Thunderbolt First Impressions/Reviews

[Cyber Warrior]

delete

moved.

 

[Guntherm]

• Aesthetics - Feels really well built
• Screen - Fantastic screen, and that after I loved the Dinc's screen. very bright, and very colorful. I could see it outside with sun shining
• Hardware
• Overall User Interface (including HTC Sense) - Sense 2.0 I love the new task bar, being to quickly get back to programs you have run recently.
• Signal quality (Compared to other devices) Compared to my Dinc i am getting at least 1 bar more than before. In places I usually drop out or to 1X, I am getting 3G or 1X respectivly
• Battery Life - Unknown at this time
• Performance
• Keyboard's _ same as Dinc except now we have full cursor keys which I love. The bad the space bar is even smaller now.
• How the Thunderbolt compares to your previous smartphone (if applicable). Too early to say, except I am very impressed so far. Speed, screen quality

 

[French]

I am unable to get a 4G connection at all, and sitting next to my Droid X I am only able to pull a 1X connection while the Droid X has 3G.

 

[m1sfit]

So far

-Great Look
-Feels solid in the hand
-Snappy navigation

-Previous phone models (Treo 650, HTC Ozone, Droid X, IPhone) - So far so good ... except below.

I'm having trouble locating a way to change the notification of multiple email accounts. I thought that was native to the Android OS?

Reminds me of the IPhone.

 

[barnebyjones]

- Really fast going through every menu
- Lighter than I had thought, but still very sturdy!
- Very bright and beautiful screen
- Speedtest pulled in about 6000kbps down and 35000kbps up(and I'm on the outskirts of the 4G zone)
- Really easy to setup
- Video and photos look jawesome

All in all:

 

[Mapex]

• Aesthetics
  • Great. The device is very clean and modern looking. It's an almost middle-ground between super awesome but somewhat ugly DROID industrialism and elegant but grossly posh fruit. In essence, it is like Trent Reznor at the Academy Awards this year. Still bad ass, but also cleaned up.
• Screen
  • Amazing screen that responds quickly to input and provides bright, vivid colors. The size is just perfect as well, allowing for quick typing even without much experience using an HTC keyboard (the lay out is fairly different and takes some getting used to compared to stock Froyo/GB keyboards).
• Hardware
  • Best stuff available today, minus the ATRIX. Yes, it will get blown away by benchmarks, but for 90% of the stuff you do on a daily basis it is more than beastly enough to power through. Also, despite having a "dead zone" in my office where my OG Droid can only connect to 2G/3G on a certain portion of my desk, my T-Bolt can extend a bit further. It really works for that signal.
• Phone - including bluetooth & speakerphone usage
  • Untested so far.
• Overall User Interface (including HTC Sense)
  • HTC Sense, minus some bells and whistles, should be stock Android. Everything is integrated in a way that makes so much sense (no pun intended, but HTC probably thought of the name of the UI for this reason). Android offers more to the user than does iOS, but with Sense's UI the OS easily overtakes iOS without breaking a sweat. Just try selecting text and copy/pasting it - your mind will be blown if you are only used to stock text selection/copy/paste. It's like iOS's except better.
• Widgets
  • Same widgets as on any other device, except some Sense-specific ones. Read "Social Networking" for a blurb about FriendStream.
• Signal quality (Compared to other devices)
  • Apparently the Droid fought hard for its signals and you could feel it overheating because it was so stubborn. Take that, multiply by two, and reduce the heat - that's what the T-Bolt strives for. I would not be surprised if it's battery issues were related to this behavior. This device stays warm - the screen included - because my office space/cubicle is a dead zone for VZW 3G except for one portion of my desk. Despite this, I can take my T-Bolt to dead areas in my room and it will still try to grab a signal and be successful more often than not.
• GPS
  • There were some issues with this in the VZW store and my case wasn't isolated. It still shows a completely wrong town for weather, but hopefully it'll correct when I get home. I have messed with all the GPS options to no avail.
• Social Networking
  • Facebook/Twitter for HTC Sense combined with FriendStream allows for much better integrated social networking than any other widget I've ever seen. It's similar to having a single column from TweetDeck. If it could be customized better then it would be perfect for my purposes.
• Email/Calendar
  • TBD
• Battery Life
  • Testing this. It reported 50 to 60% this morning leaving the store (those guys messed with it D and it is now at 40%, despite being charged by my computer. And wow is it taking a while. I'll test it when I'm in an area with a stronger 3G signal.
• Performance
  • Fast, stable, no lag. This device is creme of the crop and puts any iPhone or iPod Touch (including my 1G) I've seen to shame.
• Media (music, movies, DLNA)
  • TBD
• Keyboard's
  • TBD
• Camera (both still & video)
  • TBD
• How the Thunderbolt compares to your previous smartphone (if applicable)
  • TBD
• Disappointments (if any)
  • TBD

 

[azdmelani]

My biggest issue right now is the 1X Data. I called CS, and they said they are fixing from their end, but sometimes I dont even have data on.

It is kind of impeding me from using the phone. Otherwise so far so good. The biggest issue for me is that the Home and Menu buttons are opposite where they were on the fascinate, so I keep on closing things out. Oops

 

[realitydigg]

IMHO

The Phone feels great in the hand, and coming from a storm which is slightly smaller, this isnt an issue - still feels good. It looks and acts much better

- The screen is really nice, good color saturation crisp etc.
- LTE is BLAZING fast WOW!!!! If you don't have it in your area yet enjoy it on 3G, but you will be very very hapy when you travel or when 4G gets to you.
- Audio load not particularly awesome from youtube which is highly compressed we'll see when i download some music to it..
- Camera, I took some pics in the store with their demo, handled the mixed lighting nicely. I'll have to test fully here once i charge up fully
- Keyboard has a haptic buzz when you type - you can turn it off, but it will help me transition from surepress. Keeps me from pressing down hard until i hear a crack

I will avoid the software side since i have to get used to it. The phone is snappy overall and especially browsing the web which is huge for me. Coming from a storm 1 I miss the pull it from your holster and it is awake aspect. I don't think I used the on off button on the storm ever. I have to get used to waking this phone up. Still trying to get a sense of sense...

No regrets

 

[Eng2011]

Aesthetics - love it...feels good in the hand, and is not as heavy as I thought it would be.
Screen - very bright, crisp
Phone - good call sound, and quickly connected to my jawbone bluetooth
Overall User Interface (including HTC Sense) - LOVE THE NEW SENSE!! (Had an ERIS before) nice improvements, very intuitive
Widgets - big improvement from the Eris...lots to choose from
Signal quality (Compared to other devices) - seems about the same/a litte better than my ERIS. Way better than my work cell (BB Storm2)
Social Networking - i like the friend stream, but havent played with it much yet.
Battery Life - too soon to tell.
Performance - performs sooo much faster than my eris...everything loads quickly, and even after re-loading all my apps. (which downloaded super fast...thanks LTE!)

Disappointments (if any) - The bigger battery from VZW. It is really oddly shaped...with a HUGE bump...decided to pass on it for now, and get it if I really need to.

 

[skipfreely]

Looks like ncaa games will play in the browser booyah! Go UNC!

 

[canesfan44]

I live in Miami and have been getting 2 bars of LTE, and yes, it's fast? I'm coming from a Storm, so anything is going to be fast to me. It loads up webpages with the pictures as fast my home internet. When I got it at 9, the battery was only half. I didn't use it that heavily. I'm sure most people here used it more me. At this point, I'm not that disappointed with the battery life, but we all knew it wasn't going to have great battery life. But then again, it wasn't a full charge to begin with. I'm charging it right now, so I'll have a much more accurate idea of battery life tomorrow or late tonight. So far, I'm very impressed with just about everything with this phone, except for the battery life, but, like I said, it's too early for me to have a good idea of what it's actually like.

 

[BuffaloMadMan]

Man this thing takes forever to charge

 

[Chrisy]

Mine charged fast!

 

[gunmetalgr3g]

I am a n00b coming from an EnV3

Aesthetics - Feels like its finally home
Screen - Amazing
Hardware - Solid
Phone - including bluetooth & speakerphone usage - Voice quality is great...Not tested yet
Overall User Interface (including HTC Sense) - New OS I need to get used to
Widgets - N/A I need to figure out how to remove people from my favorite list
Signal quality (Compared to other devices) = To my env3 so far
GPS - NA
Social Networking -Facebook is similar to Ipod
Email/Calendar Works
Battery Life - Not enough time with the device
Performance - Super fast
Media (music, movies, DLNA) - Will test tonight
Keyboard's - Like it its smoothe
Camera (both still & video) - Will test later
How the Thunderbolt compares to your previous smartphone (if applicable) - NA
Disappointments (if any)...That I cant just delete people from my favorite list...I will get it though...And when I hook up the phone to my pc and turn it all the way off there is no indication that the phone is charging

 

[mhind52]

Aesthetics - Does not feel to big at all. Great feel in the hand

Screen - real nice, smudges are not very noticable

Hardware - cameras are great, takes great picture and video, all exterior buttons work great, no "first production" issues that we usually see

Overall User Interface (including HTC Sense) - never had sense, but I love it. Really intuitive and the sense widgets are real cool

Signal quality (Compared to other devices) - I have never had 3g in my basement before. The bolt has 4g service through out my house

Email/Calendar - the calendar and email widgtes are great..very useful

Battery Life - With how much I am going to use this phone, I dont think its going to be great. Taking a long time to charge, but I am using a ton during

Performance - not complaints....real snappy. Most snappy android device I have seen/used.

Disappointments (if any) - none so far.....go with the 1 year contract and you wont have to worry about missing out on the next great thing!!

 

[Joelist]

Aesthetics - Very good. Does not feel as large as it really is. Lighter than my Droid X. Metal body with nice grip. Kickstand works great and has extra speaker behind it.

Screen - Gorgeous screen. A bit brighter than my Droid X and rather brighter my brother iPhone 4. COLORFUL! The colors are really nice and not oversaturated.

Hardware - Fit and finish is outstanding (this is typical for HTC - it is a hallmark of theirs). Camera pictures are great (much sharper again than my Droid X or brothers iPhone 4). Sound is really good - this phone works really well AS A PHONE.

Overall User Interface (including HTC Sense) - Sense has been for a long time the best Android implementation by far. It still is. Everything responds smoothly with no choppiness (like I had in the Droid X). Very intuitive and Exchange email support is even stronger then before (simplified setup). Remember HTC licensed ActiveSync and baked it into Sense.
Really Sense has to be fully explored to be appreciated. There are a lot of new features in this version of Sense. For example, Screen customization now has Wallpapers, Scenes (a way to build and store your own custom environments for different situations) and skins (you can reskin the HTC elements too).

Signal quality (Compared to other devices) - LTE is fast, fast, fast! And signal strength across the board is better - building penetration also seems improved.

Email/Calendar - As mentioned earlier, HTC email is probably the best Android email out there not named Touchdown. The calendar is also good, and does sync with Exchange (part of the Active Sync goodness).

Battery Life - Too early to tell.

Performance - Very smooth. Speed is one thing (and this phone is very fast) but smoothness is important in the user experience. And that smoothness comes from not just the hardware but - again - Sense.

Disappointments (if any) - Again time will tell. First impression is excellent.

 

[tucker_dahlin]

Call audio on mine is disappointing. I've only made a couple of calls but its kinda scratchy/blown speaker sounding. Am I the only one? If so I may go swap it out. I'm coming from BB so maybe this is just normal for htc?

 

[Joelist]

It is not normal for HTC. HTC call quality is typically great.

 

[jrapp]

USB Charging

I'm using the OEM cable and not getting a charge via USB.

Same cable in the wall works fine.

This is going to be annoying if battery life is as bad as they say.

 

[mlf80]

I am trying to decide if I should bite the bullet and pay full price for it. I am not eligible for an upgrade until February 2012....but I really want it. If I add a line it's going to be $30 more a month and thats just crazy and not saving me any money. Anyone have any suggestions?