Thunderbolt? Yay or Nay

[LT*]

I'm definitely torn here. I can upgrade, and I'd love to lock in the unlimited data plan now. I'm just not sold on the TB yet, mostly due to battery complaints. I suppose I should go play with one before deciding for sure. I'm usually able to charge my D1 any time, but for those times where I can't I don't want to have to worry about it dying constantly. decisions decisions....

 

[perfoliate]

I ran a Droid 1 since day one. I absolutely loved every minute of it. I picked up the thunderbolt on day one as well. I was concerned about battery life as well. After rooting running the latest firmware debloated, and kernel with a few tweaks I'm not having any issues regarding battery. Plus the phone runs super smooth and the Dec support is shaping up nicely.

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk

 

[metzor]

I'm definitely torn here. I can upgrade, and I'd love to lock in the unlimited data plan now. I'm just not sold on the TB yet, mostly due to battery complaints. I suppose I should go play with one before deciding for sure. I'm usually able to charge my D1 any time, but for those times where I can't I don't want to have to worry about it dying constantly. decisions decisions....

As someone else in this thread said, the battery issue is way overblown. First day off a full charge yesterday, I had it for 14+ hours with moderate use, was at above 40% when I put it on the charger for the night. No, you can't stream videos on 4g for 3 hours and then expect it to last forever without charging it. But I did plenty of texting, facebooking, app installing, phone calls, emails, web browsing, even some game playing. It is what it is.

"Wait for the Bionic" is the most relentless advice I've ever seen on these forums. Yet I would like to bet the battery life on that will not be so different than what the actual life is like on the TB. Yes there are other differences, but that has been the mostly talked about (non-)issue.

 

[mthorn79]

They'll have a battery patch on the next OTA I'm pretty sure of it. And about the Bionic, I will never own a Motoblur phone...look how it crippled the Atrix, from what I hear no one is buying them they're going for the Inspire or iPhone. Also I've seen lots of ROMed X's and they're still no where near as snappy as the T-bolt, imagine this thing after Tons come out and geta overclocked!

Sent from my Thunderbolt using Tapatalk

 

[LadyAngler]

I just got my bolt yesterday. So can't really comment on battery life yet. But the main reason I decided on the Bolt was because I want to play with custom roms. Also wanted to lock in on unlimited 4G. This Bolt Baby is fast!! I give it that!

While I am sure that the bionic and others will be rooted. I don't think it will have as many developers wanting to make roms for it. Sure there will be a few. But not like the choices we had with D1. I had/have a lotta love for my D1. Feel like I'm cheating. LOL

I was running UD3.1.1 on my D1 before I got my bolt and my battery life was best it has ever been for D1. I am hoping that Bolt developers will be able to make some tweaks here for us.

If a miracle happens and D3 has an unlocked bootloader. Then my bolt will be on ebay. LOL. I would really love to have a physical kb and hdmi.

Plus there is always the return policy at verizon. Even if it is $35. restock fee. Go to the store and play with one.

 

[mark3748]

imagine this thing after Tons come out and geta overclocked!

Amen. Just waiting on the kernel source and we'll have some overclocking fun. Damn HTC and their non-GPL compliance!

(The source code of any GPL'ed code is supposed to be available at the same time the binaries are, i.e. the release of the phone, not 90 days later...)

 

[a44kaliburll]

I waited for the TB since it was rumored in August of 2010...

I got the TB, screen protectors, and a car dock on a 1year contract for $286 and couldnt be happier.

The cons are this:

Battery life is not as bad as all of the people are claiming..like a previous poster said, change some settings, use the power toggle widget (wifi, brightness, timeout, ect..) and your battery life will be compared to the DX.

Really that is my only con with the phone...and its not even a bad con. I too have usb cables all over the place..I even think I can drop one out in my next "morning ritual" if I really need one.
A different con is with the vehicle dock. It has a hard time sticking to the windshield, so last night I put it on my dash and fashioned it so it kind of lays flat, taking the weight displacement out of the equation

One more con...the kickstand is really nice...made really strong and is pretty useful...but the mini usb input is located in the worst spot...you cant watch a video and have it charging and expect to use the kickstand...its a huge bummer, but from a market standpoint, they probably want you to buy the multimedia dock to do that...no biggie really but its still a bummer.

And this next thing could have a solution...just havent found it yet...when I connect my aux cable to the headphone jack, I can hear the caller come through my speakers, but they cannot hear me. My OGdroid had better luck in this department, but still not a deal breaker.

now to the pro's:

every single day...I have found something really cool with this phone. Yesterday, when web browsing I noticed if I pressed my finger on some text and held it there...a mini magnifying glass came up highlighting the text...if I moved my finger around it would highlight the closest text...making it better to select the text for copy and paste..or to help better select the hyper link I wanted to get to.

The camera effects are flipping awesome. I love the distortion effect...(made me look like an ogre) I like the ease of going from front to back camera. And I also like how its very easy to take both stills and really good looking video. The camera on this thing beats my wifes Casio CAMERA when it comes to picture taking.

Games look absolutely awesome on this phone. Dungeon Defenders is alot of fun...but so are games like gun bros or monster fantasy RPG. Games look really good.

Another cool think is that you can hit menu from within the app drawer and make them sort in a list or the normal drawer look.

The media stuff is very polished. The music player looks nice when the phone is turned to portrait mode. It has a cover flow type of thing going on..really nice..

The video player is good too. I think that the videos look nicer on this thing than my zune hd. Probably because this phone is big.

Also I learned that you can stream pictures to you phone through wifi connection. I forgot how I got there...but you can stream pictures and I want to say videos...I will have to get more into it later tonight..


All in all...dont listen to the people who are saying "I played with one..or I checked it out a vzw and it wasnt that great..." And dont listen to guys who have been waiting for this phone since August...like me...you have to listen to what it is you want to try out

Once you buy your phone..regardless of what it is, you will hear rumblings of the next thing...and you will always be outdated once you purchase...but if you keep waiting and waiting for the next unicorn, then you will be waiting forever.

Get what you think you would like to "try out for a year or two". But the Thunderbolt for me was a really really good choice.

............battery life is not that big of an issue...........

laptops get maybe 3-6 hours...this thing is that and more...calling, FM radio, Internet, widgets, email, ect...

 

[nhat]

I say yay. Went from a droid to droid x. I thought the droid x would hold me over until the bionic dropped but then I played with a thunderbolt. I prefer the look and feel of motoblur but senseui is faster and more stable. Battery life is much better than I expected after reading all the reviews and posts about it.

Only thing I miss is the launcher. I have launcherpro but I wish it would only change the launcher (give me access to my 4 most used apps) while leaving everything else senseui style.

It won't be long until there are custom roms and kernels for the thunderbolt

All in all, the thunderbolt is faster than the droid x right out of the box and more stable. It's a better smartphone overall and the best smartphone currently available on VZW.

Sent from my ADR6400L using DroidForums App

 

[mobileT83]

I can't agree more!

Had a OGDroid at 7am the day it was released, loved the phone and the community... Now my girl is running CM7 on the OG and loving it.

I'm glad I stopped by my Verizon store on opening day of the TB... buttery smooth, Sense 2.0 is much nicer than I expected (XDA has a forum of tons of very sweet skins) and the dev communities is growing faster than the OG's did! What is not to like?

Oh and about the battery... the only issue I have found is it won't last if I have the phone on 24/7 on the go (but then I've never owned a device that could support a screen like this continuously on for hours at a time)!? The screen is the leading cause for battery draw, and that was always the problem with my OG... what can I say, I just love looking into this beotchs eyes, riding 4G while my friends cry on their 3G.

T

I waited for the TB since it was rumored in August of 2010...

I got the TB, screen protectors, and a car dock on a 1year contract for $286 and couldnt be happier.

The cons are this:

Battery life is not as bad as all of the people are claiming..like a previous poster said, change some settings, use the power toggle widget (wifi, brightness, timeout, ect..) and your battery life will be compared to the DX.

Really that is my only con with the phone...and its not even a bad con. I too have usb cables all over the place..I even think I can drop one out in my next "morning ritual" if I really need one.
A different con is with the vehicle dock. It has a hard time sticking to the windshield, so last night I put it on my dash and fashioned it so it kind of lays flat, taking the weight displacement out of the equation

One more con...the kickstand is really nice...made really strong and is pretty useful...but the mini usb input is located in the worst spot...you cant watch a video and have it charging and expect to use the kickstand...its a huge bummer, but from a market standpoint, they probably want you to buy the multimedia dock to do that...no biggie really but its still a bummer.

And this next thing could have a solution...just havent found it yet...when I connect my aux cable to the headphone jack, I can hear the caller come through my speakers, but they cannot hear me. My OGdroid had better luck in this department, but still not a deal breaker.

now to the pro's:

every single day...I have found something really cool with this phone. Yesterday, when web browsing I noticed if I pressed my finger on some text and held it there...a mini magnifying glass came up highlighting the text...if I moved my finger around it would highlight the closest text...making it better to select the text for copy and paste..or to help better select the hyper link I wanted to get to.

The camera effects are flipping awesome. I love the distortion effect...(made me look like an ogre) I like the ease of going from front to back camera. And I also like how its very easy to take both stills and really good looking video. The camera on this thing beats my wifes Casio CAMERA when it comes to picture taking.

Games look absolutely awesome on this phone. Dungeon Defenders is alot of fun...but so are games like gun bros or monster fantasy RPG. Games look really good.

Another cool think is that you can hit menu from within the app drawer and make them sort in a list or the normal drawer look.

The media stuff is very polished. The music player looks nice when the phone is turned to portrait mode. It has a cover flow type of thing going on..really nice..

The video player is good too. I think that the videos look nicer on this thing than my zune hd. Probably because this phone is big.

Also I learned that you can stream pictures to you phone through wifi connection. I forgot how I got there...but you can stream pictures and I want to say videos...I will have to get more into it later tonight..


All in all...dont listen to the people who are saying "I played with one..or I checked it out a vzw and it wasnt that great..." And dont listen to guys who have been waiting for this phone since August...like me...you have to listen to what it is you want to try out

Once you buy your phone..regardless of what it is, you will hear rumblings of the next thing...and you will always be outdated once you purchase...but if you keep waiting and waiting for the next unicorn, then you will be waiting forever.

Get what you think you would like to "try out for a year or two". But the Thunderbolt for me was a really really good choice.

............battery life is not that big of an issue...........

laptops get maybe 3-6 hours...this thing is that and more...calling, FM radio, Internet, widgets, email, ect...

 

[slinky]

I would vote nay...I tried one out the other day at Verizon, and seriously my DX with Rubix seems way faster and snappier than the Bolt. I would wait until the whole LTE 4G gets better matched up with a device that can handle the speed and battery drain. But that's just my opinion...

There must have been something wrong with the one in the store. The Thunderbolt is much faster.

 

[hogowner]

YAY This phone is FREAKIN AWESOME!

I live and work in a 4G area and this phone flies!

I also have chargers "all over" so the battery is no biggie for me!..

I tried the phone in a VZ store before I bought it...and you can not compare "playing" with it for a whie and owning it...

anyway..can't wait for a different way to root.....I had my DROID1 rooted and it was GREAT!

so whoever is thinking of getting...DON'T THINK!!! dancedroid

 

[Backnblack]

I tried the phone in a VZ store before I bought it...and you can not compare "playing" with it for a whie and owning it...

Does the TB change when you actually own it?

 

[a44kaliburll]

I tried the phone in a VZ store before I bought it...and you can not compare "playing" with it for a whie and owning it...

Does the TB change when you actually own it?

...yes?

The first day I bought it I didnt know much about it...after playing with it for I dont know...several hours I knew a little more..not much..just a little...

Just yesterday I found out new things on this phone that I never knew were there..did the phone change like "literally" no...but the phone did change what it actually is to me after days and days of playing with it and getting lost in some of the menus.

 

[slinky]

I waited for the TB since it was rumored in August of 2010... The cons are this:

Battery life is not as bad as all of the people are claiming..like a previous poster said, change some settings, use the power toggle widget (wifi, brightness, timeout, ect..) and your battery life will be compared to the DX.

If so, the Droid X must have had some lousy battery life. The phone is "ok" without the Internet. The battery is too small for 4G, that's all. I have the extended battery and it's rather amazing how much longer the phone will last. I don't have it long enough but it should last at least 5-6 hours in 4G. The standard battery might do 2 hours and change. I was expecting at least 4, considering that 4G on comparable phones do 6 or more. If you charge often then you won't experience too much of a problem. I use my phone for music in the morning and am unsure how often I'll get to charge during the day.

One more con...the kickstand is really nice...made really strong and is pretty useful...but the mini usb input is located in the worst spot...you cant watch a video and have it charging and expect to use the kickstand...its a huge bummer, but from a market standpoint, they probably want you to buy the multimedia dock to do that...no biggie really but its still a bummer.

Stupid... terribly stupid... they built the phone hoping to upsell everything. Here's a solution I discovered - buy a right angle USB cable for $5. You can lie the cord under the bottom of the TB too and it should work just fine, slightly elevated.

All in all...dont listen to the people who are saying "I played with one..or I checked it out a vzw and it wasnt that great..." And dont listen to guys who have been waiting for this phone since August...like me...you have to listen to what it is you want to try out
Agreed. At least as of now and for another 30-60 days, this is the best phone absent the battery issues. Not happy with stupidity they left out and non-HD recording but it's not the end of the world. As a phone, works pretty well for most things.

laptops get maybe 3-6 hours...this thing is that and more...calling, FM radio, Internet, widgets, email, ect...
I'd compare this more to a netbook. HTC apparently has a significant issue with upselling their extended batteries. The EVO was underpowered so they make the stock Incredible battery smaller. Right. The EVO 3D battery which will have a dual processor is larger than this battery by far... but still several hundred mAh less than the Bionic. Go figure. It's as if they are trying their hardest to find the absolute least amount of power they can find to put into the battery.

Other than the Internal memory snafu which will need to be sorted out and explained, the phone with the extended battery should keep me happy for the entire year of the contract. I hope that VZW will compel HTC to rectify these issues and can't imagine something won't be done by someone regarding one of the two issues. It still shouldn't prevent anyone from enjoying the phone... if you can get over early adoption as was expected.

 

[funkyb]

I tried the phone in a VZ store before I bought it...and you can not compare "playing" with it for a whie and owning it...

Does the TB change when you actually own it?

...yes?

rofl

I mean I agree, yes it does as you learn more, but man I laughed good at that first line.