Battery Life: Thunderbolt vs. Palm Pre Plus?

[richardlam13]

So, I am eligible for an upgrade in two weeks, and I have been doing a lot of research. I'm pretty much set on picking up an Android device for the first time. The Thunderbolt seems to be the choice, especially since the demise of the Bionic and such, although the battery life issue seems to worry me a little. I was tempted by the Charge, as I got to play with it yesterday at the Verizon store (they had one in the back), but that price tag is a burden. Still, the people there were pretty clueless about the Charge and its battery life and anything else aside from the spec sheet. All in all, I'm coming from a Pre Plus running on the Verizon network. I've had it for almost a year and a half now and I must say I've gotten pretty sick of it. I was wondering if anyone came from a Palm Pre, any variation, and could possibly provide some insight on the battery life comparison? I know that the Pre had a relatively intolerable battery life, often times not getting through the day unless I was around a charger throughout. So, how do the two stack up? Any responses are greatly appreciated! Thanks!

P.S. It's great to finally post and to stop lurking so much

 

[Forgetful]

Palm pre = yuck.

Android is sooo much better. The only downfall is it does consume more power (yet the palm pre kinda sucks as well). But not enough IMO to ever make me want to leave. My bolt gets charged once a day and I use it a lot. Screen On (meaning actively using it) for 4 hours and like 40 mins of pandora too.

If you don't care too much about 4G and want a phone with better battery look at the new Incredible 2. It's also a sweet phone and almost the same (hardware specs) as the bolt aside from 3G, no simultaneous 3G/voice, and a 4in screen. Only 200$ too. (or 450 off contract). If I wasn't in/getting 4G area for a year I might have picked this up instead (I had a Inc1).

 

[mcowger]

I just came from a PP+ on VZW.

If I leave 4G on for my TB, they are about the same (for my usage, YMMV). My PP+ got what i considered to be on the lower end of 'fair' battery life.

 

[bmw3wags]

I also came from a Pre + and the battery life has been about the same for me maybe a little worse on the bolt. Im in a 3G only area btw.

 

[WhitePhone]

Battery life on my Bolt is definitely better than my pre.

 

[asianrage]

My wife uses the PP+ and it's definitely impressive. Battery life for her is about 1.5 days. And she does use it. I like the fact that even at 600Mhz, the OS is smooth flying. I guess that has to do with the fact the OS is extremely optimized for the hardware.

 

[naveride]

pre plus better

I had both the palm pre plus and the thunderbolt, both with and without the extended battery. I think that the pre plus clearly lasts longer, both with and without the extended battery. Normal battery my pre lasted almost a full day. Thunderbolt always a bit short. Extended battery pre always lasted a full day sometimes almost 2 days. Thunderbolt lasts a full day 98% of the time but not possibly 2. It might be different if I fully optimized them for battery life instead of partially, but I feel why get a top smartphone if you're not going to use the features.
Overall, they both have pluses and minuses. Thunderbolt I like the big screen and 4g for web browsing and it's very nice to have a huge number of programs. (especially epocrates. That's the main reason I switched.)
Pre plus, is just easier to use. Easier multitasking, easier to manage options, better messaging system, and I really love the "just type" with a physical keyboard. I know android can get similar things with apps and mods, but right out of the box I feel webos is just quicker and easier. I think the main reason to go with android is the huge number of apps. (hello epocrates), and until now the better hardware. But with the veer and pre 3 coming out this summer I think webos is a great option too if you don't use that many apps or webos happens to have the apps you use.
Don't get me wrong I like my 'bolt, but I really do miss good multitasking, mesaging and just type.

 

[aplsucks]

want my opinion?

I'd rather have a TB with a dead battery than a Palm Pre with a fully charged battery.

 

[asianrage]

want my opinion?

I'd rather have a TB with a dead battery than a Palm Pre with a fully charged battery.

Good for you? I'd be interested in a Palm Pre with 1.2Ghz on LTE.

 

[naveride]

Palm pre = yuck.

Android is sooo much better. The only downfall is it does consume more power (yet the palm pre kinda sucks as well). But not enough IMO to ever make me want to leave. My bolt gets charged once a day and I use it a lot. Screen On (meaning actively using it) for 4 hours and like 40 mins of pandora too.

Fine, the palm pre was very slow, but can we compare all of webos to android and not just the palm pre. Android is better in some ways. WebOS is better in some ways. It depends on what is important to you. I got my dad an Incredible and he could not figure out how to use the darn thing. Never having used Android before, I could not teach him over the day I was with him, so he returned it and got a palm pre plus, which he could use immediately. I switched because of lack of medical programs on webos and it still took me a couple of days to figure out how to set up and use Android the way I wanted. Even so, I miss the "just type" feature with a physical keyboard and the card view which were very nice. I'm sticking with android, because right now large variety of programs is most important to me, but if other things, such as simplicity to first use are more important, webos is just great too, especially with the new veer and pre3 coming out.

 

[bells]

Came from a Palm Pre+ on Verizon. My impressions:

Battery life with standard tbolt batttery: worse.
With extended battery: slightly better.

I can go a whole day with the extended battery and high usage. Couldn't do that with my Pre+. BUT, the standard battery is inadequate: worse than my Pre+.

Everything else: The tbolt is much faster at web downloads/browsing (I'm in 4G area). The OS is MUCH flakier (force close/stuff just not working), and the apps I've tried are frankly not up to WebOS standards (really, no one can even approach DrPodder? that seems sad), but they're mostly okay. Basically, in every category the iOS version will be MUCH better, if it exists at all for the tbolt, and none of the interesting WebOS interpretations even exist. But what one needs is there, albeit in a flaky and unpolished version.

Basically, if you like being different (hey, you had a Pre+ when you could have had an iPhone, so you must be weird like me) than the tbolt is fine. It's definitely not as polished or as pocketable as a Pre+, and without the extended battery it's less useful, but the network is fast. And the screen is big.

So, I guess, my overall feeling is... meh. I'lll keep it, because it's just a phone, but a WebOS phone running on 4G would be worth paying full retail for (and I would! just in case HP is listening). Still, Android as an OS is decidedly weak, and if HP can get the hardware right, WebOS remains the only viable alternative to iOS.

But I like my tbolt ok. As i said... meh.

 

[richardlam13]

Thank you so much for all the opinions and such. I definitely got my money's worth out of the pre, due to the huge dev support and whatnot. I also forgot to mention that I overclocked it as well, using a screenstate profile. So I feel like if I could manage with a battery draining overclocked pre, I should be good to go on the Thunderbolt. While it's true that the multitasking on webOS is impressive, the hardware is just too far behind in my opinion. The software and the ideas are great; however, the hardware, bugginess, and lack of support from HP/Palm is devastating to the webOS community and its users. My phone shuts off and reboots randomly at times. I still have one of the keyboards that misses keys. There's a huge lack of apps in the store. Definitely ready for a new OS to tinker with!