Should I hold out for the Bionic?

**elchip** · 02-24-2011, 09:00 PM

I've reviewed the specs of the Bionic and the Thunderbolt, and I'm really unsure whether I should bother holding out for the Bionic or not. It depends on a few things, and I was hoping that you guys could help me out here.

For starters... the Thunderbolt has 768 MB of RAM, while the Bionic only has 512 MB. Obviously, the advantage goes to the Thunderbolt, but how much of an advantage is it? Will 512 MB of RAM be enough for a phone that will have to last me into 2013?

Then there's the processor. Obviously the advantage goes to the Bionic, but how big of a deal is a dual core processor at this stage in the game? I'm going to guess that single-core Android phones are going to be sold at least well into 2012, thus causing software developers who want to reach the biggest audience to not bother optimizing their programs for dual-core processors ... and seeing how slow PC software manufacturers were to take advantage of dual core processors on PCs, will dual-core really be that much of an advantage until it's time for my 2013 phone?

And finally, there's the battery. I'm not in the mood to pay even more money for my cell phone by going out and getting another battery, so I'd like to stick with what comes pre-installed. Will the 1400 mAh be enough to last me through the day with moderate use? The Evo, with its 1500 mAh battery, was said (IIRC) to have battery life problems, and I think other HTC phones have been somewhat lacking in the battery life department, haven't they? The Bionic has a whopping 1930 mAh battery... is this going to afford it significantly more life, or does the Tegra 2 suck up a lot of power?

Thanks in advance!

**I am Fake Jesus** · 02-24-2011, 09:05 PM

imo, thunderbolt wins, the bionic is ugly. moto bootloader will be locked so no roms. the new motoblur looks like moto version of touchwiz.

the bolt is better build quality. moto is gonna be a hard plastic

an bolt will be out first.

**matt0715** · 02-24-2011, 09:07 PM

thunderbolt all the way. motoblur is crap and the thunderbolt got better benchmark scores than the bionic. htc sense is pretty awesome too. i actually might prefer it over stock android

**shaddix** · 02-24-2011, 09:43 PM

I'm thinking I will switch to bionic. Thunderbolt taking too long may as well wait for bionic at this point. Bionic will have custom roms, it just won't have custom kernels. The only thing I really want from a custom kernel is extra battery life, but the bionic has a huge battery so that's not such a big deal.

tbolt voice + data over 3g is the only thing kinda keeping me on its side.

**dubge** · 02-24-2011, 09:55 PM

the bionic has 512 DDR2 ram I think

**Android 19** · 02-24-2011, 09:55 PM

No, forget being bi with the bionic-by motorola! tb all the way!

**SUB-dawg** · 02-24-2011, 09:58 PM

Originally Posted by dubge

the bionic has 512 DDR2 ram I think

ya thats true.

**DolfanCole** · 02-24-2011, 10:03 PM

The 512MB memory on the Bionic is DDR2, so will probably be better for the most part than the 768MB in the Thunderbolt. The Tegra 2 processor in the Bionic is already better than the TBolt and will get even better when the OS and apps mature. The Bionic also has a higher res. screen. For me the Bionic beats the TBolt hands-down from a hardware standpoint. The biggest thing for people seems to be Blur vs. Sense and locked boot loader. I was considering the TBolt on a 1-yr contract while I wait for the Bionic. But the longer the TBolt takes to get released and with the rumored price, I may just wait for the Bionic.

**Cory Streater** · 02-24-2011, 10:04 PM

I usually stay out of these things, but I can't keep silent on this one: TB.

**Android 19** · 02-24-2011, 10:06 PM

lol tell em Cory!

**bnsteele5** · 02-24-2011, 10:10 PM

Definitely TB

**WhitePhone** · 02-24-2011, 10:10 PM

There is also a lot of unique little things about the thunderbolt too, like SVDO, the phone switching to speaker when its faced down etc. There are lots of others too. Oh, and the 32 GB card plus 8GB onboard

**menji** · 02-24-2011, 10:29 PM

I've had bad experiences with moto phones, back in the day, so I decided to stay away from them. albeit, now we are talking about smart phones, so I don't have experiences with that. Moto was in a bad place a couple of years ago, and it left a sour taste in my mouth. HTC has had a good rep. when I was making my decision between the bionic and the tbolt, one of the things that weighed heavily on me was the quality of the build. this phone for me, is in it for the long run, regardless of whether it has dual core or a 1GB of RAM, anything else that comes along. and for that reason I went with HTC. deep down I really believe the phone has longevity. In a year, it may not be the fastest, with the most RAM, or brightest screen, greatest OS, or greatest battery life. but as long as I can make calls, txt people, and get my emails without any problems, and get a working web-browser, I'll be fine and dandy. besides i'll wait for octo-core :P

**am4966** · 02-24-2011, 11:47 PM

Just go over to the Atrix threads and see what they think about the Motoblur some feel that its a bit laggy and it has more ram than the Bionic. So if the Atrix is Laggy then the Bionic is going to be.

You have to remember the OS is not optimized for Dual Core yet, and who knows really how long it will take for that to happen. Maybe sooner than later or mayber not!

But my money is going with the TB

**karnovaran** · 02-25-2011, 12:00 AM

Like the Incredible, the Thunderbolt will be the best Android on Verizon for a good year thanks to its versatility as a hackable device. Even now I'm hesitant to leave my Incredible for anyone else since the community has had me on Gingerbread since December. You will never see that on a Moto.

**SamOliver** · 02-25-2011, 01:36 AM

It's funny that hackability is the decision maker for me (and a lot of other people) when choosing between the Thunderbolt and the Bionic.

**SpaceHippie** · 02-25-2011, 01:43 AM

Originally Posted by I am Fake Jesus

imo, thunderbolt wins, the bionic is ugly. moto bootloader will be locked so no roms. the new motoblur looks like moto version of touchwiz.

the bolt is better build quality. moto is gonna be a hard plastic

an bolt will be out first.

This x2000

**shaddix** · 02-25-2011, 01:51 AM

panda said build quality on the bionic is better, course none of us have held one so who knows

droid x is on the verge of having the ability to load custom kernel, moto stated that stuff about xoom bootloader being unlockable(could be bs).
both of those things indicate there's a % that the bionic will be able to load custom kernels

**TreyDaPrince** · 02-25-2011, 02:02 AM

Originally Posted by SamOliver

It's funny that hackability is the decision maker for me (and a lot of other people) when choosing between the Thunderbolt and the Bionic.

This. The ability to go between stock and sense is bliss.

Sent from my INCredible phone

**Almightyclown** · 02-25-2011, 04:41 AM

Originally Posted by I am Fake Jesus

imo, thunderbolt wins, the bionic is ugly. moto bootloader will be locked so no roms. the new motoblur looks like moto version of touchwiz.

the bolt is better build quality. moto is gonna be a hard plastic

an bolt will be out first.

I am starting to wonder if it actually WILL be out before the Bionic. Either way though, TB wins.

**Joelist** · 02-25-2011, 04:50 AM

There's a lot more to a phone than raw hardware. User experience is also important and HTC phones blow everyone else away in that area because Sense is such a strong implementation of Android.

Blur aside Moto Android has had a tendency to be buggy, especially in areas like Exchange Sync. Meanwhile Sense has ActiveSync baked right in because HTC licensed it from MS. Add in the smoothness of the UI, the superb widgets (you have to buy Beautiful Widgets to even approximate it in a non-Sense UI) and overall stability and the result is a superb user experience.

**doctajay** · 02-25-2011, 05:08 AM

My reasons to switch to the Tbolt from my Droid X:

1. Custom Roms. I really just want the stock android experience. With HTC phones and cyanogen I can get that. Motorola phones past the droid x will be harder to break regardless of what Motorola tries to say

2. On my droid x I bought both launcherpro and beautiful Widgets to get rid of the Blur. Then I realized that all of this just turned my phone into the normal HTC sense experience. So why not go with the real thing?

3. This is my biggest reason. All the rumors have pointed to the 4g pricing for the Tbolt to be $30/mo. Now we know that Verizon is money hungry and will not keep that price that low for long. So it would be cheaper to get grandfathered into that early 4g pricing.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

**msfraser302** · 02-25-2011, 07:18 AM

These forum's are the sh*t... the info I have received is awesome... coming over from Sprint and looking to replace my blackberry curve that is almost a year past the end of contract, didn't take the Evo or Epic dive... My wife got the Iphone on Verizon and I was dead set on the Bionic but I have since fallen in line for the TB. I have played around with the Evo, Friends and at the Sprint store and its a nice phone, so I assume the TB will be better and faster...

Thanks for all the great info on these boards.

**ncbryan** · 02-25-2011, 07:27 AM

Have had both Moto (Droid) and HTC (DInc) phones, I have experienced the good and bad from both.....

Good:
HTC exchange email support
Moto battery life
HTC Sense
HTC hackability

Bad:
HTC battery life
Moto exchange email support
Blur

There are many more good and bads, but for me the lack of seamless Exchange Email support is a deal breaker for me on the Bionic. Got to have it and really think it is pointless to have to buy a stupid app to get the email to work properly.

my .02
Bryan

**VideoEngineerAJS** · 02-25-2011, 07:37 AM

Originally Posted by Almightyclown

I am starting to wonder if it actually WILL be out before the Bionic. Either way though, TB wins.

Oh it will be. The Bionic may not even come out until June. Our Verizon corporate rep (meaning the rep for our corporation) knows it will be at least May and they are hoping it isn't pushed back to June. They are actually having issues with the Bionic. He said they would have liked their new LTE phones to come out really close together (like release one each month), but with the Bionic issues he doesn't know if that will happen.