Droid (Sholes) - 8/17 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

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

Droid X2 Joins The LG Revolution and Sony Xperia PLAY For A May 26 Launch - Sans Gingerbread

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Droid X2, News, Verizon Wireless

Official word just came out of VZW's camp that the Droid X2 will indeed be hitting the streets on the previously rumored launch date of May 26. The arrival of the X2 puts the total number of new VZW phones to hit on that same day at three (what's up with phones dropping in threes these days?) alongside the LG Revolution and Sony Xperia PLAY, so anyone looking to pick up a new handset will have somewhat of a choice to make.

The X2 packs a pretty powerful punch over its predecessor:

4.3 inch qHD display
1GHz dual-core processor (the full press release made no mention of Tegra 2)
8MP rear camera
HDMI Out
Enterprise grade security
Android 2.2 (to be upgraded to Android 2.3)

Did you catch that last bullet?

May

DROID X2 Shows Up On Verizon Accessory Page; Still Unannounced

Posted by David Ruddock in Droid X2, Motorola, News, Verizon Wireless

Continuing in the grand tradition of letting its less-than-flagship phones remain relatively free of fanfare leading up to release, Verizon (and Motorola) have let slip that the DROID X2 is probably coming soon, with the addition of an accessory page for the device on Verizon's website.

In case you've forgotten, the DROID X2 is the dual-core, qHD-display packing successor to the wildly popular DROID X (the most popular Android phone to date, in fact). The X2 will be dropping with Gingerbread and the latest iteration of Motorola's not-MOTOBLUR overlay when it lands supposedly some time this month (maybe May 26).

May

[Review] HTC DROID Incredible 2: The Evolution Of A Great Device

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Incredible 2 (Vivow), News, Phone Reviews, Reviews, Verizon Wireless

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Is the HTC DROID Incredible 2 a groundbreaking phone? Hardly. With the Incredible 2, HTC has simply taken an already great handset and refreshed the hardware. The result is a phone that's evolutionary rather than revolutionary - but as it turns out, that's not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it's actually quite a good thing - the DInc2 is a great device, and I wouldn't hesitate for a second to recommend it to friends or family.

At A Glance

As I've already said, the DInc2 is no record breaker on paper; it has but one core and lacks 4G LTE connectivity.

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?

May

[Awesome] Shirts By Droidarmy - This Is The Army You'll Want To Join

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in News, Off-Topic

We love Android shirts. Really. To the point of considering wearing something like this.

So when Malc Foy emailed us a tip about a group of like-minded artists working on a series of mashup Android characters, we had to check it out.

It's called Droidarmy and so far contains over 20 designs, about a third of which I suddenly want to wear. Here they all are:

My Favorites

Here are some of my favorites:

Droidbird

Droidberg - though I already own this one.

Darth

DroidBorg

Bonus

I actually like this shirt the most, but for some reason it's not tagged as Androidarmy.

Apr

Unboxing & First Hands-On With The HTC DROID Incredible 2

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in HTC, Incredible 2 (Vivow), News, Verizon Wireless

I awoke this morning to the UPS delivery guy dropping off a package at my house; lo and behold, it was a DROID Incredible 2 (Dinc2) review unit. As an EVO owner, I'm fairly familiar with what has fast become HTC's modus operandi - high quality, good price, and higher-end specs. With that in mind, I was looking forward to my time with the Dinc2, and tore into the box immediately (I didn't even put a shirt on first... sorry, UPS guy).

Let's state the obvious right up front: the Dinc2 isn't going to break any records. We've already got dual-core phones with more RAM, we've seen handsets with bigger and better screens, and it's not packing 4G.

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

DROID Incredible 2 and Casio G'zOne Commando Join The DROID Charge - All Coming To Verizon On April 28th

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Charge (i510), Incredible 2 (Vivow), News, Verizon Wireless

April 28th is going to be a big day at Verizon for Android lovers, as three new phones are scheduled to hit the sales floor, adding even more choices to the already vast lineup of VZW Android powered goodness.

Samsung DROID Charge

First on the list is the Samsung DROID Charge. I realize that we've known the release date for several days, but it's definitely worth mentioning again since it's the first 4G phone to carry the DROID tag and will most likely take its place as the new flagship phone for VZW.

Specs:

4G LTE
4.3 Inch Super AMOLED Plus display
1GHz Hummingbird processor
8MP rear camera, 1.3MP front camera
Mobile Hotspot with support for up to 10 devices
Android 2.2 with Samsung's TouchWiz interface
Price: $299 with a new two-year agreement

It is (unjustly) the most expensive phone on the list, with the fact that it runs on Verizon's 4G LTE network the only thing that it really has going for it.

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.