Samsung Droid Charge vs HTC ThunderBolt

Introduction:

Two titans enter the ring: the Samsung Droid Charge in one corner and the HTC ThunderBolt in the other. Both can use Verizon’s new 4G LTE network, and come with a host of features, such as a large display, 1GHz processor, 8MP camera, and 32GB of storage space. But there are some key differences between these two smartphones, which we will go into detail here.

Design:

Even though both the Samsung Droid Charge and HTC ThunderBolt have a candy-bar form factor, their appearance is different. For starters, the ThunderBolt is larger and heavier at 6.23 oz and features a dark charcoal color used on the exterior, as well as a kick-stand on the back, while the Samsung Droid Charge is gray in color with chrome accents and is a bit lighter at 5.04 oz. Even though both devices are made out of plastic, the ThunderBolt feels more sturdy and solid, and features a soft-touch coating on the back that provides a nice grip with your hand, while the Droid Charge feels “cheaper” and has slick plastic that is more difficult to get a firm grip on.


One of the most noticeable differences is in regards to the display technology that is used. The HTC ThunderBolt relies on a standard 4.3” WVGA resolution TFT LCD display, which is nothing that we haven’t seen before, but the Samsung Droid Charge uses a 4.3” WVGA resolution Super AMOLED Plus display, that is the newest type on the market. Even though both screens are the same size and have 480x800 pixel resolution, the Super AMOLED Plus display used by the Droid Charge delivers better contrast and color saturation, which allows text to be sharper and images to look more life-like. One other advantage is that the screen on the Droid Charge is much easier to view outside in the sun, while the one on the ThunderBolt is dark and hardly visible.


Located above the display on each device is a 1.3MP fixed-focus camera, that can be used for taking self portraits and for video chat (if the app supports it).There is also a light sensor and proximity sensor for the display, but the ThunderBolt includes a standard LED notification light that will flash if you receive a new message or alert; something that is missing from the Droid Charge. At the bottom are four navigation keys on the ThunderBolt for accessing the menu, home, back and search, but they are capacitive touch-sensitive and can easily be pressed accidentally, while on the Droid Charge they are physical buttons, which we prefer. On the sides are the volume rocker and power/lock buttons, but on the Droid Charge they are raised more and defined from the surround plastic so they are easier to operate. Both phones also have a microUSB port for charging and for connecting them to your computer, but only the Droid Charge comes with a HDMI video port to connect to a HDTV.

Interface:

Since the Samsung Droid Charge and HTC ThunderBolt run on Android 2.2.1 Froyo, they have the same underlying operating system and can do pretty much the same tasks – though their interface does look different.

Samsung uses their TouchWiz 3.0 user interface on the Droid Charge, which allows for a few extra desktop widgets to be placed on the 7 home screens, as well as different layout for the application’s screen, which has to be moved side-to-side. But missing are any type of themes for the desktop. This is one area where the ThunderBolt does well in, as it uses the HTC Sense user interface. Not only does it come with a larger selection of widgets, but also has 6 scenes and 5 different skins, all of which allow for much greater personalization on the desktop.


As we mentioned, both phones have 7 home screens, but moving between them feels faster and more fluid on the ThunderBolt. Sometimes the Droid Charge didn’t feel as smooth as you could see some delay when moving between the home screens.

Contacts and Messaging:

One area where both devices perform well in is with contact management and messaging. The HTC ThunderBolt will integrate all your contacts from your Google, Facebook, Twitter and Flickr accounts, while the Droid Charge also adds contacts from Skype, AIM, Windows Live, Yahoo! Messenger and MySpace. Even though there are some visual differences between the TouchWiz and Sense UI layout, they both allow you to view all your contacts together in one list, as well as edit them right from your phone.

The messaging app also looks a bit different between the Samsung Droid Charge and HTC ThunderBolt, but it still performs the same tasks. You can have it setup to work with any email account, including POP3, IMAP, AOL, GMail, Microsoft Exchange, Verizon.net, Windows Live Hotmail and Yahoo! There is also a separate Mobile IM app for connecting you to your Windows Live, Yahoo and AIM buddy lists.

Since neither phone comes with a physical keyboard, you have to use the on-screen virtual QWERTY. Between the two, we found the one on the ThunderBolt to be a bit easier to use, as the on-screen keys were slightly larger, and the word prediction worked better. But the Droid Charge also has the Swype keyboard included, so some of you may prefer using that.


Internet and Connectivity:

With the Samsung Droid Charge and HTC ThunderBolt, you are able to connect to Verizon’s 4G LTE data network – but not everything is wine and roses.

We’ve been using the ThunderBolt for almost 6 weeks now, and still have the problem we talked about here, where the phone will cycle through 4G, 3G, and 1x modes for no reason at all while we are in a 4G area. But if we put the phone in LTE only mode (as shown in that article), it significantly cuts down on the amount of times it changes to 3G and 1x, and will stay on 4G most of the time. But with the Droid Charge, it is always going between 4G and 3G, and most of the time will show 3G if we are in a house, car, or any type of structure. In fact, it happens so much that we have to use the Airplane mode dozens of times a day for it to re-establish a 4G connection. We’re not sure if this a problem with the Verizon network or with the phones, but the other 4G devices (USB modems, HotSpot, MiFi) will stay connected to 4G without dropping down to 3G in the same area.

As far as the phones' pure 4G data speeds are concerned, there is little to no difference, as we got 9.37 Mbps download on the Droid Charge and 9.27 Mbps download on the ThunderBolt, with both using the Speedtest.net app and connecting to the same server. Uploads were between 4-5 Mbps.

Both phones also come with a WebKit based browser and have similar features, but the web browsing experience on the Samsung Droid Charge is far from heaven. We noticed that several web sites (included our own) that use a lot of Flash content will completely lock-up the browser on the Droid Charge, making it unresponsive to scrolling and zooming. The only work around is to go into the browser settings for the Plug-ins and turn it off. This will allow sites to load without locking-up the browser, but you lose Flash support. Meanwhile, the HTC ThunderBolt can load web site, Flash and all, without any problems and without them locking-up. Because of this, we’d recommend going with the ThunderBolt if you visit a lot of Flash sites and want to maintain that support while viewing them.


There is also a Mobile HotSpot app on both phones, though the Droid Charge can support up to 10 devices connected through Wi-Fi, while the ThunderBolt can only support 8 – though we doubt most people would every use that many at one time.

One interesting feature on the ThunderBolt is that it has an Internet Connection Mode, where you can tether the phone to your PC via a USB cable, and have your PC use the phone’s internet connection.

Camera and Multimedia:

Even though an 8MP autofocus camera is included on the Samsung Droid Charge and HTC ThunderBolt, their images look a bit different, though neither one impressed us much. Pictures taken outside with the ThunderBolt have over-saturated color, which some may prefer, while the Droid Charge has more neutral looking color. Fine detail is about equal, but we noticed that both suffer from a tendency to over-expose bright areas, such as the sky, making it look almost white instead of blue. But for indoor pictures, the ThunderBolt did a better job, as images were sharper and looked in-focus, while images from the Droid Charge looked soft and almost out of focus. The dual LED flash on the ThunderBolt also does better at illuminating a night scene than the single LED flash on the Droid Charge.


We also weren’t impressed with the video recording quality on either phone. Videos can be captured at 1280x720p resolution with 28fps on the ThunderBolt and 30fps on the Droid Charge. We noticed that videos recorded with the ThunderBolt looked smooth, but the detail was poor and colors looked dull, while videos from the Droid Charge had better color, but were jerky looking.

Samsung Droid Charge Sample Video:



HTC ThunderBolt Sample Video:



Both phones can playback pretty much any video file you have, including MPEG 4, H.264, DivX and XviD. Naturally, viewing them on the Super AMOLED Plus screen with the Droid Charge is more eye appealing than the regular TFT screen on the ThunderBolt.

For the music lover, both devices have a pretty good music player that is a nice upgrade from the standard Android player. It shows the album art while playing a song, and both have cover art flow when the phone is in landscape mode. We did notice that music quality was better on the Droid Charge and sounded more open, even though we did flip-open the kickstand on the ThunderBolt that covers the rear speaker.

Performance:

The Samsung Droid Charge comes with a 1GHz Hummingbird processor and 328MB of RAM, while the HTC ThunderBolt uses a 1GHz Snapdragon processor and 768MB of RAM. When running the Quadrant Benchmark app, the Droid Charge would score between 940-1050, but the ThunderBolt was always over 1800, though some have pointed out that Quadrant does not work well on Samsung phones. We also ran AnTuTu System Benchmark, which got 1886 on the Droid Charge and 1991on the ThunderBolt. Despite these differences, both phones feel fast. The only thing we noticed was an occasional lag on the Droid Charge when moving between the 7 home screens, though this could be caused by the TouchWiz layered interface.

One area that we were not impressed with on the HTC ThunderBolt was its lower than average voice quality, as we could hear a continual “hiss” in the background, and there was also a buzzing distortion in the earpiece speaker whenever someone would talk. Thankfully, none of those issues were present on the Samsung Droid Charge, as there was no background noise, and voices sound clear and natural.

Signal reception was about equal on the two devices, showing 2-3 bars with -89dBm to -92dBm signal strength, and we didn’t drop any calls. But like we mentioned earlier, our concern is with both phones having a problem staying locked to the 4G signal.

When it comes to the battery life, there really is no comparison, as the 1600mAh battery on the Droid Charge was able to provide up to 10 hours of continuous talk time, or 12-14 hours of mixed usage. While the 1400mAh battery on the ThunderBolt could only provide 7 hours of continuous talk time, or 5-6 hours of mixed usage.

Conclusion:

At this point, it is really hard to decide which device is better, as both have some good points and flaws, so it really comes down to which flaws you are willing to live with. The Samsung Droid Charge has a Super AMOLED Plus screen that is visible outside in the sun, and the call quality and battery life is also good, but it likes to drop down to 3G most of the time and web sites with a lot of Flash content will lock-up the browser. The HTC ThunderBolt can stay locked to 4G more (using the force LTE mode) and the web browser works well, but the call quality and battery life aren't that great, and the TFT display can be difficult to view in the sun. So there are your choices.

We should point out that it might as well be a wise decision to wait a bit. There are two more 4G phones due out this summer for Verizon - the LG Revolution and the dual-core Motorola Droid Bionic (Targa). Maybe those will be all-around better choices than the Samsung Droid Charge and HTC ThunderBolt, in case you don't need an LTE phone right now, that is.

Software version on the reviewed Samsung Droid Charge:
Android 2.2.1
Baseband: i510.06 V.ED1
Kernel: 2.6.32.9 se.infra@SEI-28 #1
Build: SCH-I510.ED1
PRL: 15011

Software version on the reviewed HTC ThunderBolt:
Android 2.2.1
Baseband 1.16.00.0223r
Build 1.12.605.6
Kernel 2.6.32.21-gb05544a, Sat Feb 19 2011

Samsung Droid Charge vs HTC ThunderBolt Video Comparison: