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After experiencing a couple weeks’ delay, Verizon has just hit us with official word of the Samsung Droid Charge launch. It will be available tomorrow, May 14th, from Verizon stores and can be ordered online starting at midnight tonight. If you pick up the first 4G LTE Droid handset from Verizon, you will have to pony up a pretty hefty $299.99 on a two-year contract, though other retailers have indicated that they will sell the handset for a bit less at $249.99.
We guess Verizon cleared up whatever LTE issues they were having that made them hesitant to launch the smartphone with its large and beautiful Super AMOLED Plus display, 1GHz processer, and dual cameras. Check out our full review if you’re on the fence.
DROID Charge Joins Verizon Wireless’ Android Family
BASKING RIDGE, N.J. – Verizon Wireless and Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung Mobile) today announced that the DROID Charge by Samsung will be available for purchase in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores and online at www.verizonwireless.com.
The DROID Charge is designed with Samsung’s 4.3-inch Super AMOLED™ Plus display, setting a new touchscreen standard for brightness, clarity and outdoor visibility. The DROID Charge is equipped with both a rear-facing 8-megapixel camera with LED flash and front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera for both stills and video chatting. The smartphone’s 1 GHz application processor and HTML 5 Web browser maximizes high-speed 4G LTE connectivity for faster downloads and graphics processing.
Additional features:
- 4G LTE – Customers can expect download speeds of 5 to 12 Mbps and upload speeds of 2 to 5 Mbps in 4G Mobile Broadband coverage area
- Android 2.2 platform – Support for Google Mobile Services including Gmail™, YouTube™, Google Talk, Google Search, Google Maps and access to more than 200,000 apps available to download from Android Market™
- Adobe® Flash® Player compatible
- Mobile Hotspot capability – Share 4G connection with up to 10 Wi-Fi-enabled devices or a 3G connection with up to 5 devices.
- Samsung Media Hub – Samsung’s own content service, offering a vast lineup of critically acclaimed films and TV programs for rent or purchase
- Virtual QWERTY keyboard featuring Swype technology
Pricing and data plans:
- The DROID Charge by Samsung will be available for $299.99 with a new two-year customer agreement.
- DROID Charge customers will need to subscribe to a Verizon Wireless Nationwide Talk plan and a 4G LTE data package. Nationwide Talk plans begin at $39.99 monthly access. Unlimited 4G LTE data packages start at $29.99 monthly access. Mobile Hotspot feature will be included for a limited time at no additional charge.
For more information about the DROID Charge by Samsung, visit www.droiddoes.com/charge. For additional information on Verizon Wireless products and services, visit a Verizon Wireless Communications Store, call 1-800-2 JOIN IN or go to www.verizonwireless.com.
Wonder what the full retail will be for this?
Dual Core and I would definitely get this phone, but if you are going to be forced into 2 year contracts, you need to future proof.
Yeah or just buy full retail then you dont get stuck in contracts.
How about this. Release the Droid 3 for those of us who adopted early and sure would appreciate a new phone that doesn’t suck right about now!
Will this thing need a patch like the Thunderbolt..stay tuned and find out
Best news about this is 4G is still unlimited so far.
$299 on a 2-year contract = no way. Either lower the price of the phone or lower the length of the contract.
what’s full retail at a vzw store?
For $300 – No 2x core, no 4.0 TW, no 2.3 GB = No thanx.
Insta-FAIL! Verizon has set up this phone to flop right outta the gate. 199 would have been palatable but 300 bucks for current tech is just outrageous!
The Iphone does pretty good at 300. Please, all you broke whiners, please move to sprint. Where they STILL charge 200 for a year old phone.
The iPhone does well at 300 because people will pay to say “look I have an iPhone”! Only 1 company makes it and only 1 hardware model exists for it. So in essence when an individual buys an iPhone they are just buying “status symbol”. Android has many, many different hardware applications for it and as such 300 dollars does not fit THIS particular Android hardware configuration when there’s much more powerful & feature rich phones at a much lower cost. Nuff said. Nuff said.
So, the EVO4G going for 200, w/o the $80 sd card, w/o superamoled+ is a good deal then I see? And the Iphone is “just a status symbol”? Okay.
I just tried the iPhone 4 and I was shocked what a joke that thing is compared to, say, the DroidX. The screen is pathetic. And I’m too blind anymore to use such a small high density screen.
So you like larger screens. I do too, but to say the screen is “pathetic” is kinda lame. Not jumping on the Iphone bandwaggon, but anybody that has an open mind can see the Iphone is a very solid device.
$300? Humbug. I’ll wait for the Droid Bionic, Droid X2, Droid 3 or LG Revolution. Even the Incredible 2 is worth keeping rather dishing out $300 for an upgrade.