Long-Term Review: Droid Charge

So I've almost owned my Samsung Droid Charge for a year (it's actually been 10 months and some days). So far I think it's the best phone I've ever owned (since 2000). It might sound strange, since I've owned two 3G iPhones and one 3GS and everyone goes gaga for iPhones.

For starters, the Droid can do everything the iPhone used to, except the  call quality is excellent and calls are very rarely dropped. This may also have to do with two important facts: it's a 4G phone, and it's on Verizon instead of AT&T (like my iPhones used to be).

Also important, I've used a sturdy case for my cell phones since day one, and this Droid has suffered no major mechanical issues due to the occasional accidental drop. My last iPhone experienced such interference with the sound lever, the on-off switch, and other software issues that I had to stop using it. Now, the significant-other unit has had to use it because his cell was totaled during an accident. Poor him. He's resorted to buying another phone on eBay.

The Droid has good sound quality when reproducing music either from streams (Pandora, TuneIn, Amazon MP3) or from memory (mp3s, etc.).

The availability of applications, one of my original concerns when switching, ahs provided me countless hours of entertainment. The major apps (Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Shazam, etc.) are all available and work great.

My only concern is that sometimes, when there are several updates due to some applications, the phone starts prematurely closing out of an application or two, or just seems to have a hard time with the touch screen. Not all app updates are indicated on the top bar. Whenever I feel the slightest interference coming on, I check the Google Play store update screen for my apps, and indeed, will find a few are either uploading updates or need to be clicked on to start those up. It's a subtle enough change in performance that leads me to question: isn't there a better way? 


All around I am enjoying my initial investment, and have been able to reduce my call time enough that I moved down two voice plans to savings of around $100 from my original plan back in August. Pending the occasional co-worker sent text message, since I don't have a texting message (non-plan texts are .20-.30 per text).


My only concern is that there don't seem to be plans for upgrading the OS to Ice Cream Sandwich for this phone, as of yet. The last update I am able to find on the interwebs is from March 2012, when all the online sources mentioned this phone as ominously left out of the upgrades list.


Well, time will have to tell whether it gets the upgrade or not, meanwhile, it's working fast and well, and it's the right phone for me.


NOTE/DISCLAIMER: I am not a technology fashionista or fad-o-phile who needs the latest gadget to show off to people. I usually wait for the first adopters to "beta" test the crap out of stuff that's just released, and I'll buy the follow up--which has been patched/mended/corrected/revamped--if and only it matches a practical need I need to fill in my life. But I love keeping up with the news of the latest and greatest to be a better-informed consumer that can help friends, coworkers, and family when the conversation about particular techie tools come up.