I'm beginning to think that not all of the Thunderbolts were created equal. I know some people have had serious problems with this phone, while others have had a great user experience. I fall in the latter category, with one caveat: I'm not in a 4G area yet. That could very well explain why I haven't experienced any rebooting, powering down, and get very good battery life.
With that said, this weekend, I put it to the test. I pulled it off the charger at 7:12 a.m., read the latest articles on Pulse, checked a few other sites, played some games, went outside to mow the back 40 and listened to Pandora the entire time (2.5 hours), put it on standby while I cleaned up, read my book using the Nook app for an hour and a half, checked in on the forums here at AC, and then watched a few videos from YouTube for good measure. After dinner, I messed around some more on the internet and with my apps off and on until I went to bed around midnight. I had 27% battery remaining.
I recognize that if I was on 4G, I probably wouldn't have been able to get through the day doing everything I did, but 3G is pretty fast on this phone (and when you haven't tried 4G, you don't really know what you're missing). The phone never lags, and I'm glad I took the plunge after unsuccessfully waiting for the Bionic to come to fruition. It's a great phone for me, but as I said at the beginning of the post, it doesn't seem like all of the Thunderbolts were created equal.
So, my advice to cltatenza would be to try the Thunderbolt, and hopefully you get a phone similar to mine. If you do, I think you'll be pretty happy with it. If you get a phone that reboots constantly, powers down, and makes you want to throw it at the wall, then take it back and give the Charge a try. I know that's what I would have done had I experienced those problems like so many others. Hopefully one of them works for you...... or you could always wait for the Bionic to finally come out in a few months(?).