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Samsung’s Droid Charge is the latest 4G phone slated for release on Verizon’s network. Photo courtesy of Verizon

First came Motorola’s Droid. HTC’s Droid Eris followed shortly thereafter. Finally, Samsung will add one of its devices to Verizon’s popular “Droid” brand with the Droid Charge, Samsung’s latest Android OS-powered smartphone.

In a release issued on Wednesday, Verizon and Samsung announced that the Droid Charge will be available in the U.S. on April 28 in Verizon retail stores.

The price? A hefty 300 bucks, and that’s after being subsidized with a two-year contract.

From what we can see on the details released thus far, the Charge’s hardware makes the phone no slouch. It’s got a huge 4.3-inch super AMOLED screen, 1-GHz processor and both back and front facing cameras (8 megapixels and 1.3 megapixels, respectively). It’s not running the most recent version of Android, though — the phone comes with 2.2 (Froyo) instead of 2.3 (Gingerbread).

It’s the second 4G LTE-enabled smartphone release for Verizon in 2011, with the HTC Thunderbolt being Verizon’s flagship 4G device. Until the Charge’s release, Verizon lags behind in the number of 4G device choices that its competitors AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile are offering.

Motorola’s 4G Droid Bionic was supposed to launch in the spring as the second 4G device on Verizon’s network, but Motorola has delayed the phone’s release until late summer, as the company wants to rework the phone with “expanded features, functionality and an improved form factor,” according to a statement.

The Thunderbolt has done well for Verizon, with phone sales topping 260,000 in the two-week period between March 17 and the end of the company’s financial first quarter. Though the 4G Thunderbolts sales were dwarfed by those of the 3G iPhone released on Verizon’s network in February: the company boasted 2.2 million iPhone 4 activations in the first quarter.

Of course, there’s a laundry list of other Droid-branded phones from Motorola and HTC we haven’t mentioned (Droid 2, the Incredible, etc.), but it’s Samsung’s first. The Droid branding and initiative revitalized the once-ailing Motorola, and made popular the relatively young HTC corporation.

We’ll have to wait and see what — if anything — Droid does for Samsung.

Motorola delays Droid Bionic launch until summer to make ‘several enhancements’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Apr 2011 16:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Like it or not, it’s a Big Red kind of day. The latest VZW news to splash down in our inbox is the shot you see above — the first hint of promotional material surrounding Samsung’s Droid Charge. If you’ll recall, this phone began its (public) life at CES 2011 sans a name, but as a source correctly predicted, the name shown above will be the one that sticks. Proving that the Atrix 4G setup was more than just a fluke, Sammy’s also showcasing a must-have peripheral: the multimedia desktop dock. Said accessory ships with a built-in battery charger and spare cell, but with no apparent signs of a video output, we’re having a hard time getting too hot and bothered.

Samsung’s Droid Charge spotted in leaked promo material, multimedia dock in tow originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Apr 2011 15:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember that Samsung LTE phone for Verizon we saw at CES — you know, that nameless one? Well, according to the picture you see above sent by a trusted source, Verizon has decided to undertake the Droid naming scheme. The newly coined SCH-i510, if you recall, packs an 8 megapixel shooter on back, a front-facing cam and a Super AMOLED Plus display. At this point, we’re uncertain which version of Android the Droid Charge will be running once it hits shelves, but last we saw it was running 2.2 with TouchWiz. No word on pricing or a release date as of yet, but you can rest assured that we’ll be keeping you in the loop.

Confirmed: Samsung SCH-i510 LTE phone to be named Droid Charge originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Mar 2011 12:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Motorola Droid 2 and Droid X are both headed toward their one-year anniversaries this summer, which has pretty much become the culling hour for a smartphone of any creed these days. Their successors, ingeniously titled the Droid 3 and Droid X 2, have seemingly made an appearance over at HowardForums, courtesy of longtime forum member wnrussell. He’s also kindly provided imagery of a heretofore unknown device, called the Targa, which promises Verizon 4G LTE and has a protrusion on its rear that looks to be dedicated to accommodating an outsized camera sensor. It reminds us most of Motorola’s XT720, though it sports a chrome outline to its body similar to what you see above on the purported Droid 3. Click past the break to get an eyeful of this Targa device and its Droid X 2 brandmate.

Continue reading Motorola Droid 3, Droid X 2 and LTE-equipped Targa pictured?

Motorola Droid 3, Droid X 2 and LTE-equipped Targa pictured? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Mar 2011 02:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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