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Why is this phone being released?

J

jcnyc

Android Enthusiast
Am I the only one that wonders why is this phone even being released at all?

1. The specs on this phone are worse than the htc thunderbolt (personally I prefer sense any day). Less ram, less internal storage and the Tbolt came with a 32GB sd card that costs actually a good amount on amazon. Yes the Samoled+ screen looks nice but it's not like the thunderbolt is rocking a black and white screen.
2. The price is 50$ more than the thunderbolt for no additional features or reason.
3. The Galaxy S2, an unanimously far superior phone from the same company has just been released abroad which in THEORY means it should be released in the US soon too.

I can't imagine that Verizon wouldn't have known about Samsung's plans for the S2 before they accepted the charge. Just doesn't make much business sense to me from VZW or Samsung when both know a better phone has been released and the Thunderbolt probably took the initial wave of customers wanting to be a part of the 4g club.

What this most likely does is delay the release of the S2 for at least another 2-3 months. Verizon can't just abandon a phone it's been marketing in commercials and the news immediately after it's been released. I think most people that have done some research will hold out for the S2 and personally think this phone will flop once it is released. Anyone else?
 
Big questions for me at this point is:

1. What is the actual RAM size?

2. What model is the 1ghz. processor?

3. What size and/or anticipated battery stats?

Are any of the "technical" specifications documented or is this just rumored?

I am so ready for perhaps an Engadget hands on with some real user experience on this device.

I was excited about an LTE phone with a great screen and hard keys, but it seems this phone may be a mistake.
 
Why? Because VZW thinks they can. They are leveraging their coverage map and holding to their mid level device for premium price strategy. They think people will pick their coverage map and bend over and take these devices with a two year contract.

To make it worse, these devices have low to no internal storage and the CRAPTASTIC Blockbuster app. This means no Netflix app- EVER on these devices, since, Blockbuster paid to have this bloatware pre-installed.

Netflix is the other way around, since the Android OEM has to pay Netflix to have their device authorized for Netflix servers.
 
Unless you have Sprint coverage in your area, though, there's no better carrier to go to.

I dunno, I'm still grasping at straws, hoping this'll be a surprise dual-core. I mean, why release two LTE single-core phones in such a short timeframe at different price points? Dual-core is already out on the two lower end carriers. Sprint and Verizon are lagging in this regard.

I'm willing to pay $300 for a dual-core LTE phone with Super AMOLED+. I'm probably not willing to do it for a single-core version. But hey, Costco has 90-day tryouts for phones, so I can always get it and wait it out to see if anything better shows up.
 
shadowdude777 said:
Unless you have Sprint coverage in your area, though, there's no better carrier to go to.

I dunno, I'm still grasping at straws, hoping this'll be a surprise dual-core. I mean, why release two LTE single-core phones in such a short timeframe at different price points? Dual-core is already out on the two lower end carriers. Sprint and Verizon are lagging in this regard.

I'm willing to pay $300 for a dual-core LTE phone with Super AMOLED+. I'm probably not willing to do it for a single-core version. But hey, Costco has 90-day tryouts for phones, so I can always get it and wait it out to see if anything better shows up.
Click to expand...

This is not going to be a "surprise" dual core. At least I've seen no indication that it will be. I totally agree with your logic, and I want it to surprise me, but there's been no indication that's going to happen. Berizon's roadmap for this year really doesn't make a tremendous amount of sense. It's quite a bit more disappointing than our U.S. GSM carriers.

Now, even if it's not a dual core, if it's a new 1.2GHz refreshed single core, or an improved process 1GHz hummingbird, similar to what Qualcomm did to their processor for the Thunderbolt, AND the Charge has the better file system in place, then this phone will still be an upgrade from the Thunderbolt in terms of screen (super AMOLED plus) and having HDMI out.

Looks like we're all about to find out ...

DROID DOES | PAGE NOT FOUND
 
Heh, that's why I said surprise. Notice how we've gotten almost no specs on this thing and it's 2 days away from release. That said, it'll probably be like T-Mo's Galaxy S 4G and have a 1.2GHz Hummingbird, as you said.
 
shadowdude777 said:
Heh, that's why I said surprise. Notice how we've gotten almost no specs on this thing and it's 2 days away from release. That said, it'll probably be like T-Mo's Galaxy S 4G and have a 1.2GHz Hummingbird, as you said.
Click to expand...

A 1.2GHZ hummingbird would actually be AWESOME and put it at the top of the single core list. That's a 20% speed jump over the original humminbird, and if it happens to have an improved file system to match it, this will now be firmly the single core phone king, and it will be back on my consideration list. And the $299 price tag will be ALMOST justified .... almost.

Notice the site went down. Looks like they're updating it. Stay tuned, my friends ... :)
 
shadowdude777 said:
Uh... it doesn't look like it went down to me. I still see the same old useless Droid promo crap in that link you posted. :P
Click to expand...

Refresh it. Mine says "page not found" in the header, and then a lengthy message in a droid-ish window in the middle explains that the site is not found there.
 
jcnyc said:
Am I the only one that wonders why is this phone even being released at all?

1. The specs on this phone are worse than the htc thunderbolt (personally I prefer sense any day). Less ram, less internal storage and the Tbolt came with a 32GB sd card that costs actually a good amount on amazon. Yes the Samoled+ screen looks nice but it's not like the thunderbolt is rocking a black and white screen.
2. The price is 50$ more than the thunderbolt for no additional features or reason.
3. The Galaxy S2, an unanimously far superior phone from the same company has just been released abroad which in THEORY means it should be released in the US soon too.

I can't imagine that Verizon wouldn't have known about Samsung's plans for the S2 before they accepted the charge. Just doesn't make much business sense to me from VZW or Samsung when both know a better phone has been released and the Thunderbolt probably took the initial wave of customers wanting to be a part of the 4g club.

What this most likely does is delay the release of the S2 for at least another 2-3 months. Verizon can't just abandon a phone it's been marketing in commercials and the news immediately after it's been released. I think most people that have done some research will hold out for the S2 and personally think this phone will flop once it is released. Anyone else?
Click to expand...

In my view, the only thing Tbolt has over this phone is the size of internal storage and RAM, but not by much. For some reason Tbolt has eaten nearly half of 8gb leaving less than 4gb for you. And 768Mb vs 512Mb in RAM is not that great bump. If it is 1Gb vs 512Mb then it's something.

But Charge has HDMI, Tbolt doesn't.
Charge has better screen than Tbolt.
Charge has comparable or better processor (refreshed 1.2Ghz hummingbird).
Charge has better camera than Tbolt (very likely).
Charge has better battery life than Tbolt (very likely too).
And Charge might have better 4G LTE reception than Tbolt (This is unknown yet though).

So given all of this, Charge is a little better LTE phone than Tbolt and Verizon needs to bring out as many LTE phone as they can. I think LG Revolution is getting ready for release soon after Charge, which will be even better single core LTE phone than Charge. These three LTE phones will soon be tested against each other, but based on specs, features I have that in this order.

Revolution > Charge > Thunderbolt
 
jinwons said:
But Charge has HDMI, Tbolt doesn't.
Charge has better screen than Tbolt.
Charge has comparable or better processor (refreshed 1.2Ghz hummingbird).
Charge has better camera than Tbolt (very likely).
Charge has better battery life than Tbolt (very likely too).
And Charge might have better 4G LTE reception than Tbolt (This is unknown yet though).
Click to expand...

^this, and I'm also curious about the speakerphone quality compared between the two. The TBolt's is just average which I had hoped for more.
 
I see nothing in the specs suggesting a refreshed Hummingbird. The fact that VZW pushes these products with no internal storage is also annoying. We get charged more than other carriers and they get better features on similar OEM devices.

Again, because VZW can get away with it- due to their coverage map.

Maybe a big a55 "AT&Mobile" is what is needed to knock VZW down to size?......

Let em' merge.
 
Just got my Droid Charge... Its Deja Vu since I have a Fascinate as my main phone. Touchwiz is very similiar. ill be trying out battery life as my whole area is 4G. You can choose 4G automatic or 3G only in the wireless networks settings but didnt see a widget to turn it off. I also rooted it with Superoneclick and have tituanium hiding a ton of bloatware.. Screen is sick..

Mad
 
maddigital said:
Just got my Droid Charge... Its Deja Vu since I have a Fascinate as my main phone. Touchwiz is very similiar. ill be trying out battery life as my whole area is 4G. You can choose 4G automatic or 3G only in the wireless networks settings but didnt see a widget to turn it off. I also rooted it with Superoneclick and have tituanium hiding a ton of bloatware.. Screen is sick..

Mad
Click to expand...

Please verify CPU? I've only heard so far that it's the standard 1GHz hummingbird from LAST YEAR with the accompanying PowerGPU 540.

Definitely hearing the screen is wonderful so far.
 
Both Samsung and Verizon site state Charge spec somewhat vaguely. Seems like processor clock speed is 1Ghz, but it doesn't say any more details. It could be the same Hummingbird of last year or improved Hummingbird for this year or even dual core Exynos @1Ghz (I know it's doubtful). But I noted whopping 11 hours of talk time! I know it's just spec on paper but still much better than 6 hours of Tbolt.
 
Personally, I'd go with the charge over the thunderbolt(and i probably will) but
contrary to a lot of the negative response to it, i think it will be a good phone.

I too am waiting for engadget's review of this phone and i am hoping that the price
will be a tad cheaper than VZW asking price
 
maddigital said:
CPU
ARMV7 Processor rev 2 (v7i)
Max Req 1000mhz

GPU
PowerVR SGX 540
Click to expand...

Exactly what's in the Galaxy S.

Finally, we no for sure.

NO 1.2GHz hummingbird like AT&T's 4.5" samsung.
NO dual core.
SAME processor from LAST YEAR.

What a disappointment. (I mean the screen, camera, and HDMI are great features, but WHY didn't they upgrade the CPU to run all the new goodies better? This phone simply makes NO SENSE.)

Regardless, I thank you.
 
I'm hoping this phone flops like the blackberry storm so Verizon can get the message of stop ****ing around with your customers and give us what we want, aka stop giving us old phones when a CLEARLY superior one is already available!
 
jcnyc said:
I'm hoping this phone flops like the blackberry storm so Verizon can get the message of stop ****ing around with your customers and give us what we want, aka stop giving us old phones when a CLEARLY superior one is already available!
Click to expand...
I don't get why people care about single/dual core. Its not like you're running supercomputer calculations on your phone. Its just a phone. Running a browser, entering some notes, simply does not tax a CPU. Make scrolling a little smoother? No amount of CPU will make it totally smooth until Google utilizes the GPU, then even a very slow phone will look smooth.

The much more important stat is how fast can it receive data. LTE is no comparison to 3G. LTE is the important speed improvement. Everything else is unneeded useless power.
 
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