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Help Deciding on Thunderbold or Droid Bionic

I am due for my upgrade in April and have started checking out what my options will be if I want to switch. I have been resisting getting any Android phones because I have mastered my Blackberry for the things I need. I am also leary of touchscreens because I have not had much luck with the one on my iPod Touch. Anyhow, the Thunderbolt and the Bionic both look like strong offerings but I am wondering which would suit my needs better. Here's what I need:

Email. I have multiple accounts (gmail, yahoo and live) and don't like downtime in receiving them.
Camera, I need to have quality pictures that can be forwarded via text, email and posted to FB.
Global capability would be nice but isn't necessary.
Must be easy to text on it. Can't have one of those predictive text functions or at least I want to be able to turn it off.
High battery life.

Ok that's pretty much it. Any help and advice is appreciated (even if it's recommending another device)

Comments

MRW1215

I plan to get a Thunderbolt when I can upgrade in April. Is the Bionic coming out by then? Anyway, from what I've heard, most aren't happy with the battery life of the Thunderbolt (though it seems as though better, longer lasting batteries will be released in the near future). The Bionic is a 4G phone, correct? If so, chances are, its battery life won't be a lot better, as I hear 4G eats up battery pretty quickly.

TBhouston

Honestly battery life has more to do with how you do your syncs and notifications than anything..

Honestly if the bionic is global that might push it over the edge for you (since the thunderbolt is not)

Both have full touch screens, and for what you mentioned I don't think you would notice a difference.. It just depends on your preference of manufacture..take 15 mins and head to a store demo the phone..take some pics, edit them try to send to via txt etc see if you like it.

The bionic is a more powerful phone, but it all comes down to what you need it to do

AZSALUKI

motorolas seem to get a bit better battery life than htc's and i think the stock batteries are actually more powerful (1400mah in the tbolt is pretty silly if you ask me). the bionic will also have a dual core processor and WILL be faster (although the updated 1ghz hummingbird in the tbolt is ridiculously fast already). i think in a spec to spec comparison the bionic will have the advantages. that being said, the tbolt is out now and i prefer sense UI to blur on the motos....so it will be the tbolt for me.

RescuesK9s

Forgive me, I don't follow all the phone lingo but what is Sense and Blur and the advantages of these?

MRW1215

RescuesK9s wrote:
Forgive me, I don't follow all the phone lingo but what is Sense and Blur and the advantages of these?

Hah, I've been curious about that, too. Only thing I know for sure is that, with HTC phones, they have that big time display on the home screen; I assume that's part of HTC Sense. I'm sure there's probably more technical aspects to it, but that's the immediate thing I notice, just from seeing different Android phones in comparison.

AZSALUKI

It is the user interface. And yes, that big clock is part of sense. All androids run the same Android operating system (although some run 2.1 and most run 2.2). However, the manufacturers all lay their own unique interface over the operating system. So a moto Droid, X, and Pro will all resemble each other. The HTC Eris, incredible, and thunderbolt (as well as all HTC's on other carriers) will resemble each other as well.....but using a moto will be noticeably different than an HTC. I love the sense UI compared to Motorola. All of this being said though, there are apps that can make an HTC device mimic the interface of a Motorola and vice versa. It wouldn't necessarily keep me from getting a Motorola, but its one of the factors that goes into my decisions. These things are so customizable that its really not that big of a deal.

galaxie500fb

motorola likes to lockdown their bootloader which prevents to some degree of making the phone fully customizeable.

Ann154

I played with the HTC Thunderbolt in the store yesterday. While I did like it, Sense UI, and the feel of it felt good, I didn't love it. I had also recently tried an HTC Inspire. The two phones felt very similar. I just wish I could have seen blazing 4G LTE speeds on the Thunderbolt. No 4G in the area. :smileysad:

I have some time too before I can upgrade to a new phone. Hopefully there will be more choices to pick from at that point. The HTC Thunderbolt is still on the list though. It would be nice if the price of a two year contract will have gone down by that time.

The Xoom however had that "Yum, I want one factor!" Someday I wish.

jgorton123

Here's another forum post I found on the bionic vs the thunderbolt.

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/htc-thunderbolt/121390-thunderbolt-vs-bionic.html

timah

I came from a BB too so I know how you feel. THis is my first Android and the advantages are wayyyy better. Every thing you can do with you BB you can do with the Android. I found that on the TBolt they have an email client that recieves all your emails in one spot and not having to use differnt apps to recieve your messages. Coming from a BB biggest issue with deciding your transition is not BIonic verses TBolt but are you ready for a touch screen. Keep in mind that VZW return policy went from 30 days to 14 so you need to be sure if you can handle a touch screen first. i personally had every BB until the Storm... touch screen was ok on Storm but on ANDROID it is sooo much better. I hate the keyboards now.... but some people just feel more comfortabe. Still little confirmed details on Bionic so if you want to compare the two phones now don't wait till the bionic comes out so you can have a full comparison. And don't go the the VZ store asking questions remember they are their to get you to upgrade....Everything looks good when its new... first decide can you handle touch screen then compare if you want bionic vs tbolt.

TEDKORD1968

Another thing to consider if you're deciding between the Thunderbolt now, or the Bionic later, is that by the time the Bionic rolls out (supposedly around June), Verizon will have very likely moved on to tiered data plans - so if you're a big data user, it might be advantageous to jump now.

As for Sense versus MotoBlur, the general consensus is that Sense is a much better UI over Android, and that Blur actually is sluggish and less intuitive. Having used phones with each, I agree with this. Sense is just a good UI - it works, looks nice and isn't boggy. Blur fails in all these areas, to my mind.

In the battery life question, that's not really going to be known until each phone is out - but my sense is that the Bionic will win out, if for no other reason than it has a stock 1930mAH battery versus the T-Bolt's 1400mAH.

I like the specs of the Bionic (actual DDR2 ram, Tegra, qHD res) over the Thunderbolt, but the coming tiered plans, in conjunction with HTC versus Moto for updates and Moto's habit of locking down the bootloader, has me leaning toward the T-Bolt right now. Or, waiting for the mystery Samsung 4G phone which is rumored to be coming in less than a month - not certain right now. (The Sammy will have a Super AMOLED screen :smileyvery-happy: )

AZSALUKI

Yeah, but which version of the OS will the samsung have and will it EVER get future updates? lol...did the galaxy line ever get 2.2 yet?

PJNC284

I've had the Bolt for almost 2 full days now and can say I'm impressed. I also have the Fascinate which is a great phone but Samsung's US software support has been a major fail. The SLCD screen on the Thunderbolt falls short when placed side-by-side with the Super AMOLED of the Fascinate and it's a little on the bricky side but other than that, it blows the Fascinate out of the water. My Fascinate is running a debloated leaked 2.2 rom and this is probably the first out of the box phone that out performs it. SenseUI is just super smooth and I love the built-in FM radio. It also supports Simultaneous Voice and Data over while on not only LTE but also 3G which may not necessarily be supported by other upcoming LTE phones. Not to mention it's already successfully made it to the dentist. A CM7 Gingerbread based rom is already in the works. Lets see the Bionic do that in only 2 days. :smileywink: And right now, dual-core is a bit overkill for the average consumer as the OS isn't fully capable of utilizing it (yet). The one question that does come up is how many more updates that will come from google before a dual-core processor is needed to fully utilize them.

Even before release, battery life has been the 800lb gorilla causing people to consider holding out. I'm not in an LTE area so I can't comment there but battery life has been much better than I expected. ymmv though as one person's battery life isn't necessarily going to be comparable to the next. Screen brightness, climate, signal strength, app sync and many others can all take a toll on battery life. I do think that HTC could've put a little more effort into the battery though. The 1600mAh OEM battery could have easily been used to replace the 1400mAh battery that comes from the factory. It seems that they increased the size of the kickstand compared to Evo at the expense of a larger battery in terms of physical size and mAh ratings.

The "unlimited" data is another factor that has played into many people's decisions. The press release stated "With the ThunderBolt by HTC, customers will need to subscribe to a Verizon Wireless Nationwide Talk plan and a 4G LTE data package. Nationwide Talk plans begin at $39.99 monthly access and an unlimited 4G LTE data plan start is $29.99 monthly access" but there doesn't seem to be any differentiation online or in the TOS of the actual plan required for the Thunderbolt and the normal smartphone data plan. This does make you wonder if the data plan for the Thunderbolt will grandfather and carry over to the next time you upgrade if they change the wording for the tiered plans.

tl:dr It's a great phone and don't think anyone who is considering purchasing it will be disappointed or have buyer's remorse a few months down the road.

cb7802droid

TBhouston wrote:
Honestly battery life has more to do with how you do your syncs and notifications than anything..

Honestly if the bionic is global that might push it over the edge for you (since the thunderbolt is not)

Both have full touch screens, and for what you mentioned I don't think you would notice a difference.. It just depends on your preference of manufacture..take 15 mins and head to a store demo the phone..take some pics, edit them try to send to via txt etc see if you like it.

The bionic is a more powerful phone, but it all comes down to what you need it to do

The thunderbolt lets you surf and talk at the same time, from what I read the bionc does not. Also the bionic has quite a bit less ram so it will need the dual core processor to keep up. I watched some leaked videos and the thunderbolt was faster in more cases performing normal task(opening apps, and some downloading). The thunderbolt does not have the option to turn of 4g so it constantly searches for it, which means until big red's 4g network becomes more common or you hack the phone that will be a big issue with battery life.

Gtmjfamily

Droid Bionic is rumored to be released on April 21. Drawback will be the 512mb memory vs 1gb in TBolt. Waiting to see how everything works out.

AZSALUKI

i guess i'm now going to wait as well. with the LTE issues (even in areas that are supposed to have great LTE coverage) and the fact that the front facing cam is useless, it seems that the tbolt will simply be my incredible, with a bigger screen, and no optical mouse :smileysad:

Ann154

That optical mouse/trackball comes in handy sometimes, doesn't, AZ?

AZSALUKI

Ann154 wrote:
That optical mouse/trackball comes in handy sometimes, doesn't, AZ?

yes!! i love it and constantly find ways that i never even realized it could be used for before...lol. i was willing to give it up for video calling abilities, but aparently the tbolt doesn't have that option yet. the rest of my family doesn't have high end devices so my kids and i skype to their pc's.....and the tbolt can't even do that. makes the front facing cam completely useless (to me anyhow).

RescuesK9s

I am still not totally sold on either model, as it seems each have flaws that make both undesirable to commit for a 2-year agreement. I am starting to feel my BB fail and will need a new device, but don't want to be sorry about it. Too bad they don't combine the best of both. I am now also worried about any pending changes to data plans. I barely call on my device these days and place way more value on data. I do appreciate everyone's input but will also request the explanation of acronyms and abbreviations used as I don't do phone speak anymore.

ssean227

Actually the TBolt only has 768 megs of ram. The Bionic does only have 512 but it is desktop ddr2 ram. Which means it runs faster and uses less power.

PJNC284

ssean227 wrote:
Which means it runs faster

Until you add blur on top of it.

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