DNA vs Thunderbolt: Quick Hits

mightyfacundo

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I loved my Bolt; it was a great phone, but when it started having issues recently, I had to move on. Luckily, a very nice member here at AC sold me his barely used DNA for a very fair price, so I thought I'd give a little feedback on it.

Forget ICS. JB is where it's at. Seriously, Project Butter is pretty amazing.

The screen on the DNA is every bit as good as advertised. I thought the Bolt screen was great, but HTC has really outdone themselves.

Battery life is better than the Bolt's with the standard battery, but doesn't come close to the Bolt with the extended battery. I can get through the day, but just barely. However, when in sleep mode, it uses pretty much no battery. I took it off the charger the first night at 12:00 am, looked at it 7 hours later, and it was still at 100%.

If you're a fan of Sense, you won't be disappointed in 4+. It's definitely more refined than 3.0, 3.5, and even 4.0. I don't know how long I'll stick with it though. I'm kinda missing ADW Launcher EX.

One thing I have to get used to is the lack of weight. Believe it or not, I prefer a heavier phone. When using it one-handed, the Bolt rested in my hand and I never worried about dropping it. I find myself gripping the DNA tightly cause it weighs so little that it shifts in my hand, but I'm sure it's just one of those things I have to adjust to.

It's a larger phone, but it doesn't seem that much bigger when I'm using it. Pocketability is a non issue for me, and I have no problem using it one-handed (other than turning it on and off).

Beats makes a big difference. I had ROMs on my Bolt that supposedly had Beats, but I couldn't tell much of a difference.

The notification led on the back is gimmicky. I don't know about you guys, but I never lay my phone down on the screen, so I am never looking at the back of the phone.

And last but not least, NO DATA DROPS!


All in all, it is a really nice phone and a big upgrade from the Bolt, with a super stylish look for your typical black slab. If you haven't seen it, swing by Big Red and take a look. I don't know yet if it is going to be my phone for the long-term, but even if it isn't, I'm content to wait for the right one to come my way.
 
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DaRkL3AD3R

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Haha of course the DNA is going to be leaps and bounds better than the Thunderbolt.

Single core 1Ghz
vs
Quad core 1.5Ghz

768MB RAM
vs
2048MB RAM

800x480 resolution
vs
1920x1080 resolution

Android 2.3
vs
Android 4.1


It's a huge improvement in specs. And yes, Jelly Bean makes a MASSIVE difference in performance. To all the people who ever said back in the days of the Thunderbolt "why do you want to update your phone wahhhh I'm happy with Gingerbread it's fine wahhhh" Yeah enjoy being held back and running crappy old software. You people don't know what you're missing out on.

Anyways enjoy your new device.
 

anon(394005)

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@ DaRkL3AD3R

But you're talking about newer software on NEWER hardware. Of course that's going to run better. So I think it's an assumption that the Thunderbolt would run Jelly Bean any better than it does Gingerbread, despite the vast improvements in it, in particular Project Butter. :)
 

mightyfacundo

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I knew the DNA was going to be better than the Bolt, but what I was curious about was HOW MUCH BETTER it would be. And here's the thing; it doesn't do anything that the Bolt can't do, it just does it faster, more reliably, and looks better doing it.
 

Mikey D_PhD

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I knew the DNA was going to be better than the Bolt, but what I was curious about was HOW MUCH BETTER it would be. And here's the thing; it doesn't do anything that the Bolt can't do, it just does it faster, more reliably, and looks better doing it.

I agree. I just upgraded to the DNA from the Bolt. I like the inclusion of Google Now and a few other improvements, and mighty is right, the DNA does it faster and looks better.
 

mightyfacundo

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As you know, I really wanted a removable battery with my next phone, but when my Bolt started having issues, certain concessions had to be made. I would love the ability to slap an extended battery in this thing, but I'll just have to make do. As for the sd card, I had already moved on from that idea because of my discussion with Jerry, http://forums.androidcentral.com/sa...190-what-does-jerry-mean-other-questions.html , but ideally, I would like to have more internal storage. So far it's not an issue, but I know I'll have to be more judicious with the storage than I was with the Bolt as I use it more and more.
 

mightyfacundo

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One more bit of info I forgot to mention: I ran the speedtest.net app from my house, where I never got a strong signal on my Bolt, but that's no longer the case.

Thunderbolt: 2.89 MB down, .75 MB up
DNA: 12.20 MB down, 3.56 MB up



Sent from my HTC6435LVW using Android Central Forums
 

redcat22

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As you know, I really wanted a removable battery with my next phone, but when my Bolt started having issues, certain concessions had to be made. I would love the ability to slap an extended battery in this thing, but I'll just have to make do. As for the sd card, I had already moved on from that idea because of my discussion with Jerry, http://forums.androidcentral.com/sa...190-what-does-jerry-mean-other-questions.html , but ideally, I would like to have more internal storage. So far it's not an issue, but I know I'll have to be more judicious with the storage than I was with the Bolt as I use it more and more.

Mental note: when shopping for next phone, SD card is not important.;) Thanks.