Thunderbolt Review / Returned
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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.
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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.
