Visited my local Verizon store, came aware reassured

[Vance14]

[Edit: just noticed the typo in the title, it should be "came away reassured"]

When I got my TB, the Charge, Revolution and DX2 were just around the corner. I did my research and decided that the TB was my best bet, but there was a nagging worry that when these other phones came out I would regret my choice.

So, a couple of days ago I went into my local Verizon store and spent a lot of time playing with each of them, I even installed Launcher Pro to see how it worked (I did remove it after), and did nearly every experiment I could think of.

The simplest way to put it is: I came away even happier with my Thunderbolt!!

Charge: too light, screen is nice, but seems over-saturated, TouchWiz is way too annoying.

DX2: really don't like the physical buttons, and it actually seems less smooth, which tells me that until the OS and apps are optimized for dual core, the extra RAM in the TB is more important.

Revolution: actually would be my second choice, but the 5 MP camera was a drawback and I could not find the RAM, which made me nervous! :0)

So, despite a few issues (luckily I am rarely rebooting), I came away feeling oddly relieved.

 

[nativi]

+1. I have never rebooted, only when I change roms and the Rom is not there yet.

Sent using Tapatalk from Thunderbolt with Lighting Rom 3.3.1

 

[Mortiel]

When I got my TB, the Charge, Revolution and DX2 were just around the corner. I did my research and decided that the TB was my best bet, but there was a nagging worry that when these other phones came out I would regret my choice.

So, a couple of days ago I went into my local Verizon store and spent a lot of time playing with each of them, I even installed Launcher Pro to see how it worked (I did remove it after), and did nearly every experiment I could think of.

The simplest way to put it is: I came away even happier with my Thunderbolt!!

Charge: too light, screen is nice, but seems over-saturated, TouchWiz is way too annoying.

DX2: really don't like the physical buttons, and it actually seems less smooth, which tells me that until the OS and apps are optimized for dual core, the extra RAM in the TB is more important.

Revolution: actually would be my second choice, but the 5 MP camera was a drawback and I could not find the RAM, which made me nervous! :0)

So, despite a few issues (luckily I am rarely rebooting), I came away feeling oddly relieved.

The Droid X-2 is optimized for dual-core... but I have noticed a similar experience. I suspect MotoBLUR as the cause. Yes, I know some swear by it, but I noticed in my tests that it is even more or a memory hog than Sense at its worst, and, unlike Sense, MotoBLUR runs even if you run another launcher (i.e. LauncherPro) since it is not just a launcher UI. That is its blessing AND its curse. I am personally not a fan of the longer versus wider form-factor, which is why I love my Thunderbolt, but I know many whom have the opposite opinion. That aside, the screen is awe-inspiring... qHD is really far superior, and worth a look.

The Revolution is an awesome phone aside from the 5 MP camera... not sure why they did that... I love the app drawer LG has devised in their UI. Cleanly organized for those of us whom have 50 million apps. It has 12 GB of internal storage plus the SD card (which I believe is 32 GB like the other LTE phones). The RAM is the same as the other LTE handsets: 768 MB. It, in my opinion, is the second to the Thunderbolt.

The Droid Charge hands down has the best display both on power efficiency and clarity. While I love that, I also noticed with the Continuum I owned that its pointless when I have to brightness down at minimum all the time because it hurts my eyes. However, if you use your phone outdoors a lot (watching videos and such) and live in a sunny area, the Charge is eats every other display for breakfast (aside from the GS2, which has the same display) for beating sun-glare and delivering a lovely picture.

The Experia Play is, to me, is geared towards a limited audience. That said, I have honestly wanted something like the Play since I had the Droid X playing SNESoid games, and wishing for a controller. It is incredibly smooth even when playing fast-paced and graphically-intense games. You also can't dis vanilla Gingerbread for what it is... Ericsson left the memory-hog UI's to other manufacturers, which was a smart move for this type of device.

The last new phone Verizon put out recently was the HTC Trophy, which went a different route. After playing around with a Trophy for a couple of weeks, I can honestly say Microsoft definitely put a lot of thought into WP7. It is not the head-ache that was WinMo, not even close. I highly suggest any WinMo haters out there (like me) to check it out. You will be surprised. Aside, it is good for people who like certain info quickly, such as messages with WP7's Live Tiles, and the Xbox Live support. Its hardware is on par with other top Verizon Android handsets. Me, I like the customization of Android, and will never look back, but there are many people that will honestly love the Trophy.

 

[VideoEngineerAJS]

No the Revs card is only 16GB since the internal storage is 12GB.

Sent from my Thunderbolt

 

[Vance14]

That is good to know about the Revolution's RAM, it makes it a very viable phone for those who don't care about pictures. I like the look and feel of it as well.

Maybe it is just my eyes, but I couldn't get excited about the DX2 screen, I just couldn't see much of a difference.

 

[Mortiel]

No the Revs card is only 16GB since the internal storage is 12GB.

Sent from my Thunderbolt

Ah ok... I couldn't remember off-hand. I knew I read up on all its specs but yeah. 28 GB of combined storage is not bad, as long as it does not have the same fault as the Droid Incredible that natively has no way to transfer from internal to SD storage. I have not tested that yet, so I really need to find that out. The Droid Incredible at least had HTC Sync to back up internal data, or a file manager from the Market.

 

[prodigy]

So overall, how much difference is there in the Charge and TB? I prefer the Charge, but the TB being so much cheaper is really tempting.

 

[zero neck]

Revolution actually looks pretty awesome, but it will not have as large a dev community as tbolt seems to have, and since root and rom is a must for me, it probably would not hold up.

But, it looks like it has nicer aesthetics to me, and is comparable in almost every other spec with the tbolt, so it is definitely a keeper.

 

[Vance14]

prodigy, the main differences are the build quality (in favor of the TB) and the screen (in favor of the Charge), battery life is pretty bad on both of them when using 4G. Other than that, it is mostly personal preference. Physical buttons or capacitive, Sense or Touch Wiz, etc. Both are great manufacturers, so you really can't go wrong either way.

 

[dpham00]

my main concern with the charge is how long it will take for updates. given that it's droid branded, hopefully it won't be too bad. i considered the charge, but it doesn't have skype video, so i'll pass, but if it gets skype video, then i'll consider it.

 

[FrankXS]

I highly suggest any WinMo haters out there (like me) to check it out. You will be surprised.

Agreed. The TBolt is the best they have at the moment I think. But I also am very likely to have a WP7 LTE or iPhone LTE when they become available. Right now the WP7 doesn't have a full feature set. But it should on the upcoming generations of WP. As for an iPhone LTE... we'll see.

I'm pretty open minded. I just want a phone that does what I want and that works good. After being an IT pro for so many years I've long since got over the OS wars. I've supported most of 'em in my time. They all have a purpose.

Thanks for the post.

-Frank

 

[ejweber]

I couldn't agree more with the original poster. Never having owned a smartphone before, I didn't originally have anything to compare the Thunderbolt to. After checking out the Verizon store over the weekend, I am much more confident in my decision. My Dad has commented that my Thunderbolt feels too heavy, but the competing LTE phones feel too light (and therefore cheap in my opinion).

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk

 

[paintdrinkingpete]

Not to stray too far off topic, but I remember when a buddy of mine got his OG Droid. It seemed HUGE. Heavy, bulky, ... just plain BIG. Granted, it did a lot of awesome stuff too, so it's not like it's size was necessarily a negative thing, but that was my original perception.

I was trying to help that same friend troubleshoot some problems with his Droid last weekend and let me tell you, that original Droid doesn't seem that big anymore...

 

[Mortiel]

Agreed. The TBolt is the best they have at the moment I think. But I also am very likely to have a WP7 LTE or iPhone LTE when they become available. Right now the WP7 doesn't have a full feature set. But it should on the upcoming generations of WP. As for an iPhone LTE... we'll see.

I'm pretty open minded. I just want a phone that does what I want and that works good. After being an IT pro for so many years I've long since got over the OS wars. I've supported most of 'em in my time. They all have a purpose.

Thanks for the post.

-Frank

Very true. When you have to look at an OS from a support perspective, you learn the strengths and weaknesses of each. I have found no infallible OS yet, but plenty of features that fit a diverse crowd. I was impressed that Microsoft chose to not go with the app-based iOS/Android universe. They really impressed me with the unique design, and a very intuitive function. You throw me an LTE, dual-core WP7 with 3D and I would be just as happy with it as with an Android.

 

[thinknate]

That is good to know about the Revolution's RAM, it makes it a very viable phone for those who don't care about pictures. <snip>

Haha. Exactly how large of prints do you typically make from your smartphone photos? A nice 3MP camera can make pretty 8x10s. So 5MP on a phone shouldn't be a problem. Its camera may very well suck... but it's not for a lack of megapixels.

 

[Vance14]

Haha. Exactly how large of prints do you typically make from your smartphone photos? A nice 3MP camera can make pretty 8x10s. So 5MP on a phone shouldn't be a problem. Its camera may very well suck... but it's not for a lack of megapixels.

You know, that is very true, it is the sensor and lens that make a bigger difference once you get around 5 MP or so (from what I hear). But I always figured that they go hand in hand, if they are going to give you a better camera in MP, they are likely to avoid skimping on the hardware as well. Of course, this could be entirely faulty logic or wishful thinking!!

 

[VideoEngineerAJS]

You know, that is very true, it is the sensor and lens that make a bigger difference once you get around 5 MP or so (from what I hear). But I always figured that they go hand in hand, if they are going to give you a better camera in MP, they are likely to avoid skimping on the hardware as well. Of course, this could be entirely faulty logic or wishful thinking!!

Well having worked with cameras when I worked at Best Buy, I found that you get what you pay for. If you pay the same amount for a 10MP camera and a 14MP camera, more than likely the 10MP camera will take better pictures overall. Now of course I'm basing this off of old technology as I haven't worked for Best Buy since September 2007.

You are correct about the 5MP-6MP mark. After that it really doesn't make a difference unless you plan on making movie poster sized pictures.

 

[FrankXS]

Haha. Exactly how large of prints do you typically make from your smartphone photos? A nice 3MP camera can make pretty 8x10s. So 5MP on a phone shouldn't be a problem. Its camera may very well suck... but it's not for a lack of megapixels.

The true limiting factor on phone cameras is the lens size. For a good lens it takes space. And lots of it. No matter how good your pixel count is, your sensor is, and your compression algorithm is, if you don't have a large lens you cannot take advantage of the better picture. Do you really want a 1-inch X 1-inch lens hanging on your phone? That's the dilemma. Therefore, keeping costs down by going with a 3 or 5 mp camera is still getting you the best picture that the lens can deliver.

-Frank

 

[biogon]

Not to completely disagree, but I might argue that the true limiting factor is probably sensor size, device thickness, and overall cost more than lens size.

There's not a lot of room back there to have a decent physical sensor size, and even if there were, you need a lot more space for a reasonable backfocus distance so the light isn't cranked way off-axis when it hits the sensor and vignette all to hell. For example, see the whole fiasco with Leica's M8 and M9 and how they had to use microlenses to reorient nonperpendicular incident light.

There are some pretty amazing tiny dedicated cameras out there (although by "tiny" I mean the stuff in a 1/2.33" sensor these days -- still larger than a cameraphone's lens...although... if I could get 1/2.33" performance in my phone I'd be thrilled.)

Anyhow, I've seriously derailed this thread...sorry.

-j

The true limiting factor on phone cameras is the lens size. For a good lens it takes space. And lots of it. No matter how good your pixel count is, your sensor is, and your compression algorithm is, if you don't have a large lens you cannot take advantage of the better picture. Do you really want a 1-inch X 1-inch lens hanging on your phone? That's the dilemma. Therefore, keeping costs down by going with a 3 or 5 mp camera is still getting you the best picture that the lens can deliver.

 

[droid747]

[Edit: just noticed the typo in the title, it should be "came away reassured"]

When I got my TB, the Charge, Revolution and DX2 were just around the corner. I did my research and decided that the TB was my best bet, but there was a nagging worry that when these other phones came out I would regret my choice.

So, a couple of days ago I went into my local Verizon store and spent a lot of time playing with each of them, I even installed Launcher Pro to see how it worked (I did remove it after), and did nearly every experiment I could think of.

The simplest way to put it is: I came away even happier with my Thunderbolt!!

Charge: too light, screen is nice, but seems over-saturated, TouchWiz is way too annoying.

DX2: really don't like the physical buttons, and it actually seems less smooth, which tells me that until the OS and apps are optimized for dual core, the extra RAM in the TB is more important.

Revolution: actually would be my second choice, but the 5 MP camera was a drawback and I could not find the RAM, which made me nervous! :0)

So, despite a few issues (luckily I am rarely rebooting), I came away feeling oddly relieved.

I just played with the revolution at one of the local stores and I think the screen sucks on it. The screen was washed out and looked more dull then my thunderbolt. I had to set the screen to full brightness to make it look any good, where as my thunderbolt's screren looks very good at 35-40% brightness. It could just be a bad demo unit, but that was my experience. I do have to say though I wish the tunderbolt had the Revolution's power button. It seems so much better and a lot sturdier, HTC take a not on the build quality of LG's power button.