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T-Bolt among "5 Android Phones You Should Avoid Buying" according to this article

TxGoat said:
haha, wow someone spends a LOT of time on here.... :p I actually thought I'd seen that post before, and even thought I posted in that thread. Who knows, maybe someone edited or deleted my post.... ?!?!
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I don't spend that much time on here, 50 hours a week or so (give or take) I couldn't imagine your post being edited or deleted ;) that thread was bumped so many times even if you didn't post in it you likely thought you did

I do think that would be a good new thread however but only if it were a poll so we could actaully see the #s instead of having to read each post.
 
I can't ever remember a cell phone that was "can't miss" . Every product gets bad reviews, some more than others. The Thunderbolt was the first 4G phone on Verizon. I can imagine that many people who had held on to phones that were way past their prime jumped onto to the 4G bandwagon, and were unprepared for the type of battery life this phone gets compared to a flip phone or lesser smartphone. I also hypothesize that many of these users dove right in for hours, didn't make adjustments to save battery, and saw the juice drain right down and were like, "What the heck is this?" and the reviews started coming in. But, all my postulating could be wrong, anyway, so take it for what it is worth.
 
xeno2011 said:
I can't ever remember a cell phone that was "can't miss" . Every product gets bad reviews, some more than others. The Thunderbolt was the first 4G phone on Verizon. I can imagine that many people who had held on to phones that were way past their prime jumped onto to the 4G bandwagon, and were unprepared for the type of battery life this phone gets compared to a flip phone or lesser smartphone. I also hypothesize that many of these users dove right in for hours, didn't make adjustments to save battery, and saw the juice drain right down and were like, "What the heck is this?" and the reviews started coming in. But, all my postulating could be wrong, anyway, so take it for what it is worth.
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I think battery drain shock happens to most people going to smartphones for the first time, with how many people are coming from a dumb phone that only had to be charged twice a week to a phone that requires a charge daily when the proper precautions to extend battery life have been taken.
 
I personally think that the size of the battery is probably the biggest single reason that the phone wasn't as well received as it should've been. IIRC, there were reports that indicated the phone being delayed because battery performance was well below industry standards. HTC and Verizon probably decided to tweak what they could to get better battery performance out of the phone and in doing so probably shot themselves in the foot. I wouldn't be surprised if the early 4G to 3G handoff issues that people were having with their TB was originally a measure taken to help preserve battery power.
 
dguy said:
Can't say I disagree with recommending against getting the Thunderbolt
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I would only recommend the phone to anyone that knows how to do their own troubleshooting. I wouldn't recommend the phone to anyone that would pay for geek squad services, uses AOL for their internet provider, uses I.E. for their personal web browsing, reads the instructions in great detail for assembling Ikea and Best Buy furniture, or anyone that changes their car's oil solely based on when the car's oil life monitor tells them to.
 
TxGoat said:
I personally think that the size of the battery is probably the biggest single reason that the phone wasn't as well received as it should've been. IIRC, there were reports that indicated the phone being delayed because battery performance was well below industry standards. HTC and Verizon probably decided to tweak what they could to get better battery performance out of the phone and in doing so probably shot themselves in the foot. I wouldn't be surprised if the early 4G to 3G handoff issues that people were having with their TB was originally a measure taken to help preserve battery power.
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This has also been my hypothesis. Increasing power to the radios and GPS would improve performance but, on average, decrease battery life. Starting with a 1400 mAh battery was stupid. The kickstand should be oart of the case.
 
TxGoat said:
...anyone that changes their car's oil solely based on when the car's oil life monitor tells them to.
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You lost me right there. Most hard core car guys have given up on the oil change every 3000 miles thing for modern vehicles. I assume you have an old GTO based on your username, and that is different, but for a modern daily driver the oil monitor is just fine--and better than "every once and a while if I think about it", lol.

People like you describe probably buy iPhones anyway. I tend to think about it like journalism writing. Newspapers and mainstream magazines are supposedly written at the level of a fifth grader. Information technology in general has become a sort of second literacy with the same sort of societal divisions. People that buy iPhones are like the people that read Time. People that buy Android are like people that read The Economist. (And I guess people with flip phones are like people that read People, lol). So I guess I agree with you, buying a bleeding edge phone like the Thunderbolt is not for everyone. And that is one of the issues Android has--it spans a large swath of market from iPhone competitors to BlackBerry competitors to phones like the Thunderbolt that push past them all. The general public is not going to understand this.
 
ardchoille said:
In the HTC Thunderbolt listing, the author begins by stating "The Thunderbolt is a great device with plenty of power." Then he spends the rest of the time complaining of poor battery life. Huh? He just said it had plenty of power, now he's complaining about battery life?

And he didn't let his readers know that extended batteries, custom kernels, custom ROMS and other things are available that will likely make poor battery life a thing of the past.

Perhaps it's just me, but I see this as the author writing an article without knowing much about the subject matter, which makes him lose credibility in my eyes.
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I had my Thunderbolt 4G stolen 2 weeks ago and used the original droid until I was sent my new one. The org droid is slow, it sucks, has no options but guess what. THE BATTERY IS GREAT.

People like to complain. No matter what, they like to complain.

HTC Thunderbolt > Samsung any day of the week.
 
Yeahha said:
I think battery drain shock happens to most people going to smartphones for the first time, with how many people are coming from a dumb phone that only had to be charged twice a week to a phone that requires a charge daily when the proper precautions to extend battery life have been taken.
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I made a topic about that point a while ago. About one of the reasons that people are complaing about the battery is because they never had a smart phone and were not used to the battery drain. Yes the battery should last a little longer but unfortunately it dosen't unless you buy the camel hump.
 
I agree battery life between dumb phone and smartphone are night and day. My wife got a blackberry, and even though her battery life is way better than mine, she complains about it all the time. She wants an android phone now, and she will be in for a shock for sure. But I am at a desk, so most of the time the battery life is not an issue for me. I am very happy with my phone, and would recommend to anyone, with the caveat if battery life is very important, you will be spending extra and have an even thicker phone.
 
I have had people who dont even have the phone ask me about how i like the TB, and i tell them "its a great phone". Then they always say "well ive heard that the battery isnt all that great". My response is always I take it for what it is and enjoy one of the best phones out right now for at least 5 hours.
 
brizey said:
You lost me right there. Most hard core car guys have given up on the oil change every 3000 miles thing for modern vehicles. I assume you have an old GTO based on your username, and that is different, but for a modern daily driver the oil monitor is just fine--and better than "every once and a while if I think about it", lol.
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lol, I'm real bad about changing my oil even at 5000 miles. Some people tend to rely solely on the car's Oil Life gauge which is more of an estimate and doesn't really take into account the driving conditions that you're driving in, whether the conditions are dusty, hot, city/highway driving. Now granted I'm betting some of the more expensive luxury cars probably have robust oil life meters, but I still would only use those to give me an estimate. I personally like to check the condition of the oil in the car, which is what I meant about being more hands on.

I once relied on the oil life gauge on a car just because it was a daily driver and I was being lazy about changing the oil. When the gauge read 10% life I finally got around to it and the oil came out in clumps.



Like I said though, the phone should be on the list but it should also be on the list of one of the best performing phones. To me great reliability doesn't always mean great performance. Another car analogy, Hondas and Toyotas typically prove to be reliable cars, but for the most part they don't have great torque and hp. It's easy to have a reliable car when you aren't applying crazy amounts of torque and power to it.
 
Yeahha said:
My grandma can't even operate her wireless phone without the instruction book, she wouldn't have an issue with a TB because she wouldn't be able to figure out how to turn it on much less than unlock the phone.
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huh, well, since you're in the Charlotte area, have her drive up to Salisbury and meet my grandmother. She's on Facebook, has email, uses her TB, hates iPhones, etc. - everything an Android phone owner should be.
 
quickaudi said:
huh, well, since you're in the Charlotte area, have her drive up to Salisbury and meet my grandmother. She's on Facebook, has email, uses her TB, hates iPhones, etc. - everything an Android phone owner should be.
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She is already in Salisbury :eek:, I am actually impressed she can operate the automatic garage door to get her car out. My parents can't operate any touch screen so I don't hold much hope for my grandma either.

But watching my dad try to navigate youtube on my TB was worth the price of the phone at least, "I did swipe" "no you clicked" "no I swiped like this" -click- "see you clicked"...
 
This topic could go back and forth for a long time. If I was in the market now, I would agree and wait for the Vigor, but being 5 months into the TBolt, I have no regrets and no plans on bailing before my contract runs out. I'd rather have the TBolt than anything else available right now. The TBolt does everything I want and I have no doubt that it will continue to do so for another 16 months. By the time my contract runs out in 12/12, the Vigor will be old news and I can't even guess at what the technology and phones will be like by 12/12. That might make for an interesting thread though. :)
 
pat3332 said:
This topic could go back and forth for a long time. If I was in the market now, I would agree and wait for the Vigor, but being 5 months into the TBolt, I have no regrets and no plans on bailing before my contract runs out. I'd rather have the TBolt than anything else available right now. The TBolt does everything I want and I have no doubt that it will continue to do so for another 16 months. By the time my contract runs out in 12/12, the Vigor will be old news and I can't even guess at what the technology and phones will be like by 12/12. That might make for an interesting thread though. :)
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Hmmmm....iPhone 5 4G, HTC Thunderbolt 4 (Xray), Moto Droid X3, Moto Droid 4, Moto Droid Bionic Squared (yeah quadcore processor), Samsung Debt ;), LG Smellophone 4G/4D (the first phone ever to give you both 3d and has a scent maker to give you a whole new world on your phone, with top of the line specs 1Ghz processor 2GB internal memory, GB...)

I should stop typing now :D
 
Frisco said:
Well, when it came time for me to upgrade a few weeks ago, I sought out and read reviews, customer/user reviews and specs, etc. I avoided the Thunderbolt based on that information, although in the store it was a beauty to behold and use.

I ended up with the Droid 3 based on playing with them, but mostly based on those customer/user reviews.

But I do think it's silly to mention battery life about any Android device now, given the resource hogging apps/services and CPU in the things now. We all have to take battery saving measures if we don't want our great devices to be on a charger more than once per day.
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I found, on the 'leading auction site' that starts with an 'e' an extended battery that does not require a new battery cover. It cost $20.00 w/ free shipping. Naturally Made in China by Cameron Sino- 1800 mAh / 6.7Wh 3.7V Lithium-ion...With my battery saver mode on-been running some internet, calls, texts, wifi all day; usually I would dead by 60 to 8 hours; its been 14 hours now and Im at 40%. I still have the other battery if I need to use it too. I think that's pretty good, so I am much happier w/ the phone with this battery. Now Im going to get one of those chargers that will charge the phone w/ battery in and an additional stock battery at the same time. Good luck, hope it helped.
 
scoty777 said:
I found, on the 'leading auction site' that starts with an 'e' an extended battery that does not require a new battery cover. It cost $20.00 w/ free shipping. Naturally Made in China by Cameron Sino- 1800 mAh / 6.7Wh 3.7V Lithium-ion...With my battery saver mode on-been running some internet, calls, texts, wifi all day; usually I would dead by 60 to 8 hours; its been 14 hours now and Im at 40%. I still have the other battery if I need to use it too. I think that's pretty good, so I am much happier w/ the phone with this battery. Now Im going to get one of those chargers that will charge the phone w/ battery in and an additional stock battery at the same time. Good luck, hope it helped.
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60 to 8 hours you say?!?! ;)
 
scoty777 said:
OK I had a typo...thanks for catching..was trying to help...geezy wheezy guys...why don't go ahead and hurt someones feeling....:(
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Its okay scoty we all know you meant 60-80 hours of battery ;) they are only giving you a hard time because they haven't discovered the meaning of life yet...err...I mean meaning of battery life...the other one is 42
 
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