Samsung Droid Charge 4G Verizon Smartphone Review

Although the Droid Charge may not have the "latest and greatest" dual-core processor, its single-core 1GHz processor felt pretty zippy and responsive. Pinch-and-zoom controls were very fluid and smooth and the phone responded to our requests without lag.

Although we always like it when manufacturers place the microSD slot in a place that can be accessed without removing the battery cover, it's probably a minor issue for most users, especially since the Droid Charge ships with a 32GB card preinstalled.

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Samsung's Super AMOLED Plus display technology is arguably one of the best display technologies on the market today. We really can't say enough about the screen on the Droid Charge. It is vibrant and just plain gorgeous. Viewing angles on the Droid Charge are superb; In fact, we could still read the screen at nearly a 90 degree angle. Viewing the screen outdoors was better than with some phones, though there were times the screen glared and was difficult to read.

The Droid Charge's 8 megapixel rear-facing camera did a good job at capturing crisp images. The camera application lets you tap the screen to select a focal point and then tap another on-screen button for the shutter. The LED flash near the camera occasionally washed out some very close-up shots. With other shots, the LED flash wasn't quite strong enough. This is pretty typical of smartphone cameras and flashes, so we won't hold it against the Droid Charge.

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According to Samsung, you should expect up to 660 minutes (11 hours) of usage time and up to 280 hours (11.67 days) of standby time from the 1600mAh lithium ion battery found in the Droid Charge. In our everyday usage tests, the Droid Charge's battery lasted anywhere from one full day to nearly two and a half days of use, depending on how much we demanded from the phone.

When we ran our own HotHardware Battery Test, the Droid Charge didn't fare quite as well as it did in our everyday usage test. In this test, we set up a webpage with a mix of graphics and text. The page automatically refreshed itself every three minutes. We set the Droid Charge's display to 50% brightness and turned off Wi-Fi. For this test, the Droid Charge managed to last a mere 2 hours and 29 minutes before it died. In comparison to the HTC Thunderbolt, the Droid Charge quit more than an hour before the Thunderbolt did. We believe this shows battery life can vary greatly, depending on what capabilities of your phone you use the most.