My conversation at CES at the Motorola and Verizon booths

[IamJAd]

First, let me say that using the word "booth" is an understatement. Motorola really pulled out the stops! VERY impressed! Verizon had a great booth too.

The HTC booth was... nonexistent. I did speak to Verizon and Motorola reps at their respective booths, tho.

Anyway, let me say first off that the HTC Incredible has been my first and only Android phone. LOVE the phone, and as soon as I got word of the Thunderbolt rumor, I knew that'd be my next phone.

I recently got my SO a Droid X. VERY cool phone. The battery life makes me a bit more frustrated with my dInc.

So, both the Bionic and Thunderbolt get officially announced. Very similar specs, but the Bionic has the dual core, and the TBolt does not.

...and that has me second guessing what my next phone will be.

Someone needs to explain to me why dual core isn't a significant advantage, because I really think it is. If you look at how much our phones multitask, it should be a great advantage. If it's an advantage for a desktop PC, why wouldn't it be for our phones?

Adding to the fast that this phone will work less hard, the screen resolution will be (960 x 540), is taking the HD resolution of 1920x1080 that we see on our HD TVs, and halving it each way, which will make rendering video easier, which eases processing power and battery life. Oh, and speaking of battery, the Bionic will ship with a 1930mAh battery. The TBolt will come with a 1400mAh battery. Gee, not much better than the 1350mAh my dInc came with (and I'm running with a Seidio 1750 now).

I know the Thunderbolt will have a better front-facing camera, and from what I hear, Sense is better than Motoblur. But I'm thinking long-term happiness. And I think the processing power and battery life will be better with the Bionic over the TBolt.

Am I wrong?

I asked the Verizon rep about the single core vs dual core. He said they're great phones. The reply I got? "The single core will be more than enough".

Who is ever satisfied with enough? When we're talking about the phones that we buy, don't we want cutting-edge, game-changing technology? Technology that not only will work now, but a year or two from now?

Both phones looked great in person, and I do wish the Bionic had a kickstand... but that's not a big deal. I rarely have time to watch anything at length on my phone.

I welcome your thoughts on this, because I haven't made up my mind on this. Let me know if you have any questions on what I saw or heard.

 

[thebizz]

How did the bionic feel very solid plasticity. And as far as phones I would go with the bionic has a better chip in my mind with that larger battery it should be able to last a day

 

[IamJAd]

How did the bionic feel very solid plasticity. And as far as phones I would go with the bionic has a better chip in my mind with that larger battery it should be able to last a day

From what I could tell, it felt fine. I only handled the one that had a heavy metal post attached to it, so it wasn't a real fair evaluation of the feel.

The screen resolution looked awesome, tho. As far as software, it was a build version-- didn't even have Market on it.

 

[thebizz]

Yeah they have a few months to get it right.

 

[ncbryan]

First, let me say that using the word "booth" is an understatement. Motorola really pulled out the stops! VERY impressed! Verizon had a great booth too.

The HTC booth was... nonexistent. I did speak to Verizon and Motorola reps at their respective booths, tho.

Anyway, let me say first off that the HTC Incredible has been my first and only Android phone. LOVE the phone, and as soon as I got word of the Thunderbolt rumor, I knew that'd be my next phone.

I recently got my SO a Droid X. VERY cool phone. The battery life makes me a bit more frustrated with my dInc.

So, both the Bionic and Thunderbolt get officially announced. Very similar specs, but the Bionic has the dual core, and the TBolt does not.

...and that has me second guessing what my next phone will be.

Someone needs to explain to me why dual core isn't a significant advantage, because I really think it is. If you look at how much our phones multitask, it should be a great advantage. If it's an advantage for a desktop PC, why wouldn't it be for our phones?

Adding to the fast that this phone will work less hard, the screen resolution will be (960 x 540), is taking the HD resolution of 1920x1080 that we see on our HD TVs, and halving it each way, which will make rendering video easier, which eases processing power and battery life. Oh, and speaking of battery, the Bionic will ship with a 1930mAh battery. The TBolt will come with a 1400mAh battery. Gee, not much better than the 1350mAh my dInc came with (and I'm running with a Seidio 1750 now).

I know the Thunderbolt will have a better front-facing camera, and from what I hear, Sense is better than Motoblur. But I'm thinking long-term happiness. And I think the processing power and battery life will be better with the Bionic over the TBolt.

Am I wrong?

I asked the Verizon rep about the single core vs dual core. He said they're great phones. The reply I got? "The single core will be more than enough".

Who is ever satisfied with enough? When we're talking about the phones that we buy, don't we want cutting-edge, game-changing technology? Technology that not only will work now, but a year or two from now?

Both phones looked great in person, and I do wish the Bionic had a kickstand... but that's not a big deal. I rarely have time to watch anything at length on my phone.

I welcome your thoughts on this, because I haven't made up my mind on this. Let me know if you have any questions on what I saw or heard.

I am in the exact same situation as you are being a Dinc user since the day it was released. Your comments above are spot on what I am thinking! I would say right now, I am leaning towards the Bionic because of the dual core chip and massive battery. I think however that I will wait to see the real world results prior to upgrading my Dinc to an LTE phone.

 

[bkorver]

I as well was a day 1 adopter of the DInc and couldn't be happier with my choice, but like every red blooded american male am taking a look at the new sexy phones coming out and planning to replace her...

After going back and forth, TBolt to Bionic and back, I have decided to wait until I can go in the store and see them side by side. It will not come down to which one is faster, it will come down to which one feels more usable. Something faster will always be coming out, and I won't notice much difference anyway, but what will make me happy when I use it? Answer me that and there is my next phone...

 

[rwilliams268]

I myself am in the "wait till I can see it in store" crowd. Both devices have their positives and minuses. I personally know that a dual core chip will not get much use till Gingerbread is rolled out on the device but that still doesn't mean I won't buy one when my contract is up in April.

 

[bespinct]

Wow...guess Phil was right when he said the Bionic might get some DInc owners interested.

I'm looking forward to the Mobile World Congress event to what else will be coming out. If I had to make the choice today, I would go Bionic. To me, the Thunderbolt is not enough of an improvement over the DInc. In fact, by having the same processor and the bigger screen, I expect it to be slower in most tasks that don't use LTE. I'm surprised that HTC is releasing the same tech a year after the DInc came out...and nearly 18 months after the N1.

Steve in CT

 

[thebizz]

The TB is using the same processor ad the desire hd. Just think of it as a cdma/lte desire hd with ffc

 

[ottscay]

I was thinking that I would give HTC a strong look for my next phone (Droid X owner) simply because I like where Sense is and is going, and so far they haven't locked the bootloader the way Moto has been.

That said, I don't think I would get a single core phone right now, especially when the dual core also has a larger battery. Because the dual cores are also use a smaller process, they are inherently more efficient even before you factor in the gains made by dual core processing.

I've always been a fan of picking what you like rather than waiting for the next big thing...but these are phones that are launching at essentially the same time, and it doesn't seem right to get the less future-proof phone unless there's some other deal breaker.

Of course I'm tied into a contract for another year (special deals notwithstanding) and at the moment I'm more excited about checking out the Droid Xoom...

 

[abocornwall]

the problem will dual core is that froyo and 2.3 are not fit for it, flash player is having issues and android just wasn't made with dual core in mind in my opinion thunderbolt is winning

 

[htowngator]

the problem will dual core is that froyo and 2.3 are not fit for it, flash player is having issues and android just wasn't made with dual core in mind in my opinion thunderbolt is winning

The Tegra 2 platform is more than just a straight "hey, its an extra core of processor!" It is a gaming platform and a huge win over the standard Snapdragon + outside GPU combo you get with HTC and others. The whole integrated SoC solution that nVidia offered with Tegra is a big deal. You get HD encoding on the fly with little to no loss of speed or battery power. Not to mention the GPU is integrated with the chip so you use less power having to light up another ASIC/FPGU and the data is streamlined since it doesn't have to go between modules.

The OS not being optimized for dual-core is a bit of a misnomer, honestly. There is simply more to it than that.

 

[Joelist]

I'm hoping the Bionic continues the outstanding build quality seen in the X, namely the body being metal covered with rubberized plastic with a glass front.

 

[htowngator]

I'm hoping the Bionic continues the outstanding build quality seen in the X, namely the body being metal covered with rubberized plastic with a glass front.

Yes, an excellent reason why Moto is still the best choice. Build quality is excellent.

 

[DolfanCole]

the problem will dual core is that froyo and 2.3 are not fit for it, flash player is having issues and android just wasn't made with dual core in mind in my opinion thunderbolt is winning

Froyo's not fit for it now. But the Tegra 2 is here to stay and the OS is evolving to take advantage of multiple cores. Just because it's not there now doesn't mean that it won't be. In fact, all indications are that it will be.

 

[Joelist]

Froyo's not fit for it now. But the Tegra 2 is here to stay and the OS is evolving to take advantage of multiple cores. Just because it's not there now doesn't mean that it won't be. In fact, all indications are that it will be.

Remember that even now Android will benefit from two cores because of its full multitasking (the multiple cores will reduce the performance hit from having multiple apps running).

 

[Hand_O_Death]

Both phones looked great in person, and I do wish the Bionic had a kickstand... but that's not a big deal. I rarely have time to watch anything at length on my phone.

I welcome your thoughts on this, because I haven't made up my mind on this. Let me know if you have any questions on what I saw or heard.

Well for what it is worth, I am sure you will be able to get a case with a built in stand like the Droid X has. That is what I plan on doing since I too am looking at the DB right now.

 

[1088933]

The Bionic will HAS to ship with a larger battery. You gotta think the Thunderbolt only has to run one processor while the Bionic has to run 2. Battery life should be pretty average for both.

 

[htowngator]

The Bionic will HAS to ship with a larger battery. You gotta think the Thunderbolt only has to run one processor while the Bionic has to run 2. Battery life should be pretty average for both.

Why do people keep saying this? sweet mercy, everyone, a dual core doesn't mean higher power usage necessarily

not to mention efficiency of the Tegra 2 platform since its a SoC

 

[Smitty_82]

I'm leaning toward the Bionic right now, but who knows...I might just get the iphone lol. I think I need more sleep! Moto is looking good right now. The most intriguing thing for me right now is how well the DDR2 RAM is going to do. Honestly, that is an step I didn't see coming and I think is in the right direction. I hate waiting for things to load and anything that might make my devices faster is OK in my book.