Thunderbolt Review / Returned

[CCVirginia]

After 2 weeks I have returned the thunderbolt and exchanged it for an iPhone.  Coming from an AT&T iPhone 3g I had great hopes for the Thunderbolt!  The fast LTE network, simultaneous talk/data, Android flexibility and better VZ network.  Based on the reviews I expected to have to do soma power management, but thought that I bit of power management would be an acceptable tradeoff.  Here are my conclusions:

Issues (in rough order of criticality):

• Battery life – after spending way to much time trying to optimize the battery, including dropping back to 3g and 20% screen brightness, all I could get was about 6 hrs standby and 2 hrs usage.  This is simply not acceptable and the one thing that can’t be overcome as it seems to be due to a power hungry screen.
• Stability – I had issues with exchange sync, mail crashes, weather channel crashing and wifi/4g switching.  Overall I am concerned about the stability
• Application quality – overall I found the Android applications to be of lesser quality and functionality that the iPhone.  i.e. CNBC application.
• Visual voicemail quality – very poor, and they charge you for it
• Speakerphone quality – poor
• Operation is not quit as smooth as iPhone and at times the touch seems to have a mind of its own
• It is a bit large

Good stuff:

• LTE is very fast and available in my area (DC)
• Talk and data at the same time works well {and is important to me}
• Overall I liked Android
• The screen is very nice– clear and large
• Reception is very nice
• Voice quality good, but not quite as good as the iPhone
• There are a lot of applications available

So, I am an iPhone user again- upgraded to iPhone 4.  I spent way to much time trying to accommodate and debug the Thunderbolt and am not sure I would be happy with it.  I’m sure some of these issues could be overcome, but the weight of the evidence seemed against it.  I am technically savvy and have used smart phones for years.  I am disappointed the TB didn’t work out – specification wise it has EVERYTHING.  I post this for information only – it is my personal experience.

[HazelEyedGemini]

I had the Thunderbolt.  The battery was an issue with me.  I went from an Android to a Blackberry that was a bad mistake.  The internet on the BB sucks.