yutzybrian
Member
Well as promised in an earlier thread here is my thoughts and comparisons after using both phones. Posted in general discussion to avoid bias towards one or another.
First off both phones do have some similarities. Both are a 4.3" screen which helps a lot going from a slide out keyboard to all touch screen. There's plenty of room for the buttons on screen and I rarely mistyped, even right after the switch from my D1. The X2 and Charge sport an 8MP camera with 720p video recording, a pretty big plus in my opinion because I don't need a dedicated camera for vacations, pictures of the car, etc. Finally both have the 4 physical buttons along the bottom (which I love because I always accidentally hit the touch ones on my D1). Unfortunately both phones ship with Android 2.2 on them instead of the newer Gingerbread and neither have a camera button.
Now on to the hits and misses of both phones individually...
Droid X2
The main reason I went with the X2 initially was the Tegra dual core chipset. I am a computer enthusiast who loves to have the latest, greatest, and fastest when possible so dual core in a phone got me looking at the X2 and only the X2. The flip side to that is that the dual core isn't quite as fast as one would expect it to be. It did help with booting the phone faster and gaming performance but that was the end. Doesn't do a single thing for multitasking. In fact this phone plain blows at multitasking if you are listening to music. Anytime I would even so much as turn the screen on the music would skip a little (just enough that its noticeable). Open an application you say? Does it again. Tried the built in music player, google music, Winamp, and Mixzing. Does the same thing on each player, so definitely a phone problem and not music player problem.
There are 2 features of the X2 I would kill to have on the Charge however: dual LED flash and the LED notification light (what can I say, I like LEDs :biggrin
. The dual LED flash came in handy more than a few times as a flashlight. There was definitely no needing anything else, this monster was brighter than any flashlight I have in the house. The LED notification light I like just because I don't have to turn the screen on to see if I have new SMS, email, etc.
Now for my biggest beef with Motorola and the X2 that I cannot stress enough so it goes in big bold letters:
LOCKED BOOTLOADER!!!!!!
I mean come on Moto. Its Android. Its Open Source. Give us some options here. I understand the need to protect your customers from a bricked device but for those of us who do like to play AND know what we are doing allow us to unlock it already!!!!!!
Droid Charge
First thing I would like to say is I did not get a chance to test out the 4G as they have not added 4G to Lima yet (although we are suppose to get it by the end of the year). The 4G was one of the reasons I decided to switch to the Charge. I figured if the dual core wasn't going to blow me away might as well get the faster internet right?
I think the absolute, hands down best hardware feature of the Charge is the stunning Super-AMOLED+ screen. Its just freaking amazing!!! Samsung has done very well with they're screens for a while now. I had a Samsung Rogue last fall that was very bright and vivid compared to every other phone I had owned before it.
Other minor features that I like is the front facing camera, going to most likely use it for facial recognition lock, and the actual shape/form factor of the phone. In other words its not a square brick, looks better, and actually feels decent in my hand. Stock vs stock I liked the Charge's lockscreen music controls a lot better too. The X2 had the simple back, pause, forward whereas the Charge had a nice pull down menu at the top of the lockscreen that just went a little better with it.
The only negative thing I could find to say about the Charge other than coming with an outdated Android build is that it is slightly slower on boot. I have to wait about 15 seconds after it gets to the lockscreen before 3G connects and the phone actually becomes usable (no data or cell until then). A minor bug to me because my phone only reboots if I'm installing roms or other hacks/software.
Oh by the way did I mention? You can DEVELOP on the Charge!!!! Currently have Clockwork Mod Recovery (thanks to imnuts @ XDA), GummyCharged 1.5 ROM, and Peanutbutta Jelly Time Kernal installed. Thank you Samsung for being a kind and loving manufacturer. And uhhhh if ya don't mind send a Charge to Cyanogenmod to go with their SGS please? dancedroid
Conclusion
After using both phones I would have to say the Charge is by far better. More features and an overall better phone. If you are willing to hack it defiantly do so. If not I would still reccomend at least replacing the home with GoLauncher, ADW Launcher, or LauncherPro. TouchWiz is a touch too slow. MotoBlur was not much (if any) better however.
So here's goodbye to the X2. Early retirement from me and (hopefully) onto a new owner through eBay. Hopefully this review will help a few people out who were like me and had considered both devices.
First off both phones do have some similarities. Both are a 4.3" screen which helps a lot going from a slide out keyboard to all touch screen. There's plenty of room for the buttons on screen and I rarely mistyped, even right after the switch from my D1. The X2 and Charge sport an 8MP camera with 720p video recording, a pretty big plus in my opinion because I don't need a dedicated camera for vacations, pictures of the car, etc. Finally both have the 4 physical buttons along the bottom (which I love because I always accidentally hit the touch ones on my D1). Unfortunately both phones ship with Android 2.2 on them instead of the newer Gingerbread and neither have a camera button.
Now on to the hits and misses of both phones individually...
Droid X2
The main reason I went with the X2 initially was the Tegra dual core chipset. I am a computer enthusiast who loves to have the latest, greatest, and fastest when possible so dual core in a phone got me looking at the X2 and only the X2. The flip side to that is that the dual core isn't quite as fast as one would expect it to be. It did help with booting the phone faster and gaming performance but that was the end. Doesn't do a single thing for multitasking. In fact this phone plain blows at multitasking if you are listening to music. Anytime I would even so much as turn the screen on the music would skip a little (just enough that its noticeable). Open an application you say? Does it again. Tried the built in music player, google music, Winamp, and Mixzing. Does the same thing on each player, so definitely a phone problem and not music player problem.
There are 2 features of the X2 I would kill to have on the Charge however: dual LED flash and the LED notification light (what can I say, I like LEDs :biggrin
. The dual LED flash came in handy more than a few times as a flashlight. There was definitely no needing anything else, this monster was brighter than any flashlight I have in the house. The LED notification light I like just because I don't have to turn the screen on to see if I have new SMS, email, etc.Now for my biggest beef with Motorola and the X2 that I cannot stress enough so it goes in big bold letters:
LOCKED BOOTLOADER!!!!!!
I mean come on Moto. Its Android. Its Open Source. Give us some options here. I understand the need to protect your customers from a bricked device but for those of us who do like to play AND know what we are doing allow us to unlock it already!!!!!!
Droid Charge
First thing I would like to say is I did not get a chance to test out the 4G as they have not added 4G to Lima yet (although we are suppose to get it by the end of the year). The 4G was one of the reasons I decided to switch to the Charge. I figured if the dual core wasn't going to blow me away might as well get the faster internet right?
I think the absolute, hands down best hardware feature of the Charge is the stunning Super-AMOLED+ screen. Its just freaking amazing!!! Samsung has done very well with they're screens for a while now. I had a Samsung Rogue last fall that was very bright and vivid compared to every other phone I had owned before it.
Other minor features that I like is the front facing camera, going to most likely use it for facial recognition lock, and the actual shape/form factor of the phone. In other words its not a square brick, looks better, and actually feels decent in my hand. Stock vs stock I liked the Charge's lockscreen music controls a lot better too. The X2 had the simple back, pause, forward whereas the Charge had a nice pull down menu at the top of the lockscreen that just went a little better with it.
The only negative thing I could find to say about the Charge other than coming with an outdated Android build is that it is slightly slower on boot. I have to wait about 15 seconds after it gets to the lockscreen before 3G connects and the phone actually becomes usable (no data or cell until then). A minor bug to me because my phone only reboots if I'm installing roms or other hacks/software.
Oh by the way did I mention? You can DEVELOP on the Charge!!!! Currently have Clockwork Mod Recovery (thanks to imnuts @ XDA), GummyCharged 1.5 ROM, and Peanutbutta Jelly Time Kernal installed. Thank you Samsung for being a kind and loving manufacturer. And uhhhh if ya don't mind send a Charge to Cyanogenmod to go with their SGS please? dancedroid
Conclusion
After using both phones I would have to say the Charge is by far better. More features and an overall better phone. If you are willing to hack it defiantly do so. If not I would still reccomend at least replacing the home with GoLauncher, ADW Launcher, or LauncherPro. TouchWiz is a touch too slow. MotoBlur was not much (if any) better however.
So here's goodbye to the X2. Early retirement from me and (hopefully) onto a new owner through eBay. Hopefully this review will help a few people out who were like me and had considered both devices.
