Droid Charge Vs LG Revolution After A Month

[WenWM]

I've had the Droid Charge and the LG Revolution for testing for quite some time now. After receiving countless PM's from members asking me which one I would recommend, I wanted to say a few words about them, before giving both back to Verizon's great PR people in Minnesota.

The Droid Charge
I was a bit disappointed in this device only because I received it after spending some time with the Thunderbolt. This phone does not offer as great of a feel in hand as the Thunderbolt, nor does it run as fast. On its own merits, what this phone does offer, is a near weightless feel, excellent battery life, and an incredibly radiant Super AMOLED Plus display.
Many have questioned if this phone truly offers the best of Verizon's 4G speeds? I believe it certainly does. The below speed results are from a test I ran earlier today. The one on the top is of the recent test, while the one on the bottom is of the best score I've experience on the Charge throughout the month of testing.

(Today)

(Last month)

Just for fun I made sure this phone didn't suffer from any grip related signal loss. The phone didn't lose 1 single bar nor did it go any slower in a speed test. GPS launch time was really quick, and WiFi never lost connection even once. This phone is certainly running on full power in many ways, and while the visual and in-hand feel could be improved, it's still a pretty beastly phone.

LG Revolution
This phone has been pretty nice to me. While I did not enjoy it any more than the Droid charge, it has its advantages. The Revolution has quite a nice screen, was very responsive, and although it was much brighter than the Charge, its colors look very washed out in comparison to the Charge's.
Battery life with this phone performs better than the Thunderbolt, but not as good as the Droid Charge. As far as performance goes, the Revolution gives speeds closer to T-Mobile's 4G than Verizon's. I cannot figure out why, but the phone never produced anything more than 15Mbps speeds, so this leaves me with a slightly unimpressed taste in my mouth.

(Today)

(Last Month)

This phone, like the Droid Charge, does not experience any signal drop when I did the speed test while holding it fairly tight. The GPS was not as fast when it came to getting a signal, but it did keep it's hold throughout, and that alone is a very good thing since some phones couldn't do that to save their life.

In my opinion, The Thunderbolt is still the best 4G phone on Verizon. The Charge is the second best, while the Revolution takes the number 3 spot on my "top 3 LTE phones" list. These are all great phones if you're in the market for one. Clearly the Thunderbolt, even with its instant power killing abilities, is still the oldest and superior LTE phone. Share your thoughts about each device.


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[brad92]

Awesome. Thanks for the reviews. How did you like the different user interfaces?

sent from my ApeX

 

[WenWM]

Awesome. Thanks for the reviews. How did you like the different user interfaces?

sent from my ApeX

I'll attach the links to the seperate quick reviews when I'm done with them. I think the UI on the LG is better than the Samsung just because 1) LG is smoother than the charge. 2) more animations. 3) less iPhone look. But the Charge does offer smoother transitions and faster app loading time.

 

[Big Cam]

Although I don't own the charge, I do own the Revolution, and I admit the charge screen is way way clearer, but in the real world, that doesn't matter. The brightness of the LG is a much more usable everyday feature. I sat in a Verizon store playing with the both of them endlessly, adn i finally settled on the LG, and I could not be happier. The physical buttons on the charge were a nother deterant for me. I am not in an LTE market yet, but we are getting it at the end of this year, so I can't comment on the LTE speed.

Nice comparision though, everyone has different view, and I like hearing them, bujt for me the LG is the clear winner, especially when the charge has that horrible touch wiz crap, and more bloatware.

 

[Palmyra]

Well, while you may find that the Thunderbolt is better in this or that it would be nice to have one that is rebooting all the time. :cus:

 

[gmorgan056]

My wife has a Charge. I agree that the Touchwiz UI isn't that great, and it's a bit slow. But she doesn't care, she loves it. I had her run the Speedtest, it averaged 35Mbps! And I had her run it like 5 times straight.

 

[kjumper187]

Although I don't own the charge, I do own the Revolution, and I admit the charge screen is way way clearer, but in the real world, that doesn't matter. The brightness of the LG is a much more usable everyday feature. I sat in a Verizon store playing with the both of them endlessly, adn i finally settled on the LG, and I could not be happier. The physical buttons on the charge were a nother deterant for me...

Ditto. I sat there for 2 hours 1 day, went home and looked olline at the reviews (here and elsewhere), then went back and played somemore. There were 2 things that sold my on the Revo over the Charge.

1) Snapdragon processor
2) My GF played with the Charge demo and it locked up on her. I played with it 4 days later (again), and it locked up on me. If she can "break" it, I don't want it. (she's not tech savy in ANY way)

 

[kjumper187]

Also, good looing out on this article. Everyone has their wants and don't wants when it comes to phones. Hopfully you helped them out.

I wanted to tell you that Metro Detroit, my speeds with 3 bars on 4G were averaging the same as yours. I haven't been in range of all 5 bars yet to try, but I'm getting your speeds with 3 bars.

 

[Immolate]

Thank you for this helpful review. I'm waiting to get a new phone to replace my Thunderbolt and I've been torn between getting a Charge or Revolution, or waiting for the D3. The Tbolt is going to my daughter for her birthday and I can't go and buy the same phone again. I was afraid I'd be dissatisfied if I bought either of the other two 4G's and it sounds like I would have. I'll await the D3 and have some fun with that when it comes out in the next week or so.

For those of you who wonder if I'm insane, why yes I am thank you. However, I'm not insane about phones, and I have another upgrade coming online later this month. That one's reserved for the Bionic. Also, I share the OP's fondness for the Thunderbolt. For no particular reason, it's a very pleasing phone, and with some GingerBAMF/Sense3.0 loaded up, it's a pure pleasure. I haven't suffered a spontaneous reboot in some time that did not happen directly after a ROM upgrade - over a month at least.

 

[nikecar]

I almost bought the Revolution, but after playing with it over a few days, I hated the form of it in my hands. I felt it was too bulky for me and I opted for the Incredible 2.

 

[DroidXDoes4G]

Does anyone know when VZW will be getting a 4G/Dual Core device?
When you look at every carriers lineup of phones, verizons is by far the worst between Sprint, TMobile, and ATT.

VZ used to have the best of the best, and now they are a longshot from it.
I don't want to get the REVO/TB/Charge if there is an upcoming phone with good specs.

I was going to take advantage of this and go to Sprint or TMO, Clarification on Verizon’s Regulatory Charge and If You Can Use it to Get Out of that Contract - Droid Life: A Droid Community Blog but they might not change the prices.