Samsung Droid Charge Review
By admin on October 27th, 2011
Whilst the screen’s size and resolution no longer holds the same level as prestige as it once did, it certainly hasn’t as yet been significantly surpassed in terms of the display’s sharpness and vibrancy. Still, Samsung tend to put a high price tag onto their latest line-up of phones, so the ultimate question of whether the phone is worth it is still up for discussion.
The Charge’s design is in-line with that which we’ve seen on Samsung models in the past. Its slab appearance is changed only due to the increased size in screen. It measures 5.11 inches in height, 2.66 inches in width and is 0.46 inch thick. The overall weight of the phone is kept down to a low 5.04 ounces due to its plastic construction. Less weight is of course a good thing, but we’d probably prefer a higher quality construction for a device in this price range. A quality feel will be missed by those who have come to expect it from top of the range smartphones, as without it the phone loses some of its expensive profile.
The screen is a pretty impressive 4.3 inch Super AMOLED display, supporting a resolution of 400x800. Its clarity is of a very high level, with its high pixel and subpixel count making images appear clearer and sharper. One of its biggest advantages is that the screen is easy to use outside under bright light conditions. This is seldom seen on smartphones and often a neglected characteristic, so we’re happy to see the Droid Charge arrive at this impressive solution. Overall thee touch screen is responsive and follows commands promptly. Typing feels smooth on seamless on the two virtual keyboards that the one offers (Swype and Samsung’s onscreen keyboard).
Shipping with the phone is the Android 2.2.1 operating system. This includes all of Google’s services (such as Gmail and Google voice control). TouchWiz is also present to give added flavour to the Android interface, with seven different homescreens that can be customized with your favourite widgets and shortcuts.
Supporting the phone’s functions and features is a 1GHz Hummingbird processor. Together with the screen, the overall operation of the phone is responsive and smooth. Flicking continuously between different menus or applications can produce small amounts of delay, though these are generally negligible. For personal use there is a total of 2GB internal memory available, with the chance to upgrade with an addition 32GB through a microSD slot. Again, this is pretty disappointing on a phone with this price tag, especially with other phones supporting at least 8GB, if not 16GB.
The phone’s camera is an impressive 8-megapixel with support for flash, auto focus and blink detection. Overall the quality of the pictures produces is of a good to great standard, easily rivalling other smartphones cameras currently on the market. The camera is also capable of recording in 720p video.
