Now That I Have Both My Take On Thunderbolt Vs Charge..

AndroidXTC

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OK its really pretty simple as I see it and there is no real winner here. Lets start things off by build quality. Both phones look nice from a distance but the Thunderbolt looks more complex and expensive and the Charge looks more mass produced by a big electronics giant Hmmmm. I thought I would really like the real keys at the bottom vs the touch keys turns out I don't although the keys work nicely on the Charge it seems like having to push them in an unnecessary extra step in todays world. Power and volume buttons are much better on the Charge without a doubt. I do like the kickstand on the Thunderbolt it gives the handset a little extra feature that no one else has if you know what I mean.

Getting down to the nuts and bolts now on how they function is where the real difference is in my opinion. Now I have only used the Charge for one day but I can tell you this hands down the Charge just works better in almost every aspect. Not by a lot but its noticeable once you have used them both. First of all the Charge pushes 3rd party emails almost as fast as a Blackberry I'm still amazed my AOL mail arrives within 3 minutes every single time and Gmail is of course even faster. The video camera works much better on the Charge the sound is so loud and robust and clear that even after the Thunderbolts update it still makes the Thunderbolts level of volume poor. Battery life is slightly better on the Charge as well. The Charge's screen is amazing but the Thunderbolts isn't all that bad either.

Over all reception is about the same on both phones the signal bars are just about the same. Call quality on both phones just about the same. Touchwiz is laggy and just not as smooth as the HTCs sense. The Charge connects the hot spot faster and has a much better sub menu system for the hotspot it even tells you the devices names that are connected to it. Not to babble on and on my feelings are like this if you want a beautiful runway model in pretty pumps but sometimes forgets what planet she's on buy the Thunderbolt. If you want a pretty housewife that washes the floors and cooks you dinner and picks up the dog poo buy the Charge. So what am I really saying? They both work but internally the Charge seems to work better, it's operating system seems to be more stable.
 
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dslayton

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I too am torn between the thunderbolt and the charge. Having had the Thunderbolt for about a month, and the charge for about a week and a half, I am torn. The thunderbolt has HTC's wonderful build quality, and a huge community of developers and modders. The charge's screen is simply breath taking, and the battery life is far more long lasting than the TB's. I have a few more days to see if I will keep the charge, but I believe that I am heavily leaning towards it.
 

ellje

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Any TW concerns that you might have will be quickly corrected by LP. I see the major complaint on any Charge reviews on the TouchWiz interface, but its so quickly corrected that it just seems to be a non-issue for me.
 
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brianct1972

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I don't miss the TB at all, but even with LP installed, my phone is a bit laggy (1 second pauses between commands).

All in all, I am happy with the phone and glad to have made the switch.
 

AndroidXTC

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I don't miss the TB at all, but even with LP installed, my phone is a bit laggy (1 second pauses between commands).

All in all, I am happy with the phone and glad to have made the switch.

Yea im not unhappy with T/W its just that it seems less refined than Sense.
 

illest813

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hi guys i appreciate the replies. i have been trying to love my thunderbolt but the text message lag, weight, and HORRIBLE battery life are making me think of switching. i do not want use an upgrade on the account for this so I would have to buy it outright and sell the thunderbolt on ebay

so if I was going to end up paying a good buck for this phone i really just needed more convincing with the battery life. do any of you have real world usage statistics? or ball parks?

thanks in advance
 

waterfrontmgmt

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the tbolt is a solid phone...but then a brick is solid too. the droid is lighter and thinner and not a square. the only thing i liked about the tbolt over the charge is the tbolt seemed to stream audio (ie radio stations) with a little less buffering than the charge.

hi guys i appreciate the replies. i have been trying to love my thunderbolt but the text message lag, weight, and HORRIBLE battery life are making me think of switching. i do not want use an upgrade on the account for this so I would have to buy it outright and sell the thunderbolt on ebay

so if I was going to end up paying a good buck for this phone i really just needed more convincing with the battery life. do any of you have real world usage statistics? or ball parks?

thanks in advance
 

barnabyh

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hi guys i appreciate the replies. i have been trying to love my thunderbolt but the text message lag, weight, and HORRIBLE battery life are making me think of switching. i do not want use an upgrade on the account for this so I would have to buy it outright and sell the thunderbolt on ebay

so if I was going to end up paying a good buck for this phone i really just needed more convincing with the battery life. do any of you have real world usage statistics? or ball parks?

thanks in advance

I regularly get at least 17 hours on my Charge with 4G enabled (in a good 4g area) and Push Corp email and Gmail and light to moderate usage. I had the Thunderbolt and max was 7 hours for me.
 

Raptor007

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Has anyone opted to root their DC and get rid of the RFS file system for ext4? I had the TB, got sick of the issues, just picked up the LG Revolution, which honestly is not a bad phone at all but I don't see me keeping it. The DC is what I was going to get but felt developer support wouldn't be there, I see over at XDA-Developers and here as well that ROM's are coming along, support is there. I think I will end up getting it for the screen, battery life and overall daily use. I have an iPod Touch 4G for my games and Netflix so really once I root and debloat or custom ROM I will have the storage space I need and will likely be a lot happier.
 

ncbryan

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How can you do a comparison on the two phones and not mention the screen? Charge has an amazing screen! Hands down better than TB
 

Raptor007

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My decision to get the Charge wasn't an easy one, I had the TB for close to 5-6 weeks since launch day, problems and other issues I had so I sold mine. Went without a phone for a few weeks while I decided what to do. I actually go the LG Revolution yesterday and overall its a good phone. I did exchange it today but NOT because I thought it was a bad device, the Optimus UI is pretty good, but I personally don't like these forced UI's anyways so I am going to run a 3rd party launcher. I returned it due to a few dead pixels (concerned me) and also what may be a real lack of developer support.

XDA-Developers does not have any plans to add a forum for the LG Revo, sad it could use it, but its also telling. So hopefully AndroidCentral will pick up the torch and get the ROM community going. I would like to see AC become more than just a conversation place but also a destination for devs who like to mod and get recognized like XDA-Developers is know for. I already see this happening and I hope to see more.
 

Raptor007

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My decision to get the Charge wasn't an easy one, I had the TB for close to 5-6 weeks since launch day, problems and other issues I had so I sold mine. Went without a phone for a few weeks while I decided what to do. I actually go the LG Revolution yesterday and overall its a good phone. I did exchange it today but NOT because I thought it was a bad device, the Optimus UI is pretty good, but I personally don't like these forced UI's anyways so I am going to run a 3rd party launcher. I returned it due to a few dead pixels (concerned me) and also what may be a real lack of developer support.

XDA-Developers does not have any plans to add a forum for the LG Revo, sad it could use it, but its also telling. So hopefully AndroidCentral will pick up the torch and get the ROM community going. I would like to see AC become more than just a conversation place but also a destination for devs who like to mod and get recognized like XDA-Developers is know for. I already see this happening and I hope to see more.
 

saillling4life

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I was thinking of getting the LG Revolution or the Charge. But after going to the Verizon store I thought it was a good phone, but the Charge is better. Just wondering but is there a way to turn off mobile sites on the Charge?