HTC Thunderbolt

MacLeod

Retired my aging but beloved Eris with a blown speaker yesterday and I must say that this Thunderbolt is amazing! I was gonna go with a cheaper Droid but since Verizon isnt doing annual upgrades anymore and only doing them at 20 months, I figured Id better get a good one. Was gonna wait for the dual core CPU phones due out in a couple months but figured they wouldn't really be hitting their stride for a while so a screaming single core should last 20 months. Hell my Eris is still plenty capable after 2 years.

I really liked the Sense interface and was glad to see they didn't change anything much from the 2.1 I had on my Eris.

Performance wise it is blazing fast. Obviously I would think so coming from a 2 year old Eris but web browsing is as fast and responsive as my home desktop on DSL. I don't have 4G in my area so I'm just running 3G now but its plenty fast.

Build quality is superb. Even the little kickstand feels solid. Kinda sucks that it folds in over the speaker but this thing bas an awesome speaker. Easily the best I've ever seen on a cell phone.

The camera and video are very good. The camera is no replacement for a quality point and shoot but if you go on a trip and forget your camera, this one is plenty capable.

The video is very good. Not sure Is call it "HD" really but its as good as my Canon digital camera can muster.

Call quality is great. Better than any phone I've owned to date. Battery life seems to be ok as well. Not sure of exact numbers but easily better than the Eris.

The only complaints I have is there is no trackball or whatever it was called on the Eris. It made surfing a little easier especially with Opera Mobile's mouse cursor feature. The on/wake button is awkwardly positioned on the top. Not a huge deal but something that kinda bugs me. And while the monster screen is nice for web browsing, its borderline too big. Definitely one you'll want to check out in person before buying.

So far I freaking love this thing.

JustinHEMI

I am loving mine! Welcome to the club!

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=117414

audiobliss

Thanks for the little review, Mac. I'll be upgrading here shortly, so I value the input. I'm trying to decide if I should wait for those dual cores or just upgrade now.

Glad you're happy with it!

JustinHEMI

You might wait and see the dual cores, but early tests have the TB besting the Bionic. This is primarily a function of the fact that the Android OS hasn't been optimized for dual cores.

I am an HTC fan, and have been waiting for the verizon EVO, and this is it. I will keep the TB until HTC comes out with dual core goodness, and Android actually supports it.

Justin

exalted512

I've had my Nexus One since last January and I still love that thing. I dont really see a need to upgrade anytime soon, even though these new phones smoke mine in terms of speed. The bigger screen is nice for web browsing, but like you said, is almost borderline too big to stick in your pocket or hold up to your ear.

Unless something new comes out that I just have to have (and dual core processors, HDMI outputs, bigger super AMOLED screens aint something I have to have), I'll be sticking with my N1 for at least another year. But if someone actually gets 4G in my area, or someone makes a phone with a 4-day battery, or if NFC starts actually working wide spread and I can use my phone as a credit card (or open the door to my house, or start my truck with just a push of a button). I'll switch. Unless its an iPhone that comes with those features...then I'm still sticking with my N1
-Cody

slammin86

I'm close to getting this...but am still on the fence. The bionic sounds really appealing to me...and once the bionic comes out the thunderbolt will surely drop in price.

MacLeod

JustinHEMI wrote: »

I am loving mine! Welcome to the club!

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=117414

Oops, my bad. Noob mistake. Shoulda made sure there wasnt another thread. Was just too excited I suppose because this is the first time I ever bought a phone that hadn't already been out a year or more! :biggrin:

audiobliss

I would love to hear more specifics on the battery life whenever you (or anyone else) have drawn some conclusions on it.

JustinHEMI

Oh the battery kinda sucks. With moderate use under 4G, I can't make it more than 10-12 hours without having to recharge. I am fine with that though, since I always charge my phones overnight anyway. Plus, I have a charger in my vehicles and now that you can use USB to charge phones, I am never far from a computer. So power really isn't that big of a concern to me... unless I get lost in the middle of no where.

Justin

audiobliss

I'm used to charging my phone overnight, and while it'd be awesome to be able to go a few days, I realize that's not very realistic with these kinds of phones. As long as I'm not fretting about making it through the last few hours of the day without the phone dying, I'm fine. Charging every night is acceptable. I just don't want it to die at 5 o'clock or even 8 o'clock in the evening. I don't want planning to be around a wall outlet, cigarette lighter, or USB port to be part of my day.

exalted512

audiobliss wrote: »

while it'd be awesome to be able to go a few days, I realize that's not very realistic with these kinds of phones.

I disagree. With as thin as these phones are getting, I dont understand why they cant just put a huge battery in these things. My Nexus One for instance. The battery is about half the height of the phone. So instead of making an 'indention' where battery goes, make the whole phone (minus the battery) relatively flat. Just eyeballing it, my battery looks looks approximately 1/4" deep. So it doesnt seem impossible to make my phone 1/8" thinner (minus the battery) for the length of the phone if you fill in where the battery goes with all the electronics.

THEN, make the entire back of the phone a huge battery. You could double the length of the battery and run it the whole length of the phone. Same thickness battery, so approximately 1/4" thick...but we also took out 1/8" of the phone, so the depth of the phone is only an additional 1/8".

I dont know about you guys, but if I had a phone that was guaranteed to last a full 14 hours under any use at all, I'd be in love. 1/8" thicker on a phone this thin isnt going to hurt my feelings.

Any I have a relatively small phone compared to the thunderbolt, hd2, evo, etc.

You could start an entire marketing campaign around the damn battery. I've only run out of battery a few times, but I've worried about it plenty. If there was a phone out there that had double the battery life and relatively good other specs, I'd buy it.
-Cody

MacLeod

I agree with Cody. These phones are getting paper thin these days. Wouldnt hurt them to put a beefier battery in there. But with competition being so tough and them having to give these phones away cheaper and cheaper, I guess the battery is where theyre saving on cost.

I remember a few years ago, every phone had an available extended life battery you could buy. I had a Samsung that had a 4 hour battery and I bought a 7 hour for it off the Sprint website for $60.

As for my phones battery life, its actually not that bad. Ive only made a few phone calls but have done a good bit of surfing and I have yet to get down to the halfway point but then Im only on 3G so maybe its 4G thats sucking the battery down.

brettw22

I have the AT&T version and I love it. Verizon is their worst enemy. I'm all for being thorough, but they are last to market with virtually every big major phone and while other companies have had their versions for months, VZW doesn't release their product.

I like the phone, and while the whole app concept is kind of annoying to me, it's great to have the 4.3" screen (though the battery life is horrible......)

MacLeod

The Thunderbolt isnt exactly the same as the Evo. The Evo is about a year old and has smaller internal memory (1GB vs 8GB), less SD memory (8GB vs 32GB) less RAM (512 vs 768) and even though theyre both 1 GHz, the Evo's processor is slower and less efficient. The Thunderbolt is about the fastest phone on the market currently at least as far as benchmarks go. Its nearly twice as fast as the Evo in Quadrant and SmartBench.

***edit***

Nevermind - For some reason I read "AT&T" as Sprint. :rolleyes:

Still, I think the processor thing holds true. The one that is in the Thunderbolt is the "newest and fanciest" out right now I think. Other than that, the Inspire is about the same.

brettw22

The EVO is a thicker phone (1st gen), and I think the version that AT&T has (Inspire) and the Thunderbolt are pretty much the same.

The phones that have the Droid OS need to have at least 8GB internal to accomodate many apps that don't save to an SD card.

Oh....and I played with the Motorola Atrix (not sure if that's the AT&T version of Bionic) and found it to be a POS. The idea of it is neat, but it was laggy as hell and the screen had burn in (granted, in store demo's sit at the same screen for hours a day), but of all the phones out tere I like the HTC's right now.....

MacLeod

Yeah, I read some reviews that said the same thing of the Bionic - laggy. Thats why I decided not to wait on it. Theyve optimized everything for these fast single core procs now so everything runs smoothly. I have no doubt that in about a year there will be plenty of phones and apps that can properly utilize dual core phones but I dont think its worth waiting for. In 20 months when Im up for another upgrade, the dual core phones should be up and running just right.

Also I think HTC just makes a better phone than Motorola. The HTC's always seem better built and feel more solid. The Motorola's always appear cheaper to me.

brettw22

I haven't used a Motorola in well over 10 years, but the experiences I had back then made me swear off those turds......I'm sure they're better and alltogether different now, but it's a stigma they deservedly earned for the BS I went through with their crap for nearly 2 years and 10 different phones.......

audiobliss

brettw22 wrote: »

(though the battery life is horrible......)

Care to take a stab at quantifying that a little bit? Would appreciate it.

brettw22

It depends on you managing what you're running on a regular basis. If you leave GPS on, you won't make it until 3. If you are playing games or using any of the apps, plan on hours......or plan on having it plugged in.

I love the bigger screen phones, but they will be ideal when you don't have to worry about manually disabling features just to make it through the day.

Battery size is a big portion of that....I mean, I had an LG phone 8 years ago that had an 1100 maH battery.....flip phone with a tiny midget screen and that phone stayed charged for days......now I have a 4.3" screen that has a 1230 maH battery...and is lucky to last a full day before needing the plug....

I think some of the micro-thin screens will help in the near future, but even if those flexible screens go mainstream, you still need glass over the top so it's not going to whittle down THAT much.......I like Cody's idea about the whole back being the battery, which for this phone would probably be about 2.5x times the current battery.

cokewithvanilla

Phone manufacturers have to start putting some emphasis on battery life. It's great and all that we will be seeing dual core phones... but at what point is the phone no longer a phone? I think the most basic requirement for a phone should be 12 hours of life under mild use. Most touchscreen phones have really weak battery life. My 3gs loses 10% charge over night while I am sleeping and any type of activity drains the battery considerably... somehow I find that to be a bit ridiculous. I mean, honestly, what's the purpose of being able to watch tv on your ginormous screen phone if you only have a few hours of battery?

bigaudiofanatic

The only thing that is holding me back from upgrading from my incredible is the battery life. I am hearing that average is 4 hours and that does not cut it for me.

http://www.gottabemobile.com/2011/03/18/htc-thunderbolt-battery-life/

AsSiMiLaTeD

Just to be clear, the Thunderbold and Inspire are not the same phone. There are some key differences, on being the front facing camera on the Thunderbolt.

I have the Motorola Atrix and love it. I've had most of the phoens on the market at one point, and for me the Atrix is the best I've had yet overall. It's ridiculously fast, gets decent enough battery life, and I happen to like the display better than the SAMOLED screens.

The bootloader is locked by Motorola and that does piss me off because it limits my ability to run custom ROMs and such, but that'll get resolved by the guys over at xda soon enough.

My other gripe really lies more with AT&T, in that they market this as a 4G phone and yet don't really give you 4G speeds, but that's not the fault of the phone.

brettw22

The gripe shouldn't be that 4G isn't everywhere yet......it's that companies like Sprint charge an extra $10/month just for the phone to BE 4G, whether you have it or not.....or that Verizon will put you on a 4G plan when it's years out, etc........

AsSiMiLaTeD

Well with AT&T, true 4G isn't ANYWHERE, that's the issue. They didn't sell me a 4G phone that won't get 4G speeds in my area, they sold me a phone that doesn't get 4G anywhere. That's because what they're calling 4G isn't really 4G, not when compared to what's being offerred by Sprint, Verizon, and T-Mo.

I knew that going in, so clearly it wasn't a deal breaker for me, but that doesn't mean I still don't have the right to voice my opinion as a customer.

My Atrix is faster than my wife-s iPhone, but nowhere near the speeds I've seen on the other 4G networks around here.

exalted512

Im fairly certain T-Mobile is the same as AT&T. Essentially calling 3.5G, 4G.

I've also heard that the 4G networks still havent surpassed the capabilities of 3G networks.
-Cody

bigaudiofanatic

exalted512 wrote: »

Im fairly certain T-Mobile is the same as AT&T. Essentially calling 3.5G, 4G.

I've also heard that the 4G networks still havent surpassed the capabilities of 3G networks.
-Cody

Check 4g from verizon.

AsSiMiLaTeD

Well that's because Verizon has such an atrociously SLOW 3G network, kinda hard not to be faster than that.

MacLeod

AsSiMiLaTeD wrote: »

Well that's because Verizon has such an atrociously SLOW 3G network, kinda hard not to be faster than that.

Sorry dude but thats just ridiculous. With my 2 year old, puny processor powered Eris, my internet was a little bit slower than my home DSL connection. With this Thunderbolt, its every bit as fast. I don't have exact numbers for you but unless AT&T are running at T1 speeds, I cant imagine them being any faster.

As for battery life I'm getting decent results. I keep the screen brightness down to about 20% and time it out at 30 seconds with no vibrate on anything which I think helps a lot. With a handful of phone calls and a boat load of web surfing, I'm getting 12-14 hours. Not great but about the same as my Eris.

exalted512

bigaudiofanatic wrote: »

Check 4g from verizon.

I'm not saying that Verizon's 4G isnt faster than other carriers '3.5G'. I'm saying 3G is supposedly capable of like 30mbs (maybe thats wrong)...verizon's 4G is just above half that.
-Cody

audiobliss

MacLeod wrote: »

With a handful of phone calls and a boat load of web surfing, I'm getting 12-14 hours. Not great but about the same as my Eris.

That actually sounds spectacular to me. I'd be happy as could be with that.

I have been reading lots of reports of battery life being around 4 hours. Atrocious. However, I've also read that disabling the 4G on it will often close to quadruple the battery life. Sounds like a deal-maker right there.

AsSiMiLaTeD

MacLeod wrote: »

Sorry dude but thats just ridiculous. With my 2 year old, puny processor powered Eris, my internet was a little bit slower than my home DSL connection. With this Thunderbolt, its every bit as fast. I don't have exact numbers for you but unless AT&T are running at T1 speeds, I cant imagine them being any faster.

As for battery life I'm getting decent results. I keep the screen brightness down to about 20% and time it out at 30 seconds with no vibrate on anything which I think helps a lot. With a handful of phone calls and a boat load of web surfing, I'm getting 12-14 hours. Not great but about the same as my Eris.

If you're saying you're getting the same speeds over a 3G connection that you are at home then either a) your home connection really sucks or b)you have an incredibly fast 3G connection that most people in the country don't get.

The general concensus with Verizon is that 3G speeds are slower but that the service is more reliable and that you do tend to get those speeds more regularly, whereas with AT&T I can get really fast speeds if I'm in the right area but have wild variability in my speeds.

I've been wrong before though, so download speedtest from the market on your Thunderbolt and run it and post a screenshot, I'd like to see what you're getting on Verizon.