As unveiled at the consumer electronics show in January of this year, Verizon’s blazing Long Term Evolution (LTE) mobile broadband network claimed to be up to 10 times faster than Verizon’s already reliable 3G wireless platform. And after the HTC Thunderbolt 4G Android smartphone was released as the only handset on the LTE, PC World tested it with other devices, and it recorded the fastest up and download speeds of any smartphone ever. Just recently, after a flood of second generation, more powerful 4G Android smartphones into the mobile marketplace, Verizon lowered the price of the HTC Thunderbolt 4G handset to one penny with a two-year activation. The second phone to join the LTE 4G wireless system was the Samsung Droid Charge, and it recently joined that one penny two-year activation price club.
In a world full of three digit price tags on 4G handsets, it is clear that Verizon’s intent is to offer their 4G LTE products at a loss leader price, and attempt to make their profits on their monthly service contracts and other offerings. Along with the one penny retail price tag, Verizon recently reiterated their intent to release an over the air Gingerbread operating system upgrade at some time in the near future. This promise by Verizon for an official Google operating system upgrade has been in the wind for a few months now, but waiting has never been the forte of many Google operating system aficionados.
Recently, the Samsung Droid charge 4G handset was rooted by more than one Android tech tinkerer, and a step-by-step process can be found online. However, you risk voiding your warranty and bricking your handset if you are not technically up to speed. The anxiety over the Gingerbread upgrade is so strong because battery life extension, improved browser speed, and a brand-new TouchWiz interface that is more intuitive and quicker, are some of the highlights that Samsung Droid Charge 4G handset owners who have rooted their phones have benefited from. Facebook, MySpace, Picasa and Twitter applications are preloaded, and the Samsung Droid Charge offers full support for the Adobe Flash media player and HTML web browsing.
