Are Thunderbolts still a good buy?

[ducey99]

Short answer... NO. Lol I just got rid of mine on Friday and I couldn't be happier.

Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy SIII

 

[ducey99]

You're coming from the incredible battery life of a BlackBerry and you want to go to the Thunderbolt? You're going to be in limbo worrying if your phone will make it through the day.

Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy SIII

 

[redcat22]

...You'll be getting one of the better cameras out there, a pretty solid-performing phone that has a decent reputation for durability and holding cosmetic value other than the kickstand scratching up easily. Oh, and lest I forget, the concentrated awesomeness that is having a built-in kickstand - you have to have one for a while to really understand how pathetic a phone seems without it...

+1 on the camera and the kickstand.

Love that natehoy review.

Well, if you're not in a 4g area, you certainly could go with a TBolt in CDMA-only mode for decent performance. Reboots do occur frequently. The allure of switching to 4g can be more than you can stand, though. Then, when you have it set to LTE/CDMA and you find that it cannot get into and out of 4g reliably, you'll be on here looking for your next device.

I wouldn't make a blanket statement like that about reboots. I would say frequent reboots are a problem for the minority of the Tbolt population.

 

[Slapnpop826]

Get a Thunderbolt and immediately root it and load up Thundershed 1.6. Great battery life and functionality. Makes it a much more useful device.

Sent from my ADR6400L using Android Central Forums

 

[natehoy]

I wouldn't make a blanket statement like that about reboots. I would say frequent reboots are a problem for the minority of the Tbolt population.

(superimpose this over the Bacardi Man picture in your head - I'm too lazy):

"My Thunderbolt doesn't reboot often...
...but when it does, it's usually because something changed about my connection."

Switching back and forth between 3G and 4G is the most common cause of reboots for me, though I do occasionally get one when switching from WiFi to 3G as well. Switching my connection mode to "CDMA Only" has dropped my reboot occurrence from about twice a week to fewer than one per month, and if I remember to reboot my phone every couple of weeks it seems to prevent reboots pretty much completely.

I think there's a memory leak or buffer overflow in the connection library or something that eventually just reaches a point where "it's taken all it can takes, and it can takes no more!" and reboots. Leaving 4G on, which causes the radio to switch connection modes a LOT more often, just seems to exacerbate the problem.

But, again, for a phone that is in the used market costing so little money, it's a good choice. It's certainly not the best actual phone out there, not by a long shot!, but it's a reasonably good value for money.

I probably wouldn't pay an extra $100 to get a Rezound or one of the only-slightly-less-obsolete phones from the next generation unless there was some specific feature I needed, but if the price difference was closer to $50 it might be worth it just to get something with another years' worth of useful life.

 

[natehoy]

Get a Thunderbolt and immediately root it and load up Thundershed 1.6. Great battery life and functionality. Makes it a much more useful device.

Ah, yes, rooting. That's another option, and would certainly give the Thunderbolt some fresh new life.

 

[redcat22]

(superimpose this over the Bacardi Man picture in your head - I'm too lazy):

"My Thunderbolt doesn't reboot often...
...but when it does, it's usually because something changed about my connection."

Switching back and forth between 3G and 4G is the most common cause of reboots for me, though I do occasionally get one when switching from WiFi to 3G as well. Switching my connection mode to "CDMA Only" has dropped my reboot occurrence from about twice a week to fewer than one per month, and if I remember to reboot my phone every couple of weeks it seems to prevent reboots pretty much completely.

I think there's a memory leak or buffer overflow in the connection library or something that eventually just reaches a point where "it's taken all it can takes, and it can takes no more!" and reboots. Leaving 4G on, which causes the radio to switch connection modes a LOT more often, just seems to exacerbate the problem.

But, again, for a phone that is in the used market costing so little money, it's a good choice. It's certainly not the best actual phone out there, not by a long shot!, but it's a reasonably good value for money.

I probably wouldn't pay an extra $100 to get a Rezound or one of the only-slightly-less-obsolete phones from the next generation unless there was some specific feature I needed, but if the price difference was closer to $50 it might be worth it just to get something with another years' worth of useful life.

I'm too lazy as well LOL! But anyways, i also think the manual reboots help keep the phone stable ("preventative maintenance"). I'm rooted too so i wipe cache/dalvik every time i do a manual reboot as well. Doing this helps keep my Tbolt from getting laggy. I'm still running stock .9 GB with the radios from the .19 OTA and my biggest gripe (still) is when Sense crashes. Oh it's so effing annoying!

 

[linebusy]

You guys almost make me feel bad for upgrading. Like the frustration of a red battery symbol, lost data signal while on the road (waiting for the map to recalculate without a data connection with which to make said recalculation) or the dropped calls in my house or work is an overreaction or something.

Seriously, though, you can make it work. A quick peak at craigslist shows folks still trying to get 150 for tbolts while rezounds are around 175. I'd go for the rezound. My wife's battery life (rezound) isn't the best, but she has better call and data performance in the same buildings that I struggle in. Also, she has no idea how to turn 4g off, as it's simply not been a concern/need.

 

[natehoy]

You guys almost make me feel bad for upgrading. Like the frustration of a red battery symbol, lost data signal while on the road (waiting for the map to recalculate without a data connection with which to make said recalculation) or the dropped calls in my house or work is an overreaction or something.

Seriously, though, you can make it work. A quick peak at craigslist shows folks still trying to get 150 for tbolts while rezounds are around 175. I'd go for the rezound. My wife's battery life (rezound) isn't the best, but she has better call and data performance in the same buildings that I struggle in. Also, she has no idea how to turn 4g off, as it's simply not been a concern/need.

If the difference was $25, I'd go for the Rezound for sure.