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To keep TB or not?

W

welzie

Newbie
My wife is getting frustrated with her tb. She may not be cut out to be an early adopter. She previously had a droid 2 and liked it, except for the large phone size and the screen was not as bright and sharp as compared to my galaxy s.

Cons
  • slow gps lock on
  • terrible, repeat terrible battery life
  • numerous apps force close
  • switching to front facing camera causing force close (found fix on forums, but still it's a hoky fix)
  • size of phone (it's the same size as the droid2, but WITHOUT a keyboard)
  • doesn't connect to my home wifi router (old g router)

Pros
  • 4g is fast
  • screen is awesome
  • processor seems really fast
  • comes with around 30g internal storage
 
I'm struggling with mine as well. What also gets me is when I'm in a 4G area, I can begin downloading a file, and I don't get anything faster than 1-2 Megs. Not the advertised 14-16 Mbps from the Speedtest.net app. So it may appear that Verizon is scaling back bandwidth when attempting to download files.
 
milan03 said:
I don't think you'll find the answer to that question on Thunderbolt forums.
Decide yourself.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the in depth help milan03.... NOT. I'm looking for suggestions from other people debating the same issue. I'm sure u r loving your tb and can't believe someone else would not want theirs.

I had tons of issues with my captivate initially, but now it's running like a dream with a custom rom. I'm just not sure my wife wants to go through all of that with her tb.
 
welzie said:
Cons
  • slow gps lock on
  • terrible, repeat terrible battery life
  • numerous apps force close
  • switching to front facing camera causing force close (found fix on forums, but still it's a hoky fix)
  • size of phone (it's the same size as the droid2, but WITHOUT a keyboard)
  • doesn't connect to my home wifi router (old g router)
Click to expand...
1. Not a problem with GPS here.
2. Battery life sucks. Extended battery last a very long time.
3. Haven't even had one crash yet in over a week. Most stable Android phone I've ever had. Surprised.
4. Front facing camera is new. Wait for Skype or use Yahoo or Tango.
5. What's wrong with the size? For me it's perfect, easier for screen keyboard typing than the standard size 3". If you don't like it without a Keyboard, it's not the phone's fault.
6. Works flawlessly on my G routers and on my N.

Solution:
(a) Reset device to factory. Try the above. If it works, one of your apps is the problem.
(b) Replace the phone, you may have had a bad one
 
slinky said:
1. Not a problem with GPS here.
2. Battery life sucks. Extended battery last a very long time.
3. Haven't even had one crash yet in over a week. Most stable Android phone I've ever had. Surprised.
4. Front facing camera is new. Wait for Skype or use Yahoo or Tango.
5. What's wrong with the size? For me it's perfect, easier for screen keyboard typing than the standard size 3". If you don't like it without a Keyboard, it's not the phone's fault.
6. Works flawlessly on my G routers and on my N.

Solution:
(a) Reset device to factory. Try the above. If it works, one of your apps is the problem.
(b) Replace the phone, you may have had a bad one
Click to expand...

Buying an even larger battery is a JOKE. Stuff like that is why apple fun boys laugh at us android users. We shouldn't have to buy a new battery.

Second as I said the phone is as large(in all dimensions) as a droid 2, which has a slider physical keyboard. The depth is the most disturbing part of the size. I dont want a keyboard i want a phone that isn't 3/4" thick. That's the thickness of a netbook.
 
I took mine back after 10 days...Loved the phone, hated the battery life and inconsistent 4g issue.

I figure ill wait and see if gingerbread makes a big difference like froyo did for the evo.
 
Cavemansol said:
I took mine back after 10 days...Loved the phone, hated the battery life and inconsistent 4g issue.

I figure ill wait and see if gingerbread makes a big difference like froyo did for the evo.
Click to expand...

I took mine back today for the same reason.
 
welzie said:
Buying an even larger battery is a JOKE. Stuff like that is why apple fun boys laugh at us android users. We shouldn't have to buy a new battery.

Second as I said the phone is as large(in all dimensions) as a droid 2, which has a slider physical keyboard. The depth is the most disturbing part of the size. I dont want a keyboard i want a phone that isn't 3/4" thick. That's the thickness of a netbook.
Click to expand...

Just return it then. You're doing a really good job convincing yourself it's the right thing to do, so go for it.

On a serious note, most of us are buying this phone because of it's LTE radio, being grandfathered into the unlimited 4G data, etc. Phone is thick and heavy, but if you want to be an early adopter, you're expected to get used to those things.
If you really care about the looks and want a thin phone get an iPhone 4 or Inspire.
 
milan03 said:
Just return it then. You're doing a really good job convincing yourself it's the right thing to do, so go for it.

On a serious note, most of us are buying this phone because of it's LTE radio, being grandfathered into the unlimited 4G data, etc. Phone is thick and heavy, but if you want to be an early adopter, you're expected to get used to those things.
If you really care about the looks and want a thin phone get an iPhone 4 or Inspire.
Click to expand...
Buying a buggy phone in hopes that u will forever have unlimited 4g data seems like a bad move. Good luck hope it works out for you.
 
Just return it that's what I did...went back to my dx gingerbread love it.....now return it wait a couple months lots of 4 g phones to chose instead of just one if you want the TB again get it but I would return it
 
Hello. I had an Dinc and loved it and it always worked flawless. Also have the X. Got Iphone sold Dinc. Mistake on my part should have gotten rid of X. Kept X due to size. X is slow and buggy compared to the TB and as matter of fact this X I have now is only 30 days old because I made them give me a new one out of the box. Got the Thunderbolt and selling my X. Battery life on TB is at least as good as the X and is fast. Not buggy. I love the TB and don't understand why some people don't except it is a matter of personal likes and opinion. I also think some people get buyer's remorse and so they find flaws and that is reason to return. I personally recommend the TB and I have had many Droids.
 
copr165 said:
Hello. I had an Dinc and loved it and it always worked flawless. Also have the X. Got Iphone sold Dinc. Mistake on my part should have gotten rid of X. Kept X due to size. X is slow and buggy compared to the TB and as matter of fact this X I have now is only 30 days old because I made them give me a new one out of the box. Got the Thunderbolt and selling my X. Battery life on TB is at least as good as the X and is fast. Not buggy. I love the TB and don't understand why some people don't except it is a matter of personal likes and opinion. I also think some people get buyer's remorse and so they find flaws and that is reason to return. I personally recommend the TB and I have had many Droids.
Click to expand...

@corp165. Thanks for the advise. If this was my phone I would keep it because i can deal with being an early adopter. My captivate(galaxy s) was a piece of crap when I got it on day one of it's release. I eventually had to send it back in for a replacement. The tb is for my wife and she doesn't want to deal with that. We assumed that since it was pushed back it woudn't have many issues. I'm glad some people are having no issues. The battery life on the tb is terrible and I do not believe that the dx has the same issue. I read numerous reviews and they all praised the dx battery life. maybe u got a bad dx and a good tb?

p.s. the wife is taking the tb back today. sorry to upset all the tb lovers. it would be a great phone with better battery life and a few bug fixes.
 
I am seriously contemplating returning the phone as well.

I do have the GPS issue where it takes quite a while to get a lock in the open outdoors. My Eris locked in in less than 10 seconds, every time.

The ringer volume, no matter what ringtone I have active, seems very low to me compared to my Eris. The first TB I had would reboot or shutdown at least once a day (got a replacement). This TB has rebooted on me a couple of times as well. I have had a few force closes on different apps. I have lost all data connection on it twice (except for WiFi), and the only remedy I could find was to do a factory reset. That sucked. I have performed 3 factory resets on this one trying to get data back and trying to get it to quit rebooting.

I would have thought that coming from an Eris, that was rooted, to a TB I would have seen a huge difference in speed. That is not the case. I'm not saying I don't see a difference. I'm just saying it's not a $400 + difference.
 
I have the xoom, Inc, droid x, og droid, and had the thunderbolt....the dx with the gingerbrrad update is not buggy and is fast now and no way is the bolts battery come close to my x keep sippin on that kool aid... return the phone and wait way better devices on the horizon if she's on the fence return it you don't want to be stuck with a phone for a year or two that you dont like

And everyone keeps saying that's the price of being an early adopter that doesn't make sense there have been smartphones out long enough to understand that a bihgger battery would be needed don't give m this eearly adopter bs and the thunderbolt was laggy...its fast loading web page but I constantly had lag with my sense widgets
 
Binglut9 said:
I have the xoom, Inc, droid x, og droid, and had the thunderbolt....the dx with the gingerbrrad update is not buggy and is fast now and no way is the bolts battery come close to my x keep sippin on that kool aid... return the phone and wait way better devices on the horizon if she's on the fence return it you don't want to be stuck with a phone for a year or two that you dont like

And everyone keeps saying that's the price of being an early adopter that doesn't make sense there have been smartphones out long enough to understand that a bihgger battery would be needed don't give m this eearly adopter bs and the thunderbolt was laggy...its fast loading web page but I constantly had lag with my sense widgets
Click to expand...

And I know 4 people personaly that have this phone, absolutely no lag what so ever. There are always going to be lemons amount the early rounds of a device. The phone itself is awesome, the people that are complaining here are having issues that are with the TB they bought not the overall device.

My TB has not had any of the issues that are being discussed here. Again any device at launch is going to have bad units. It is what happens when you manufacture stuff. Even your holier then thou Droid X had bad units. Hell I knew two people that went through 4 OG Droids before they got ones that worked. When I was in the VZW store buying my TB a guy was in there returning his X for the 3rd time, said it was the worst phone he ever owned and he wanted an iPhone instead.

So no it is not the device itself.
 
ska.t73 said:
And I know 4 people personaly that have this phone, absolutely no lag what so ever. There are always going to be lemons amount the early rounds of a device. The phone itself is awesome, the people that are complaining here are having issues that are with the TB they bought not the overall device.

My TB has not had any of the issues that are being discussed here. Again any device at launch is going to have bad units. It is what happens when you manufacture stuff. Even your holier then thou Droid X had bad units. Hell I knew two people that went through 4 OG Droids before they got ones that worked. When I was in the VZW store buying my TB a guy was in there returning his X for the 3rd time, said it was the worst phone he ever owned and he wanted an iPhone instead.

So no it is not the device itself.
Click to expand...

Hell.........Using that logic, there hasn't been a bad device ever made.
 
Lucidot said:
Hell.........Using that logic, there hasn't been a bad device ever made.
Click to expand...

No I'm saying that at all, there are bad devices (hello BB Storm). However this is not a bad device by any stretch. The issues that some are having point to a bad unit, not a bad device. The TB itself is pretty good in terms of the problems that have been reported. I haven't seen any that are being reported as problems with the device itself. All the problems I've seen have been related to a bad unit or the VZW network.

Again I'm not saying that bad devices do not happen, however to take the small minority of people on a forum that are having issues with the phone and say that the entire device is bad isn't even close to being logical.
 
ska.t73 said:
No I'm saying that at all, there are bad devices (hello BB Storm). However this is not a bad device by any stretch. The issues that some are having point to a bad unit, not a bad device. The TB itself is pretty good in terms of the problems that have been reported. I haven't seen any that are being reported as problems with the device itself. All the problems I've seen have been related to a bad unit or the VZW network.

Again I'm not saying that bad devices do not happen, however to take the small minority of people on a forum that are having issues with the phone and say that the entire device is bad isn't even close to being logical.
Click to expand...

I actually liked my BB Storm. Did everything I needed it to do, and then some. So I contend that it was not a bad device.

We could argue this till we are blue in the face really. The main thing is if the device is good or bad to a particular person. All of it is subjective.
 
Lucidot said:
I actually liked my BB Storm. Did everything I needed it to do, and then some. So I contend that it was not a bad device.

We could argue this till we are blue in the face really. The main thing is if the device is good or bad to a particular person. All of it is subjective.
Click to expand...

I will agree with you there. I'm simply going by what I see overall. Yes it is very subjective, however I'm just trying to say that the TB is not a horrible device by any stretch of the imagination.
 
ska.t73 said:
I will agree with you there. I'm simply going by what I see overall. Yes it is very subjective, however I'm just trying to say that the TB is not a horrible device by any stretch of the imagination.
Click to expand...

I wasn't trying to imply that the TB is a bad or horrible device. Though I will contend that it was not ready for release and with that being said, it is a sub-par device that IMO does not live up to all of the marketing hype. Maybe it will someday, but for now it surely is not the device that comes after the one I want, or whatever the hell their slogan was.
 
Welzie, when will you realize even if you have valid points (which you do) you can never complain about or even scrutinize in the smallest way a new device. There will always be people who either love it soooooo much or are total kool aid drinkers that you will be torn apart.

I returned my TB because of the joke of a battery and some build quality issues. I work in the cellular industry and I have changed phones in the last 5 years like most people change underwear.

I tried all the usual tricks to prolong battery life and it still failed miserably. I really wanted to love this phone but it was a no go. I will have to wait and see what other Android powerhouses are coming out.

My point is I feel your (or your wife's) frustration and it is a shame that people cannot discuss the pros and the CONS of a device without some people making snide remarks or acting like you committed treason.
 
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