The firm contacted carrier retail stores from across the country and revealed that of the two carriers that had the iPhone, it was their top selling device for all previous months. Verizon did not get the iPhone 4 until February this year and the survey shows that the Motorola Droid X was its top performer back in January.

At AT&T the iPhone 4 came in first followed by the iPhone 3GS, probably due to the enticing $50 price tag. In third was the Samsung Infuse 4G. Over at Verizon, the rankings came out with iPhone 4, Samsung Droid Charge 4G, and then the HTC Thunderbolt 4G.

The HTC EVO 3D 4G beat out the EVO 4G followed by the Samsung Epic 4G over at the NowNetwork. T-Mobile had the HTC Sensation, Samsung Vibrant 4G, and the HTC myTouch 4G. Canaccord also noted that both iOS and Android showed growth in June while BlackBerry sales dropped on all four carriers. Motorola’s sales were also slow.

[via BGR]

Inside the sober black chassis there’s Qualcomm’s 1GHz CPU running Android 2.2 Froyo. Interestingly, Verizon has opted for Microsoft’s Bing search and mapping for the Revolution, rather than the more common Google offerings. That’s obviously allowed in Android’s TOS, but has previously proved a less than popular decision among buyers. It also gets a 5-megapixel camera (along with a 1.3-megapixel front webcam) rather than the 8-megapixel shooters of the Charge and ThunderBolt.

Verizon is positioning the Revolution as an entertainment phone, preloading the Netflix app and bundling a 16GB card rather than the usual 8GB, plenty for lots of video. There’s also that HDMI output for hooking the smartphone up to an HDTV. That’s welcome, as the Revolution’s 4.3-inch LCD display is nothing special compared to the Super AMOLED Plus panel on the DROID Charge.

Brightness set to 100% for both devices.

In fact, Verizon’s pricing on the Revolution is something of a curiosity. At $249.99 – with a new, two-year agreement – it’s certainly in the premium range, and yet it falls short not only of the specs we’ve seen from dual-core powerhouses elsewhere, but from the two LTE handsets Verizon already offers. We’ll be looking to find LG’s special sauce in time for the full SlashGear review, so until then enjoy the hands-on video and unboxing gallery!

LG Revolution unboxing, hands-on and comparison between DROID Charge, Thunderbolt and LG G2X (T-Mobile)

One more video getting processed…stay tune.

However, contrary to some reports, neither Apple nor its in-house legal team will actually get to see any of the Samsung hardware. Instead, the judge limited access to “Outside Counsel Eyes Only” meaning it will be Apple’s retained lawyers, Morrison & Foerster, who get to pick through the Samsung kit.

“In particular, the design and appearance of Samsung’s forthcoming products and packaging are directly relevant to Apple’s trademark, trade dress, and design claims. Because these claims are subject to consumer confusion and “ordinary observer” standards, the products themselves and the packaging in which they are sold are likely to be central to any motion for preliminary injunction” Court Order

Although Samsung argued that early access – even to an external legal team – could be “prejudicial” to its own sales success, Judge Koh highlighted the company’s Google I/O Galaxy Tab 10.1 Limited Edition giveaway and “evidence that Samsung has already released images and samples of its forthcoming products to the media and members of the public.”

Samsung now has 30 days to hand over product samples, packaging and package inserts, though Judge Koh stopped short of deposing the company’s executives. That’s despite Apple citing Samsung exec Lee Don-Joo who admitted the company was taking its tablets back to the engineering labs to “improve the parts that are inadequate” – particularly the thin build – when compared to the then-new iPad 2.

[via Electricpig]

Originally priced at $299 with a new two-year contract, the DROID Charge has now gotten its price reduced by Amazon to $199 with contract. Although this is only for new customers, existing customers can still get a discount down to $249 if they purchase through Amazon.

The phone will come running Android 2.2 and features a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus display protected with Gorilla Glass, 1.3-megapixel front camera, 8-megapixel back camera with LED flash, and runs on a 1GHz Hummingbird processor. Make sure to check out our full review.

[via Android Community]

So, all that said, should you go out and get one? The phone will cost you $300, even with the 2 year agreement from Verizon, plus the cost of voice and data, and tethering. But the Charge definitely improves on the battery life that is so lacking in the Thunderbolt. If you aren’t willing to wait for the Galaxy S II, the Charge might be worth buying. But be sure to check out our full review for all the details first. Let us know, are you getting one?

Hardware

In comparison to the design of the Galaxy S II, the DROID Charge is more Galaxy S in its aesthetic. Plenty of plastic and glossy-finish plastic at that, with the majority of the phone being 0.46-inches thick and a lip at the bottom that bulges out somewhat. Although many prefer a uniform design, the lip does at least lift the rear of the phone off the table and help avoid scratches.

Up front there’s Samsung’s 4.3-inch 800 x 480 Super AMOLED Plus display, protected by a slab of Gorilla Glass, and as lovely as we saw on the Galaxy S II. It’s bright, color-saturated and beautifully vivid, and while the resolution may fall short of what you find on the iPhone 4 or Motorola ATRIX, the Samsung’s sunlight performance and vast viewing angles go a long way to making up for that lapse in pixels. Not all WVGA is created the same, either: Samsung’s 50-percent extra sub-pixels do a great job of smoothing out text and graphics.

Under the display there are four physical buttons – menu, home, back and search – which are reasonably easy to press though, given the length of the DROID Charge and the fact that the keys are pushed all the way down to the bottom, they can be tricky to press with a thumb while simultaneously supporting the handset. Above is a front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera and the usual proximity/light sensors, while on the top edge is a 3.5mm headphone jack.

Down the right side there are volume keys and the microUSB charging port, while on the left is the power/lock button and, under a small flap, a micro HDMI port. We prefer the separate connector to the Galaxy S II’s hybrid USB/HDMI port, which requires an adapter cable to use. On the back is an 8-megapixel autofocus camera with an LED flash.

That camera sits above a neat little “4G” reminder that the DROID Charge is Verizon’s second LTE-equipped smartphone. Following on from the Thunderbolt, the Charge promises high-speed data connections that, in some cases, can exceed what you’ll get from your home internet. There’s also the usual WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0 and GPS – which showed no issues getting a fix when we loaded up Google Maps – along with the standard digital compass, accelerometer and other sensors. Keeping things running is Samsung’s 1GHz single-core Hummingbird processor, not the dual-core 1.2GHz Exynios chip found inside the Galaxy S II.

Software and Performance

Samsung has given the DROID Charge its old processor, and it has paired it with old Android as well: Android 2.2 Froyo, in fact. When you consider the Galaxy S II is already running Gingerbread, that’s a disappointment. On top is Samsung’s TouchWiz UI, always an acquired-taste, with its various custom widgets and colorful, somewhat clownish theme.

Of most use is the Mobile Hotspot app, which, assuming you have the relevant tethering plan, allows you to share the DROID Charge’s 4G connection with up to five devices over WiFi. Samsung’s AllShare DLNA app is also present, for streaming content wirelessly, though of course there’s the HDMI port for direct connections. Unfortunately the useful is outweighed by the dull: Lets Golf 2, Rhapsody and other titles, which can’t be removed and which could just as easily have been distributed through the Android Market.

Performance is quick, but not dual-core quick. The DROID Charge scored an unimpressive 998 in benchmarking tool Quadrant Advanced, and a sluggish 6337.3ms (lower is better) in browser benchmark SunSpider. Contrast that with the Galaxy S II’s 3540 in Quadrant Advanced and 3584.3ms in SunSpider, and you can see that the LTE handset is at a disadvantage. That’s not such an issue today – Froyo moves along at a fair pace – but as Android gets more demanding it may hold Charge owners back.

Camera

Samsung’s 8-megapixel camera is capable of some great pictures, and the DROID Charge is no slouch when it comes to capturing them. The camera app is responsive and touch-focus useful, and while the LED flash is of limited use in truly dark scenes, it does perk up the Samsung’s stills in low-light situations.

Sample pictures:

The Hummingbird processor limits video recording to 720p HD, rather than the 1080p on the Galaxy S II. Still, the end result is very watchable, with accurate colors and little blurring aside from during faster pans. There’s the choice of either autofocus or touch-focus during recording, though it’s not the quickest to react.

Sample 720p HD recording:

Phone and Battery

Verizon’s voice network puts in a solid showing once again, and the DROID Charge suffers no issues with calls. Still, it’s the 4G that we’re most interested in, and – as long as you have coverage, obviously – it’s capable of some impressive numbers. We saw speeds of up to 17.62 Mbps on the downlink and up to 7.2 Mbps on the uplink.

Having seen the HTC ThunderBolt chew through a full charge in short order, we were more than a little nervous about the DROID Charge’s appetite. Happily it seems Samsung has managed to balance performance and power – impressive given the size and brightness of the Super AMOLED Plus display – with us managing 6-8 hours of heavy use before it died. With more casual use, and some tweaking of things like social network updates and other power settings, you could comfortably get through a day. Still, using the Mobile Hotspot app for any length of time chews through the battery in relatively short order.

Wrap-Up

The ThunderBolt opened our eyes to LTE on a smartphone, but its voracious thirst left us unable to recommend it to anybody other than early adopters. The DROID Charge by Samsung, however, is a far more balanced device, with plenty on its own to recommend it. The plastic chassis doesn’t exactly inspire us with confidence, but the Super AMOLED Plus display is a joy and the battery life sufficient for a day’s use.

As with other single-core smartphones we’ve reviewed recently, however, our primary concern is longevity. With Verizon asking a hefty $300 for the DROID Charge, with the usual two-year voice and data plans (and tethering if you want the useful mobile hotspot functionality), we’d want to know our new smartphone could handle anything Google or developers might throw at it down the line. The Samsung can certainly keep Froyo running today, but it falls short of the capabilities of a dual-core device and that might undermine what updates it can receive.

That’s a concern not limited to the DROID Charge by any means, of course, and the single-core processor does likely assist with battery life. If data performance is your primary concern and you want the biggest, brightest display around, Samsung’s Super AMOLED Plus smartphone ticks those boxes and then some.

DROID Charge unboxing and hands-on:

The ASUS Iconia Tab A500 has been rooted, and we have a step-by-step guide so that you can try this at home, if you are so inclined.

The HP Veer, running Palm webOS, will be coming out sometime next week. So far, looking just at the device itself, we are not overly impressed. It kind of resembles a bar of soap.

Apple has taken a lot of flak for tracking iPhone 4 users, and storing that information in an unencrypted file. Apple has said it will be fixing this tracking “bug” in iOS 4.3.3.

Samsung has said that it will not, in fact, be releasing a Super-AMOLED tablet this year. However, the Samsung Sliding PC 7 TX100 tablet is up for pre-order, for $649.

The HTC ThunderBolt will be getting an update soon, we hear.

Motorola will be offering the very cool laptop dock we saw with the Atrix with other smartphones later this year. That’s great, but we hope they can lower the price a bit.

Also, with all the hype about an iPhone that’s a different color, Nokia can’t be blamed for hyping it’s new pink N8.

And now, if you have two minutes or so, check out the video one of our fans over on Android Community made: The House of the Rising XOOM.

Walter Mossberg, the WSJ godfather of gadget reviews, has said the LG G-Slate is “not as good as the iPad 2″ and that he would only recommend it to those “who want the higher cellular speeds, or who prefer Android”.

RIM’s BlackBerry 7 may be coming out sooner that we thought, but is it just a rebadge of OS 6.1? We will be there to report on it at BlackBerry World next week.

Sony still hasn’t said exactly what happened with the hack of PSN, but it is physically moving the database to a more secure location, as well as updating the software security. It is estimated now that the breach could cost Sony $24 billion.

Samsung is getting the Galaxy S II party started in Korea, and even did some extra research on thumb-length when designing the device. We love the Galaxy S II, it is a fantastic phone with an amazing display. You can check out our full review here. Still no date for US release.

From Verizon’s twitter:

We’re aware of an issue with #4G #LTE connections & our network engineers are working to resolve quickly. Will update here.

The workaround was posted up on xda-developers:

-Go to the ThunderBolt’s phone dialer. Enter ##778# and hit Send.
-You’ll get a pop-up labeled EPST, with the choice to “View Mode” or “Edit Mode.” –You want “Edit Mode.”
-You’ll be asked for a password. It’s 000000.
-Now flip down to “Modem Settings,” and then choose “Rev. A.”
-Change the setting from eHRPD to “Enable,” hit OK, then press the Menu button on the phone and tap “Commit Modifications.”

This gave me 3G back, hopefully works for others.

This issue also affects the MiFi 4510l LTE Mobile Hotspots. There isn’t a workaround for this device that we currently know of, but Verizon will have everything up and running as fast as possible. For the rest of you who are drooling over LTE’s ridiculous throughput, we reviewed the DROID Charge yesterday. If you missed it you should check it out.

[via GottaBeMobile]

Although the display may be the same as on the Galaxy S II, the DROID Charge is otherwise a more mainstream device. No sign of a dual-core processor, with the 1GHz chip we’re familiar with from the Galaxy S line making do instead. It’s running Android 2.2 Froyo with TouchWiz on top, and we’re disappointed to see the older OS in place. We’ll be judging how much that impacts the handset in the full SlashGear review.

Also like the Galaxy S is the shiny, plasticky chassis, though the angular shape is distinctive. It’s super lightweight, which is one thing we love from Samsung’s line of Galaxy Android phones. The four Android buttons are very low on the fascia, which can make hitting them while holding the phone in the same hand tricky, though you do get a dedicated search key unlike other recent Samsung’s. On the back there’s an 8-megapixel camera with LED-flash while up front is a 1.3-megapixel camera.

Performance seems adequate if not hugely impressive like the Galaxy S II powered by a set of 1.2Ghz processor, and we’re beginning to wonder whether the DROID Charge’s $300 price tag is really worth it, or just exaggerated by what Verizon thinks it can get for its LTE connectivity. Our final opinion – along with performance, speed tests and battery results – will have to wait for the full SlashGear review, so until then enjoy the hands-on video!

DROID Charge Unboxing and hands-on

Sample video taken with DROID Charge

There’s also a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, mobile hotspot functionality and Swype pre-loaded. The CPU runs at 1GHz, and there’s an LED flash and access to Samsung’s Media Hub content download store.

You’ll pay considerably more for that Super AMOLED Plus display, however. The Verizon DROID Charge by Samsung will be $299.99 with a new two-year customer agreement, a premium of $50 over the HTC Thunderbolt.

Press Release:

VERIZON WIRELESS UNLEASHES DROID CHARGE BY SAMSUNG
April 21, 2011

DROID CHARGE Joins Verizon Wireless’ DROID family
As Samsung’s First 4G LTE Smartphone

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. –Verizon Wireless and Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung Mobile) today announced that the Droid Charge by Samsung will be available April 28 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 touch screen 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 1GHz 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 – With support for Google Mobile Services including Gmail, YouTube™, Google Talk, Google Search, Google Maps and access to more than 150,000 apps available to download from Android Market™
- Adobe® Flash® Player compatible
- Mobile Hotspot capability – share 4G connection with up to 10 WiFi-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.
Find the DROID Charge
Beginning April 21, anyone over the age of 18 can participate in an exclusive Droid Charge Scavenger Hunt. Follow the online clues to find hidden locations in 16 different cities to win a Droid Charge by Samsung. For additional information about the DROID Charge scavenger hunt, visit: http://twitter.com/droidlanding.

About Verizon Wireless
Verizon Wireless operates the nation’s fastest and most advanced 4G network and largest and most reliable 3G network, and serves more than 93 million customers. Headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., with 80,000 employees nationwide, Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE, NASDAQ: VZ) and Vodafone (LSE, NASDAQ: VOD). For more information, visit www.verizonwireless.com. To preview and request broadcast-quality video footage and high-resolution stills of Verizon Wireless operations, log on to the Verizon Wireless Multimedia Library at www.verizonwireless.com/multimedia.
About Samsung Telecommunications America
Samsung Telecommunications America, LLC, a Dallas-based subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., researches, develops and markets wireless handsets and telecommunications products throughout North America. For more information, please visit www.samsungwireless.com.