Sell me on the charge

[NJ Droid]

Well I am new to the forum and new to smartphones in general. I have never owned one but have used plenty. I have been racking my brain and scouring the web researching phones and I am about to pull the trigger on a charge from costco. I almost bought a x2 and a inc2 but dont want to pass up on the 4g speeds i will get in NYC. So tell me why should I buy this bad boy. end rant

 

[nlsme]

If you want the 4g speeds, no other phone compares, imho. The screen is very nice, arguably the best on a smartphone. Same with the camera. Battery life is very good in my experience. I would recommend using a different launcher such as launcher pro, or go launcher. But that would he my advice for any of the 3 4g phones, really any android phone.

Welcome to the forums. Any questions you may have, ask. The knowledge base on these forums is phenomenal.

 

[GunnerJim]

I did a review in the LG Revo section, had the Incredible 2, Droid Charge, LG Revolution, then back and final Droid Charge. I am convinced overall the Charge i the best of the lot. The Thunderbolt has way too many issues, battery life is abismal, so if you want 4G/LTE... Go with the Charge, think of it as the forerunner to the Galaxy S II, which if you hold off for any phone, I think that would be the one... VZW wants to get you on that tiered plan, they make more money that way. So wait around and that may be the worst part of the holding back, but if the SGSII is what everyone says it is, and it is 4G (I do not think it can be in the same form factor size with 2 radios required to make the 4G/LTE work at present)

Here is the link to the review I did:

http://androidforums.com/lg-revolution/344309-lg-revolution-vs-charge-vs-incredible-2-a.html

 

[NJ Droid]

I would recommend using a different launcher such as launcher pro, or go launcher. But that would he my advice for any of the 3 4g phones, really any android phone.

I have heard about this a lot on the forum but not sure what it is. Do you need a rooted phone for it to work?

 

[GunnerJim]

NJ Droid, to use Launcher Pro, or Go Launcher or ADW you do not have to be rooted. A stock phone works really well with different launchers. You may want to get Home switcher for Froyo to allow you to change with ease between Touch Wiz UI, Launcher Pro etc. I like Launcher Pro, I tried them all and decided to purchase Launcher Pro, it seemed more fluid, IMO. Get the free versions, try them all and see what you like best, it boils down to pref. Just delete the ones you are not keeping to free up space.

 

[Zohar127]

I own a charge and it's a great phone. The lag issues you may have read about are mostly gone since the last update and if we ever get gingerbread, that will help even more. The screen is simply amazing. Turn off auto brightness and crank it up to bask in it's (battery sucking) glory.

It has a pre-installed 32gb memory card.

The GPS has been flawless for me.

The 4GLTE speed is jaw dropping. I'm hitting 15.7Mbps down/6.85Mbps up. That's significantly faster than my home internet and I have the "premium" package! For comparisons sake, 3G for me was usually around 1Mbps down/0.5 up. Side by side with my GFs iphone I was able to load a webpage fully before her phone even started to think about loading. It downloads apps instantly.

The browser is very snappy and quick now ever since last week's update.

The Camera is one of the best you can get on a phone.

I like Touchwiz. I know you'll find many opinions out there over the different UIs so it's a bit of a personal affair, but it seems perfectly fine to me. It has 7 home screens. The feeds and updates widget is nice, and it just works.

The Charge is not only the best 4G phone on Verizon, it's probably the best phone Verizon carries ATM. It's my first Smartphone as well, and if you have a similar experience as I had, you'll love the phone as much as I do.

Also, you can get it for a steal from Amazonwireless. 179.99 for a new customer. 199.99 for an upgrade. I think it's even cheaper at Costco.