Samsung Droid Charge i510 Release Thread

[wild willy]

Yes, got the OTA update Monday morning- I was all excited, because I thought it was the Gingerbread update I have been waiting for. (It wasn't, but is supposed to fix several problems) I have a friend with the Moto Droid-X and he got Gingerbread a couple weeks ago. Verizon told me that it had been approved, back early in May, still waiting for the roll out.

Battery life is better than I had been lead to believe. Easily lasts all day, but I have yet to see 4G service. They tell me they are testing it in Albany area, turning it on and off. Supposed to be here before year's end. I have family in Pittsburgh area, they have it there, so maybe I will get there is summer and see. No problems with flash, spend plenty of time on YouTube. Phone came with 32 gB card, so plenty of room for a pack rat like me.

[wild willy]

update: I have read somewhere on a forum or blog that Verizon was NOT going to go to Gingerbread on this phone, but go directly to Ice Cream. Anybody have any pertinent info? Also, I saw 4G for a few minutes yesterday, in Schenectady- amazingly fast download. I have heard they are testing it here in the Albany area and turn it off and on. Supposed to roll out by the end of the year. I can't wait, it will be like Christmas all over.

[rplayer]

Got this phone on Saturday to replace the Droid X that got stolen out of my truck Friday night. I like the phone overall but the battery life is horrible. I got a low battery alert after 6 hours with virtually no use and all network and data turned off. They say this phone's battery blows the Thunderbolt away. If that is the case, then the Thunderbolt must be really bad. Oh, and I have the update installed too. I really don't want to go iPhone as I am partial to Android but this phone is going back I am afraid. I may look at the Facinate. I am not sure at this point.

[wild willy]

Curious as to what apps you have installed. My phone easily goes all day, from 6AM until 9 or 10 at night- Lots of bloatware- are you leaving the various radios turned on, like wi-fi, bluetooth, GPS? Some of the applications sync data endlessly, and update your location. IF you don't need such things turn them off to conserve power.

[rplayer]

Have not really installed much in the way of apps. I realize now that the battery problem is probably a symptom of the fact that I cannot recieve phone calls at work indoors. In other words, no 1x signal even though it says I have 2 bars. I did not have this problem on my Droid X, Original droid or ENV2. Only this phone. VZW repolaced the SIM card in it last night thinking it was a bad card. Same problem today.

[tjmonkey15]

I was in a class last week where (I think) my Droid X wasn't getting any signal. After a couple hours (it was an all-day class) I went outside to use the phone and it had 20% battery - it was full to start - and felt unusually hot. Apparently no signal for a phone = dead battery in no time

[wild willy]

Yes, this generation of phone has the ability to modulate the tx/rx power to the cell towers- if you are in a poor signal area, the phone will crank up the phone transmitter to full power, usually somewhere in the area of 300mW- nothing like the old analog bag phones, but going to full power will really burn up battery reserve.

[geeded]

We gave up on the Charge. My wife went through 3 of them in 3 weeks. First two would go from 100% to orange in under 4 hours w/o being used (GPS / Wifi off). The third got so hot we thought it was going to catch on fire. We tried new batteries (bought) and finally gave up and returned it. We are the proud owners of 5 Charge batteries..... Now due to phones being "passed down" to our kids, I ended up with my OH's old Blackberry Bold. Man, I hate this thing (REALLY), but am stuck with it until a reasonable android smart phone is released by Verizon. I'm hoping the Samsung Galaxy S II will be coming out soon. Looked into the Bionic but Moto's been buggy lately. The Galaxy has gotten fabulous reviews but not so much Samsung in general. Decisions, decisions.

[edamon]

We gave up on the Charge. My wife went through 3 of them in 3 weeks. First two would go from 100% to orange in under 4 hours w/o being used (GPS / Wifi off). The third got so hot we thought it was going to catch on fire. We tried new batteries (bought) and finally gave up and returned it. We are the proud owners of 5 Charge batteries..... Now due to phones being "passed down" to our kids, I ended up with my OH's old Blackberry Bold. Man, I hate this thing (REALLY), but am stuck with it until a reasonable android smart phone is released by Verizon. I'm hoping the Samsung Galaxy S II will be coming out soon. Looked into the Bionic but Moto's been buggy lately. The Galaxy has gotten fabulous reviews but not so much Samsung in general. Decisions, decisions.

Being a heavy cell user (business) the extended battery on this device (charge) is your friend. Yes, it makes the phone look pregnant, but have a full day of heavy use, it's still in the 35% battery range. This includes: lots of voice calls, push email, navigation, etc. I tend to like thin phones, but in this case the extended battery is perfect.

-d

edit: anyone know the release date for gingerbread or ice cream or whatever dumb name they have for the next release? it'd be nice to use skype with the forward facing camera.
-d

[edamon]

I was in a class last week where (I think) my Droid X wasn't getting any signal. After a couple hours (it was an all-day class) I went outside to use the phone and it had 20% battery - it was full to start - and felt unusually hot. Apparently no signal for a phone = dead battery in no time

this has been true for years now (since they released EVDO). The transmitter is constantly on, looking for a 4G tower.

Back when EVDO was first released, the main hack - so to speak on the Razr was to turn off EVDO, since their coverage wasn't that good at the time. solved the battery life issue of the transmitter burning battery life looking for something that isn't there.

However, what they should do now, is implement something that leverages the GPS. If the phone doesn't move past say 25-50M it disables looking for a 4G tower. Go past that threshold and it goes back to it's search mode. It'd save battery life for everyone - especially people who have no 4G at work. No point in constantly looking when the device is still in the same area.

-d