early summer? I wouldn't hold my breathe on early summer. Even if it's late summer, that will be nice.

I did have a source, but I lost it. Twitter only allows search history for a couple days. The source is a Samsung employee named Subramanian. I'm naturally very skeptical which is why I did the research into the tweet. Obviously things are delayed all the time, but I do believe that this was a Samsung employee who tweeted that Gingerbread will launch of the DC first week of june
 
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Wooo! I found it!

Twitter

"Droid Charge Ginger Bread on worx. OTA update likely June 1st week."

Balasubramani is located in South Korea.

Here's his Picasa gallery: Picasa Web Albums - Balasubramani Aru...
See: Samsung Family Day May 4 2010. Definitely an employee.

He has only 18 followers, so I doubt he really has much motivation to make this up.

What do you guys think? :)
 
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Even if samsung approves gingerbread. Verizon still has to allow it and add or take out what they want.

Maybe it just wasn't ready for launch and it's been in testing at the Verizon level. Wasn't the Charge originally slated for the end of March? Let us not forget that the phone has been through both planned and unplanned delays. I'm sure Gingerbread was nowhere near ready 3 months ago when these things were probably being boxed for retail.

I guess the other question is whether or not TW 4.0 will come with Gingerbread?
 
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