Thunderbolt First Impressions/Reviews

[Mike_is_Mike]

Jawbone and Droid Thunderbolt.

I can not listen to Pandora through my Bluetooth (Jawbone Era) like I could with my Blackberry Storm1.

Any suggestions? ........That would help me listen to Pandora through my Bluetooth.

 

[srodden]

smartkeyboard from the market i have found to be a good replacement coming from blackberry i just really like suretype also. try it you'll like it.

 

[Cyber Warrior]

smartkeyboard from the market i have found to be a good replacement coming from blackberry i just really like suretype also. try it you'll like it.

Also a fan of SmartKeyboard Pro.... Lots of customizations and makes typing much easier.

 

[Forgetful]

How about these speeds for tethering my phone to laptop?

 

[bthomp21]

How about these speeds for tethering my phone to laptop?

If that is accurate, I cannot wait til 4g hits my area.

 

[Forgetful]

If that is accurate, I cannot wait til 4g hits my area.

I believe it is. When connected to my home wifi it's only 3Mbps which is what I pay for.

Screaming speeds for sure.

 

[Hobbessti]

My review of the ThunderBolt

First little background, I picked up this phone the morning of launch, actually arriving at the store hour before opening expecting a rush, but there was not one.

First Impression: Mind you I am on a 3G network here at the present time so all network speed impressions aside. I was impressed with every function I attempted on my initial pickup and activation of this phone. The phone was snappy for lack of a better term.

Activation: This seems a little drawn out and took me about two hours to get out of the store. I know this is the price of being an early adopter.

Feel and aesthetics: The phone feels great in the hand much better than the dummy unit did. the screen is bright, and colorful, without being over-saturated.

Battery life: Initial battery life on this phone, like any phone is difficult to judge being that I spent a lot of time playing with settings and features. A That thing said I was impressed each day the battery life became better. Today was my best. I have made it approximately 8 to 10 hours, and have 67% battery left with light to moderate usage. FYI I did do the battery conditioning tip.

On screen keyboard: Easy-to-use I give it two thumbs up (no pun intended)

Phone: Call quality is crisp and clear, speakerphone is exceptional for me.

Signal quality: is on par with my original droid, no complaints.

Media: have not had a chance to play with these features yet, other than some YouTube videos. These work well for me, no complaints.

GPS: works as expected.

User-interface: I am liking HTC's sense, as user interfaces go, this ranks highly with me.

Cameras: Being in a family of photographers, the pictures I am serious about, I'll still take with my digital SLR, but the cameras good and produces decent images. To be honest, they're better than some point-and-shoot cameras I have seen, and I'm surprised there from a cell phone.

Disappointments: Initially I could complain about the battery life to some degree, as the first day spent a lot of time on the charger. However that's not a complaint anymore. my big complaint now, is the bloatware, Verizon has piled the stuff on thick, I am waiting on a root solution that I feel comfortable attempting.

Overall I think this is a good phone and worth the money. I would like see the bloatware go away, but business is business. my recommendation, this is a good purchase.

 

[SpaceHippie]

I bought my phone on Launch day for 435 with my employee discount. I went in to work today and found out the employee price was raised to 600 dollars. WOW! lol

 

[coreymcl]

Something that's surprised me with the Thunderbolt is not only the speeds I'm getting with LTE but the responsiveness of the device itself.

To put it in prospective, I also have the HTC Inspire and just looking at how responsive the Thunderbolt is compared to the Inspire has caught me by surprise. Considering these devices were released a month apart and share many of the same design spec's. I was not expecting it to be any more responsive than the Inspire.

It's hard to quantify how much faster it is but it is without doubt noticeably faster. I would say the Thunderbolt is on par with the Atrix as it relates to the speed of the device itself.

As for battery life, enough has been discussed on that subject, let's just say I'm hoping a software update addresses at least some of the issues.

 

[MBeattie]

Now that I have a fully functioning TBolt in hand (4 in the same amount of days), I can give you guys a proper first impressions post. My point of view should help many trying to decide between TB and EVO as I moved to VZW from Sprint with two EVO's on my contract.

Aesthetics -

Feels great in the hand. It's rounded corners make the TB more natural to hold compared to the EVO which is important when handling such large handsets.
The actual look of the device is of course subjective but I personally find it to be a bit more elegant and professional looking compared to the EVO while still making a statement
(Many of us are experiencing poorly lit capacitive buttons and light leakage. Normal for first batches but getting annoying. HTC should have learned from the minor issues the EVO had at launch and improved its production standards. They still make amazing devices though so I personally give them a pass as overall built quality is always superb).

Display -
My EVO was hardware revision 003 with Nova display(which most mould agree looks the best) so my initial impressions of the TB's display weren't as positive as many other new owners. I find the colors to be a bit exaggerated with a pinkish hue. The EVO (mine anyway) had a "warm", natural looking display compared to the TBolt's "cool" over the top color reproduction. Not sure if its my imagination but haptic feedback on the TB feels better than any other device I've ever owned. The display is responsive and other than being a tad bold for my taste, looks amazing.

 

[teckels]

I am 6' tall, can palm a basketball and this thing is HUGE! 4g is only way to fly. Very fast inside, i.e. pulling up voice to text on Incredible had at least 2 second lag, instant on Thurnderbolt. Battery is normal, if you're in this forum you should already know what to do. Kickstand is actually more useful than expected. Front facing camera much better than expected. Tango with 3g iPhone friends is great telling them they better jump on WiFi. Overall, only complaint is explaining to people that it's actually a phone and not an iPad.

 

[zzz0ned]

I had a terrible experience with the Thunderbolt.

1. Coverage from home for Verizon is apparently awful. I could not get any data. NONE. I could barely muster half a bar for voice.

2. The battery life was unbelievably poor. While on my landline with Verizon and looking at the Thunderbolt's screen to determine the strength of coverage, I could nearly see the battery indicator move down visibly. Despite only making one 5 second voice call as a test and watching the screen for about 10 minutes while on the other line with Verizon, the battery lost 40-50% of its charge.

Customer Service wanted me to spend some time with Tech Support, but on the basis of both of the above, I'm sending the phone back today.

Since Verizon coverage is so poor, I'll have to stay with AT&T or try out Sprint or T-Mobile.

 

[Puterguru]

I had a terrible experience with the Thunderbolt.

1. Coverage from home for Verizon is apparently awful. I could not get any data. NONE. I could barely muster half a bar for voice.

2. The battery life was unbelievably poor. While on my landline with Verizon and looking at the Thunderbolt's screen to determine the strength of coverage, I could nearly see the battery indicator move down visibly. Despite only making one 5 second voice call as a test and watching the screen for about 10 minutes while on the other line with Verizon, the battery lost 40-50% of its charge.

Customer Service wanted me to spend some time with Tech Support, but on the basis of both of the above, I'm sending the phone back today.

Since Verizon coverage is so poor, I'll have to stay with AT&T or try out Sprint or T-Mobile.

1. You definitely had a problem with the phone.
2. "Since Verizon's coverage is so poor" (maybe in your area, thats certainly not true for most). They have the best coverage Nationwide.

 

[androidburn]

I honestly think that the be-all, end-all battery issues are uncalled for; isn't it well documented that smartphones receive OTA upgrades to improve battery life?

If HTC intended to make the battery life adequate, they wouldn't have made the battery even smaller than the EVO. This might be a VZW discussion since they seem very eager to upsell an additional $50 extended battery. It lasts much longer but makes the phone huge.

 

[AlpineM3#AC]

All is good and from time to time I do happen to have the connectivity issues, but nothing major.....I do have one problem though, maybe i'm nit picking here but is anybody's battery door not sitting flush in the corner near the power button?? The battery door sits flush all around the phone except for this one corner and it's open enough for dust particles to continue getting it. Again, maybe i'm nit picking here, but I feel like it will continue to open as I continue pushing the power button down. I'm trying to find out if this is a design flaw or maybe it's just my phone in particular.....anybody??

 

[Kroaker]

All is good and from time to time I do happen to have the connectivity issues, but nothing major.....I do have one problem though, maybe i'm nit picking here but is anybody's battery door not sitting flush in the corner near the power button?? The battery door sits flush all around the phone except for this one corner and it's open enough for dust particles to continue getting it. Again, maybe i'm nit picking here, but I feel like it will continue to open as I continue pushing the power button down. I'm trying to find out if this is a design flaw or maybe it's just my phone in particular.....anybody??

Make sure it is snapped shut all the way. I have found it very difficult to get the battery cover to fully snap. After getting mine snapped, it is fully flush.

 

[cwe640]

After pre-ordering February 10th with Best Buy, I was starting to get nervous about my purchase with all of the information about the cost, battery life, etc. coming out from mid-February through the actual release date. I could not be happier with my ThunderBolt now, though!

I've had my ThunderBolt since Friday, but I wanted to wait a few days to give a more comprehensive reaction.

• Aesthetics - I "heart" HTC and HTC Sense. The phone is beautiful, inside and out. As a former iPhone 3G owner, this is the first Android phone I've had that has made me forget about the iPhone's beauty of design.
• Screen - Gorgeous, not THAT gigantic
• Hardware - My only complaint is the lack of a physical camera button (a la my OG Droid that it replaced), but that is very, very minor
• Phone - I don't know if it is because I dropped my OG Droid in the sink or not, but the call quality is ... so ... much ... better. My wife (who works in a call center) said there was only a very small difference between speakerphone and non-speakerphone
• Overall User Interface (including HTC Sense) - My OG Droid was rooted, and I ran both CyanogenMod and "Gingerbread", and I was trying to use tools and widgets, and (without knowing it) I was trying to create a user experience like this. My gosh it's beautiful.
• Signal quality (Compared to other devices) - At least as strong as any other device I've had, if not stronger.
• Social Networking - I'm a TweetDeck addict, so I've been using TweetDeck over FriendStream, Twitter, etc. (I've always used manual updating to conserve battery life.)
• Battery Life - The main reason I've waited to provide my reaction. I've spent the last 4-5 days conditioning the battery by completely (100%) draining the battery before recharging. I now get a day and a half of battery life with moderate use (a few calls, email, texts, TweetDeck). Yes, stock battery.
• Performance - My (rooted) OG Droid was over-clocked at 800, and this phone is so much snappier.
• Disappointments (if any) - Really, only the lack of a physical camera button, but that is very, very minor.

At the risk of being a fan boy, I LOVE MY THUNDERBOLT!

 

[abomb78]

Not sure if someone already chimmed in on this, so my apologies. I love the TB thus far, but has anyone noticed the small rubbery piece that sits between the screen and the outer shell of the phone to the bottom (narrow slit)? The corners of mine stick up some and I am wondering if over time going in/out of my pocket will this piece lift up or detach. I am a noob so my apologies if this is something stupid to worry about. : )

 

[AlpineM3#AC]

The piece on my phone is flush, corners sticking up I believe is not something normal....anybody else?

Not sure if someone already chimmed in on this, so my apologies. I love the TB thus far, but has anyone noticed the small rubbery piece that sits between the screen and the outer shell of the phone to the bottom (narrow slit)? The corners of mine stick up some and I am wondering if over time going in/out of my pocket will this piece lift up or detach. I am a noob so my apologies if this is something stupid to worry about. : )

 

[AlpineM3#AC]

Dude, i'm trying.....I keep pushing but it wont snap in any further. The battery cover slips in at the bottom first then snap up correct?

Anybody else have this issue?

Make sure it is snapped shut all the way. I have found it very difficult to get the battery cover to fully snap. After getting mine snapped, it is fully flush.