Decided NOT to pull the trigger

[dbermanmd]

Loved the device, played with it at the BigRed store yesterday for 20 minutes. I am ready to ditch my Storm 1. Love the reviews. I am completely put off by the battery issues. I am not a high tech user, do not want to be having to worry a bouts widgets and apps and other stuff running in the background that I will never use and can't delete.

If this device can't survive on one battery charge from morning to evening then I am going to sit on the sideline. My Storm does what I need it to do and I am going to wait until HTC and the other device makers can solve this battery mess.

Color me very disappointed. I was salivating for this device. Best of luck to all you guys. I truly appreciate all your advice and will keep tuned to this website in hopes of a solution.

David

 

[DarkBeer]

Same situation here. Sitting here with my Storm 1, but the battery issue concerns me. One of my favorite apps is Endomondo, and I like to run it while out on a bike ride to track my distance and times. It uses the GPS, and I can run for 6+ hours on my Storm while still Facebook and other apps continue to run as well. It isn't an option to swap a battery in the middle of the ride as I would lose the track at that point. Seems kind of pointless to build a phone with all of these features, but not give it a battery that will let you use those features for most of a day without having to recharge frequently.

 

[clucernoni]

There is a 2750mAH extended battery being sold at verizon stores as well as online. This is about double the regular battery and you will have no problems keeping that thing charged all day. I'm not going to go for it because I am a software developer and sit at a desk all day for work and can just have it on the charger. But this seems like a good option for those of you that don't have that luxury.

 

[omgbeav]

You can pretty much bet from here forward that only smart phone that is going to last you an entire day is the iPhone due to the restrictive and locked down nature of Apple and the non removable battery. Battery technology is evolving at a much much slower rate. I've gotten great battery life in my past two days with the Bolt. I'm getting near the battery I got from my DroidX, which was about the same as my BB9630. If it's such a massive issue, why not pick up an extra battery, an extended battery or another charger?

As far a preinstalled crapware goes,I'm not sure why this is a hindrance for you. My BB had tons of crapware pushed to it.

 

[theGman911]

Good move. You guys can't even understand how bad this phone is in standby and I have two of them. Went to bed, my dx went down 3% whereas the tbolt went down 56%. Standby battery consumption is OUT OF CONTROL!!!!

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

[clucernoni]

Also, don't underestimate the power of root. Throw a custom kernal on there and down clock the CPU when in standby, this thing will do just fine.

 

[Kmasum]

Been using this phone for couple days now, I am from Detroit and it has excellent 4g coverage in my area, no doubt battery is a big issue. I am thinking of buying a 2700 powered battery for sure... I noticed wifi sucks less battery than 4g radio

Sent from my Bolt using Tapatalk!

 

[Ryobi]

I was this close to picking up the TB yesterday. After having the Dinc I knew this battery in this phone would be a huge issue.

I had the X with the extended battery. The extended battery is barely noticeable unlike the HTC phones where there is a massive hump on the back. I could easily get thru 2 solid days with the X. Seems to me HTC really could care less about these battery issues with their phones and that's a shame because I really like sense.

The android OS doesn't help matters either. Always constant crapware running in the background. It's too bad, I wanted a TB but this is a enormous deal breaker.

 

[Jude526]

Android devices have a lot more to offer than BB and the battery situation has always been a huge complaint. But we know this prior and I just deal with it. I have an extended battery an 1800 mAh and it will last me all day.
I prefer this one because I don't like the thickness of a larger extended battery.
I certainly wouldn't let a battery stop me from having an awesome device.
The Thunderbolt will have an extended battery. All the devices have them. The phone was just released and everything will follow suit.

 

[flashpiti]

Why don't you guys pick up the iphone on Verizon? I had the OG Droid, then the DINC, then I had the iphone 4 for about a month, and now the TB. I'm considering returning the TB and keeping the iphone for the following reasons:

1. Battery life on the iphone is excellent
2. I prefer the screen on the iphone despite it's smaller size
3. Voice quality in my experience is better on the iphone (seems to be white noise or mild "static" on the TB always and I live in a 4G area with excellent coverage, suburbs of Detroit)
4. I actually like the smaller size of the iphone and it seems to have better build quality (no gaps around the screen unlike the bottum of the screen on the TB).
5. Skype video and Netflix over 3G (explain to me again why a phone with 4G can't do this?!?!?!) and factime over wifi.

I prefer the TB to the iphone for some reasons though:
1. Better Maps app
2. 4G - blazing fast where I live and travel to
3. Voice to text/commands integration -- makes it far easier to use while driving than the iphone
4. A little bit faster browsing the web on wifi, and much faster on 4G
5. HTC's browser that resizes text to fit in one column so you can just scroll up and down instead of side to side to read text like on the iphone
6. Bigger screen although I consider 4" to be the sweet spot.


I'll probably keep the TB since it only cost me $230 for a 1 year contract and return the iphone becuase I paid full retail for it, but more than likely I will pick up and ip5 if it has a 4" screen.

 

[dbermanmd]

There is a 2750mAH extended battery being sold at verizon stores as well as online. This is about double the regular battery and you will have no problems keeping that thing charged all day. I'm not going to go for it because I am a software developer and sit at a desk all day for work and can just have it on the charger. But this seems like a good option for those of you that don't have that luxury.

How does this battery affect the dimensions of the Bolt? I will carry it in a belt clip all day.

Having to lug around a second battery is not an option i enjoy contemplating.

I am surprised HTC did not tackle this issue. It is my understanding that the battery in the Bolt is actually of less capacitance than some of it's other droid devices.

 

[dbermanmd]

Also, don't underestimate the power of root. Throw a custom kernal on there and down clock the CPU when in standby, this thing will do just fine.

I am not a techie and have no idea what rooting is much less being able to do it especially if it abrogates my contract with VW.

 

[ntrimm]

Guys, my T-Bolt is not having battery issues. I posted in another thread a couple days ago about this. I used it all day and had no issues with my battery. Sure it went down to around 20% but I used it all day and used all the phones features, even hotspot.

 

[tekhna]

It's really astounding that HTC just hasn't learned. They make amazing phones, with a huge, huge flaw. Don't get it.

 

[TreyDaPrince]

I am surprised HTC did not tackle this issue. It is my understanding that the battery in the Bolt is actually of less capacitance than some of it's other droid devices.

As far as Android HTC devices go, it is the same.

I am not a techie and have no idea what rooting is much less being able to do it especially if it abrogates my contract with VW.

Rooting FAQ

 

[flashpiti]

Loved the device, played with it at the BigRed store yesterday for 20 minutes. I am ready to ditch my Storm 1. Love the reviews. I am completely put off by the battery issues. I am not a high tech user, do not want to be having to worry a bouts widgets and apps and other stuff running in the background that I will never use and can't delete.

If this device can't survive on one battery charge from morning to evening then I am going to sit on the sideline. My Storm does what I need it to do and I am going to wait until HTC and the other device makers can solve this battery mess.

Color me very disappointed. I was salivating for this device. Best of luck to all you guys. I truly appreciate all your advice and will keep tuned to this website in hopes of a solution.

David

Same situation here. Sitting here with my Storm 1, but the battery issue concerns me. One of my favorite apps is Endomondo, and I like to run it while out on a bike ride to track my distance and times. It uses the GPS, and I can run for 6+ hours on my Storm while still Facebook and other apps continue to run as well. It isn't an option to swap a battery in the middle of the ride as I would lose the track at that point. Seems kind of pointless to build a phone with all of these features, but not give it a battery that will let you use those features for most of a day without having to recharge frequently.

How does this battery affect the dimensions of the Bolt? I will carry it in a belt clip all day.

Having to lug around a second battery is not an option i enjoy contemplating.

I am surprised HTC did not tackle this issue. It is my understanding that the battery in the Bolt is actually of less capacitance than some of it's other droid devices.

It is freaking huge and looks like a$$, don't let anyone tell you different. It looks like you're carrying around an old Motorola phone from 1992. See here for the horror:

YouTube - HTC Thunderbolt extended battery and door

 

[dbermanmd]

Guys, my T-Bolt is not having battery issues. I posted in another thread a couple days ago about this. I used it all day and had no issues with my battery. Sure it went down to around 20% but I used it all day and used all the phones features, even hotspot.

I honestly believe you. The problem as I see it is that you need a Bolt owner to even state such a thing. Battery life should be a non issue especially given a device like the Bolt.

I am completely disturbed by the fact that the largest thread by far is the one about the battery! Almost 400 posts in less than 48 hours of Bolt availability. Completely crazy if you ask me.

I should not have to worry about widgets, apps, background software all sucking the battery dry and having to turn stuff off and repeat ad infinitum each time the device is restarted.

 

[bthomp21]

EVERY phone has issues on release. If you think the phone is going to be perfect, well then looks like you need to go to a dumb phone.

iphone had great calls at launch, right. blackberry? well dont even have to say anything about those.

 

[Joelist]

Make sure to read ALL the battery stuff. You'll see that many people are having no issues with battery life. Plus I think some of the "bad battery" posts may be FUD trolls (they have that sound).

I did a fairly detailed post already on battery life - I've been getting 4 minutes 20 seconds per percentile at this point, and really have not done a lot of power optimizing.

Also to note - the power optimizing others speak of takes a few minutes and is not "advanced techno geek" territory. Also if you do not like the hump for an extended battery Seidio offers a high density battery that has a higher capacity but is the same size.

 

[Joelist]

Something else to note about Android Forums - Android users are different than iSheeple.

We really like to dig into our phones, and get super particular about details in how they work. Also, with Android being extremely customizable even with limited tech knowledge users like to mess with their phones a lot to try to do things (like squeeze every amp out of the battery). The end result is that Android forums always sound critical of the phones no matter how good they are.