charge - 2/3 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Aug

[Review] Scosche goBAT II 5000mAh Portable Charger: Great For Phones, Meh For Tablets

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Other Reviews, Reviews

Last week, Artem took the Primo Power Core 8200mAh portable battery pack for a spin, and he really liked it. But as good as it may be, for some, 8200mAh may be overkill. With that in mind, I took on the Scosche 5000mAh goBAT II portable charger and backup battery to see how well it would fuel my devices during everyday use.

At A Glance

First off, lets take a look at what this power pack has to offer.

5000mAh, which should be able to charge a 1500mAh battery around 3 times, with a little left over.
Dual charging ports: one 5V 1 amp port, one 5V 2.1 amp port
Works with phones and tablets
In the box: the battery, USB charger, USB adapter for Galaxy Tab (more on that in a bit)

Now that you have a better idea of what the goBAT II is all about, lets look at what it does well, and where it lacks.

Aug

[Updated] Deep Review: Primo Power Core 8200 mAh Portable Battery Pack - Juice When You Need It, And A Whole Lot Of It

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Other Reviews, Reviews

Last Updated: August 9th, 2011

If there is one thing I constantly have to think about on a pretty much daily basis, it's juice. Not the kind of juice you pour yourself in the morning at breakfast, but the kind that is needed to power by insatiable electronics on the go. Last August, Phonesuit sent me a review unit of their 1000 mAh Primo Cube, but this year they really stepped up their game and sent over a whopping 8200 mAh portable charger called the Primo Power Core, compared to which the Cube is a mere drop in the bucket.

The Primo Power Core originally caught my attention for 3 reasons:

First and foremost, its massive 8200mAh capacity, which should be able to recharge a 1500mAh battery over 5 times.

Jun

Download: Official DROID Charge Gingerbread Leak - Complete With Netflix Compatibility

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Charge (i510), Gingerbread 2.3, News, Samsung, Tips & Tutorials

Update 2: SMS send and receive and mobile hotspot are non-working. Do not download this file (the link has been removed) - wait until a more stable release is available. If you need to flash back to Froyo, please check out this thread on MyDroidWorld.

Update: HDMI-out functionality appears to be non-functional in this update build.

Disclaimer: This article contains very device-specific flashing instructions. Read them carefully. We are not responsible for any damage, bricking, loss of data, or inadvertent explosions resulting from your attempts to flash this update onto your DROID Charge. Proceed 100% at your own risk.

Jun

[Deal Alert] DROID Charge Now Just $129.99 At Wirefly On New 2-Year Agreement

Posted by David Ruddock in Charge (i510), Deals, News, Tips & Tutorials

I'm not a big fan of the DROID Charge, but hey, to each his own. And apparently consumers haven't been such huge fans of the phone's notoriously high original MSRP ($300 on upgrade or new agreement), making it the most expensive subsidized Android phone to date.

Well, Wirefly has started playing hardball, and after having dropped the Charge down to $180 a month or so back, they've gone price-slashing yet again: you can now pick up the Samsung DROID Charge for $129.99 on a new Verizon account with a 2-year agreement, or when you add a line to your existing plan (sorry, it's still $200 if you want to upgrade).

Jun

Fring For Android Updated, Finally Supports Nexus S (2.3.4), Thunderbolt, DROID Charge, Galaxy S II, G2X

Posted by David Ruddock in Applications, Charge (i510), Flyer, G2x (p999), Galaxy S II, News, Nexus S (Crespo/Soju), Tips & Tutorials

So, you bought that fancy new Nexus S/DROID Charge/Galaxy S II/G2X/Flyer with a front-facing camera, and you were excited to make video calls. Then you noticed there isn't any native video chat client for Android (yet - Talk will have this integrated soon). Then you heard about fring, which is pretty cool. Then you tried to install it, only to discover it didn't work. Then you probably had a sad.

Well, frown no more - fring has been updated to support all sorts of front-facing camera-having devices (like the ones in the title, plus the HTC Flyer). The update has also included general bugfixes and improvements to audio quality, so head on over to the Market and check it out!

May

[Deal Alert] Amazon Drops Price of DROID Charge To $199 On New 2-Year Agreement

Posted by David Ruddock in Charge (i510), Deals, News, Tips & Tutorials, Verizon Wireless

Last Updated: May 20th, 2011

So, I'm probably not the best person to write about anything that might encourage someone to buy a DROID Charge (I sure as hell wouldn't, and our friends at Droid-life agree), but here we are. Amazon's offering the Charge for a slightly-more-reasonable price of $200 on a new 2-year agreement or eligible upgrade, down from the absolutely absurd price of $300 you'll get it for everywhere else.

I still wouldn't call it a deal. But hey, it's $100 cheaper than it was, and if you were thinking about buying one (for whatever reason), now is probably a good time.

May

Samsung DROID Charge Review, Or: How Slow, Buggy Software Ruined A Phone

Posted by David Ruddock in 4G, Charge (i510), Phone Reviews, Reviews, Samsung, Verizon Wireless, Videos

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Make no mistake, the DROID Charge is a cool phone. It looks cool. Its boot screen looks cool. Hell, even the camera has been carefully crafted to look like some sort of crazy piece of future-tech.

In the past week, I've had three separate people ask me what phone it was (something that I never experienced with my Nexus One or the HTC Inspire), and then proceed in some way to compliment its appearance or the vividness of its display. Unfortunately, this just goes to show that the Charge is a classic case of "don't judge a book by its cover." Why?

Apr

[Hands-On Video] DROID Charge: First Impressions

Posted by David Ruddock in 4G, Charge (i510), News, Samsung, Verizon Wireless, Videos

While Verizon has temporarily pushed back the release date of the DROID Charge after a 24-hour 4G LTE network outage yesterday, I did manage to get my hands on a review unit this afternoon.

The first thing I noticed was how sleek and futuristic this phone looks - it is just plain cool, in a way that no HTC or Motorola device even comes close to. The boot animation is probably the best on any DROID to date. It's shaped like it was designed to thwart radar detection - and it's pretty light to boot, a perception that is reinforced by the Charge's faux-carbon fiber battery cover.

Apr

Verizon Has 565,000 4G LTE Subscribers, Will Speeds Start Suffering Soon?

Posted by David Ruddock in 4G, Carriers, Editorials, News, Verizon Wireless

Verizon released the first subscriber figures for its rapidly expanding 4G network today - presumably to highlight strong sales of the carrier's first 4G handset, the HTC Thunderbolt.

Of the 565,000 (500,000 is the number Verizon added to its subscriber base in Q1) 4G users, about 260,000 are utilizing Verizon's LTE service via an HTC Thunderbolt. This means that since the launch of the Thunderbolt on March 17, Verizon has been gaining over 100,000 new LTE subscribers a week. And with 4G devices like the Samsung DROID Charge and the Motorola DROID BIONIC on the way, it seems Big Red's 4G campaign is just getting started.

Apr

Samsung DROID Charge Shows Up On Walmart Site, Still Unannounced

Posted by David Ruddock in Charge (i510), Samsung

Verizon's doing about as well keeping the Charge under wraps as Sprint did with the EVO Shift 4G - and now, the Samsung DROID has shown up on Walmart's online wireless store, albeit only in the form of a stock photo:

For a phone that's still unannounced (technically), and reportedly being released tomorrow, Verizon doesn't seem too concerned with generating fanfare for its second LTE device.

After the release date flip-flopping on the Thunderbolt, it wouldn't surprise in the least if the Charge was facing a [sort of expected] minor delay.

Droid-life