DROID X or HTC Thundebolt?

[ScottyDsntKnow]

I'd say neither I actually jumped ship to the Galaxy S phone awhile ago. I have an Epic 4G hacked onto boost and when boost decided to get stupid the other day and suspend my service even when I was on autopay, I had to bring the DX back out (service not cancelled for another few weeks due to wife's line about to go off contract). Even upgraded to leaked GB I wanted to kill myself when using it. Only redeeming feature is the cardock and the carhome app that auto opens. HDMI out is a gimmick, not a reason to keep the DX IMO. Bootloader is locked, screen is junk espeically compared to a SAMOLED (Watch a movie on a Galaxy next to the DX and you'll probably want to return the DX right away)...

If you've only had the phone for 3 weeks then I would seriously return it, you are still within 30 days. Get the Tbolt if you must but also realize that its just an Evo with LTE instead of Wimax basically. Old tech and we are going to start seeing some ridiculousness as far as phones go within the next year. Another reason I got my wife and I onto boost flashed Epics... no contract so when someting totally insane comes out I can be first in line on whatever carrier. So yes I would get neither. Depending on what your old phone was you might just want to keep it or find a newer used smartphone in good shape to tide you over until there are a few more 4G offerings with newer tech. Bionic maybe?

 

[qman66]

That's great, but many don't. If we turn the screen brightness down to 20%, disable 4G, turn off automatic synch and some other tweaks, we can get decent battery life out of it.

Of course that defeats the purpose. That's like buying a new Corvette and the only way to get it to run is to yank 4 of the spark plug wires so that it is running at half power.

That's not a "fix" IMHO...

Im rooted, running a custom ROM and OVERCLOCKED to 1.5ghz.

Now, with that said, I have brightness set to AUTO, 4G ON (which I actually get service on about 50% of the time), GPS and WiFi ON, etc, etc,......

And get over 12 hours on a charge. And the phone gets USED....I run 2 companies and its my personal and business phone.

Guess Im just lucky.

PS- To each his own, I had an X....and IMHO the TB blows it away.

Dunno. There are too many people complaining about horrendous battery life for it to be an isolated incident. She charges it all night, leaves for work and the stupid thing is down to 20% by 10am half the time.

Only by turning the screen way down and disabling everything is she able to get anything decent out of it.

is she running a custom rom? is she running a custom kernel? that has a lot to do with improving battery life. me, im very close to getting a tb. really excited about the dev support for it and 4g. i know ill be able to figure out the battery problem somehow. so im not worried about that. the reason i have yet to upgrade is the fact that tb is running froyo and i would hate to go back to froyo now that i am on gb and love it. waiting a gb custom rom or cm7 hopefully and planning to purchase soon.

 

[EisBlade]

Nice. I appreciate all this feedback. I plan on swinging by a VZW storefront this weekend to check out the TB firsthand. When I walked in initially I was interested in the TB, but the clerk sold me on the DX. It has me wondering whether or not VZW has a higher profit margin pushing the DX's out. If it's nearing 'end of life' then selling as much aging technology as they can before its replaced by newer/faster makes sense as the old will become more and more difficult to sell over time.

The huge difference of battery life received with the TB is interesting. My DX is set to a brightness of 60% and, after a week of diving into the market and adding apps galore (that probably drained batt. life immensely) have removed most of them to regain some sensibility to what I use this phone for.

I would like to get PDAnet successfully connected to the laptop, but that's probably another thread.

Thanks again, everyone. :greendroid:

 

[andylulzyou]

I'm sorry but this should not even be a question. There isn't one thing that the DX does that is better than the Thunderbolt.. and I love my DX

 

[barski]

I would wait for a better phone. The single core processor is going to be out of date in the next 2 months. Also i don't see much of a difference spec wise from the TBolt to the Droid X. I think HTC made the thunderbolt more as a race phone, first to the market with 4G. I guess if waiting isnt an option try the Thunderbolt, you can always take it back and exchange for the droid X.

 

[SquireSCA]

Im rooted, running a custom ROM and OVERCLOCKED to 1.5ghz.

Now, with that said, I have brightness set to AUTO, 4G ON (which I actually get service on about 50% of the time), GPS and WiFi ON, etc, etc,......

And get over 12 hours on a charge. And the phone gets USED....I run 2 companies and its my personal and business phone.

Guess Im just lucky.

PS- To each his own, I had an X....and IMHO the TB blows it away.

Dunno. There are too many people complaining about horrendous battery life for it to be an isolated incident. She charges it all night, leaves for work and the stupid thing is down to 20% by 10am half the time.

Only by turning the screen way down and disabling everything is she able to get anything decent out of it.

is she running a custom rom? is she running a custom kernel? that has a lot to do with improving battery life. me, im very close to getting a tb. really excited about the dev support for it and 4g. i know ill be able to figure out the battery problem somehow. so im not worried about that. the reason i have yet to upgrade is the fact that tb is running froyo and i would hate to go back to froyo now that i am on gb and love it. waiting a gb custom rom or cm7 hopefully and planning to purchase soon.

No, completely and utterly stock.

And I refuse to root, hack and install ROM's(that often have their own quirks and bugs) in order to get something to run the way it is supposed to run out of the box.

Taking something good, and making it better, I could justify.

But paying top dollar for a top of the line device and having to hack it to basically get it to work, voiding the warranty in the process? No thanks.

This is yet another example of corporate America letting marketing drive the product line and pushing something out that isn't ready for prime time. It was more important to have an LTE phone to complete with AT&Ts offerings than it was to make sure it was actually working properly.

They had a deadline to meet, and just like when companies push out buggy games that crash your PC, they just figured that they could release a patch in the upcoming months to fix it.

Shame on them.

Google "HTC Thunderbolt battery life" and you will see a gazillion hits of complaints, tutorials on how to help the situation, etc...

 

[ScottyDsntKnow]

Agreed that the TB was Verizon basically saying "you will have a 4G phone for us by X date". Its just an Evo with the Wimax swapped for LTE...

 

[SquireSCA]

Agreed that the TB was Verizon basically saying "you will have a 4G phone for us by X date". Its just an Evo with the Wimax swapped for LTE...

Exactly. Marketing decided what should have been decided by Quality Control or Development.

She loves the phone, but she is pissed that she has to disable 4G and synch in order to get through the day.

 

[ScottyDsntKnow]

Eh, my Epic sucks up the juice too but I can make it through the day with about 20-30% life left if I don't charge it. I am bad about not constantly messing with it tho... My X was slightly better but still not as good as my wife's old Blackberry Storm was. That thing could go DAYS without a charge. But it was still a Storm...

Ever since I got into the newer android smartphones I've learned to keep a charger at work and a charger in the car at all times. It is basically second nature to just plug in when I'm not using the phone. Maybe your wife should get into a similar habit with the TB?

 

[leonozug]

Wait for the X2...it'll be out soon man.

 

[pin0y23]

wait for the droid targa.... 13mp camera, dual core processor, amazing...

 

[SquireSCA]

wait for the droid targa.... 13mp camera, dual core processor, amazing...

Wait for this, wait for that... It never ends, and that is part of the problem!

The market is moving too fast. Everyone is at this frantic pace to sell as many phones as possible, sell sell sell! Get them out the door yesterday, beat the other guy to the punch, etc...

That they push out things that are not fully baked. You buy a phone and tomorrow it is obsolete. They push features that won't be fully used until a year later and by then you are a generation or two behind.

It hurts the consumers, it fragments the platform and we end up with phones that are buggy, can't make use of key features, etc...

 

[ScottyDsntKnow]

wait for the droid targa.... 13mp camera, dual core processor, amazing...

Wait for this, wait for that... It never ends, and that is part of the problem!

The market is moving too fast. Everyone is at this frantic pace to sell as many phones as possible, sell sell sell! Get them out the door yesterday, beat the other guy to the punch, etc...

That they push out things that are not fully baked. You buy a phone and tomorrow it is obsolete. They push features that won't be fully used until a year later and by then you are a generation or two behind.

It hurts the consumers, it fragments the platform and we end up with phones that are buggy, can't make use of key features, etc...

Agreed, if you keep waiting you'll never buy a phone since they are just like computers now. Buy one that just came out and the next greatest thing is only 4-6 months away from release. Generally, my opinion is to find a phone that you really really like and go with that one, even if it is on another carrier. If you are due for an upgrade that often means you are not contracted in anymore. Or fork out the money to buy one with no contract and sell it in 6 months on ebay to help fund the next big thing that is coming out.

In this situation tho, it is a little more unique. We are at the threshold of dual core AND 4G becoming more and more available to everyone. If you are in a 4G market I would for sure wait until a few more 4G phones come out so you aren't stuck with a rebranded Evo that's been out for over a year on Sprint already as your only choice.

 

[sir2545]

My experience with the TB was not a good one. I travel a lot and was constantly having to change modem settings because my friend has an X and he maintained a solid 3G connection while mine was jumping all over the place.

If you have 4g in your area, and dont travel alot, I would say go for it, but the 3G phones are more consistent and reliable. I ended up swapping my TB out for the X and I couldnt be happier. Going to hold out for a Motorola 4G device because HTC's hardware is inferior to Moto IMO.

 

[ScottyDsntKnow]

Then why did most of the DX devs jump ship to the TB when it came out? Not sure about HTC from personal experience but I know that the Samsung Galaxy phones are FAR better to work with than the X is. Although the D1 still is a freaking beast when it comes to developing... my wife's old one was clocked to 1.1ghz forever and that thing was silky smooth.

I dunno I just found that when I switched to the Epic it was a much more pleasant experience as far as the aftermarket. Not saying there isn't or wasn't a ton of great work development wise by ppl like Fab and jrummy etc...