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Thunderbolt only has 2.6GB of internal memory available

I'm not sure if anyone else has noticed this, but the Thunderbolt was advertised and sold to have 8GB eMMC internal memory + 768MB of RAM + 32GB memory card. While the amount of RAM and the SD card are correct, there has been some debate (elsewhere) that the phone only has 4GB eMMC internal memory, or that if does have 8GB, that a lot of this is unaccounted for.

The reason this has come up is that the phone only shows about 2.6GB of available internal memory. I've been told by a few people that a lot of this space is used by the OS and other apps, but I find it hard to believe that such a "high end" device can only have 2.6GB available (with 5GB being used). Remember, this is internal memory (eMMC) is the space where most all apps are stored, as well as other app data, emails, contacts, etc. Only some apps are written to be saved to the SD card, and pics/vids/music are also stored to the SD card.

What makes this even more interesting is that the Motorola DROID X has 8GB of internal memory, but about 6.5 GB of that is free.

Comments

Tidbits

Don't think so... If you look at all the information out there...

if it had a 4GB chip inside then how did they get the other .6GB... Their math must be terrible. If you look at the partitioning space and then break it down it SHOULD be less than 4.0GB for it to be a 4GB eMMC, but they always come out with 4.6GB and that means it would have to be 6GB or larger to come out with those numbers.

It's HOW it's being partitioned rather than the chip itself. They left EXTRA space that isn't user accessible. Your phone can access it, but honestly if you use up 2.6GB of space you are doing something wrong. Apps2SD for one thing helps out a lot. You would need to have roughly about 220k contacts to use up 1/2 of 2.6GB. ALSO the radio is MUCH larger than the Droid X radio. eMMC as far as I remember can't be repartitioned, and having the extra space ensures if Android gets larger well increases our chances of having those updates.

PJNC284

There was a post on twitter the other week that mentioned it was only 4 instead of 8 because of the way it was formatted. Then there's also a pdf floating around with the specs that only lists 4. Who knows what the heck is going on.

annoni

The Android OS requires 5.52GB of the internal memory for basic operation. The user has 2.48GB to download applications and store email. Some Google Market applications can be downloaded and stored onto the pre-installed 32GB SD card.

sammyboy405

So we all know the Thunderbolt was advertised in having 8gig Internal and 32 External (microSD)

So many posts have I seen with so many misleading and different responses to of which HTC is confused themselves. Some say it was a misprint and there is only 4GB Internal others say there is 8gb.

Id like to post this output via a df command.

/dev: 305764K total, 0K used, 305764K available (block size 4096)

/system: 868792K total, 310400K used, 558392K available (block size 4096)

/data: 2705192K total, 271044K used, 2434148K available (block size 4096)

/cache: 433321K total, 16680K used, 416641K available (block size 1024)

/devlog: 21100K total, 4132K used, 16968K available (block size 4096)

/mnt/asec: 305764K total, 0K used, 305764K available (block size 4096)

/app-cache: 8192K total, 328K used, 7864K available (block size 4096)

/mnt/sdcard: 31154688K total, 1949184K used, 29205504K available (block size 32768)

/mnt/secure/asec: 31154688K total, 1949184K used, 29205504K available (block size 32768)

So A little Math Shows 4648125k = Approx 4.6Gb

Also a little more Proof If your still Hung up on there is 8GB of Flash.

cat /proc/partitions

major minor #blocks name

179 0 4382720 mmcblk0

179 1 500 mmcblk0p1

179 2 64 mmcblk0p2

179 3 4500 mmcblk0p3

179 4 1 mmcblk0p4

179 5 30000 mmcblk0p5

179 6 12500 mmcblk0p6

179 7 2048 mmcblk0p7

179 8 3072 mmcblk0p8

179 9 2048 mmcblk0p9

179 10 1024 mmcblk0p10

179 11 1024 mmcblk0p11

179 12 8751 mmcblk0p12

179 13 3072 mmcblk0p13

179 14 3072 mmcblk0p14

179 15 1024 mmcblk0p15

179 16 8957 mmcblk0p16

179 17 256 mmcblk0p17

179 18 1024 mmcblk0p18

179 19 1024 mmcblk0p19

179 20 1280 mmcblk0p20

179 21 8701 mmcblk0p21

179 22 4096 mmcblk0p22

179 23 256 mmcblk0p23

179 24 2047 mmcblk0p24

179 25 882687 mmcblk0p25

179 26 2748416 mmcblk0p26

179 27 447487 mmcblk0p27

179 28 2047 mmcblk0p28

179 29 21247 mmcblk0p29

179 30 256 mmcblk0p30

179 32 31166976 mmcblk1

179 33 31162880 mmcblk1p1

4382720 mmcblk0 = 4.38GB

So Im not sure how Flash Memory works if its like regular hard disk there "Could" be some available space not added to the Partition. But im not very knowledgeable in that area..

I work with AIX servers all day and just knew a couple of places to look for diskspace. And im siding on the fact that we indeed do not have 8GB eMMC We have a 4GB Internal eMMC.

Anyone else got something I Missed? Or hopefully a Correction to what ive found?

Now if indeed the Chip is partitioned for SLC, and is in a "Raid" Configuration if you will. Then I can live with that.. But Verizon Did a poor Job, and basicly did a Bait and switch on that. As they lured alot of people in with the 4G, and it having 40Gigs of space. Which we later found out that was not the case.

Id like to just see something from Verizon saying yes.. It was a misprint etc.. there is an 8Gig Internal Chip in there but its formatted differantly. etc... etc...

FAUguy

Here's where the Verizon Wireles Developer site says the Thunderbolt has 4GB of internal memory. But I'm not sure how accurate it is, as it also has 16GB listed for the external memory, which is really 32GB.

http://developer.verizon.com/jsps/devCenters/DeviceDB/Landing_Pages/HTCThunderbolt.jsp

http://developer.verizon.com/downloads/OEM_PDF/HTC_Thunderbolt.pdf

sammyboy405

yea I Saw all that.. Which leads me to believe HTC and Verizon have no clue who has what. and what was delivered.

Tidbits

Your math is terrible. If it wad a 4GB chip inside when you poll the partitions it should show LESS than 4GB. So far the numbers you have shown is greater than 4GB every time. For you to have more than 4.6GB it would have to be at least greater than 6 GHANA of total space. So the 4GB internal can't be correct.

annoni

annoni wrote:
The Android OS requires 5.52GB of the internal memory for basic operation. The user has 2.48GB to download applications and store email. Some Google Market applications can be downloaded and stored onto the pre-installed 32GB SD card.

Despite the disbelief that seems to pervade many responses, The chip is actually 8GB

troadey

Yes we did by a phone with 8gb however, they advertised it as usable memory. They are trying to get iPhone users over to HTC . So that is a bait and switch when u advertise it as available memory .

Tidbits

Sorry man it wasn't even advertised as it being completely accessible. All the advertising wad about it having a 8GB eMMC and nothing more. I believe you assumed it would be without looking.

androidburn

Tidbits, I just looked at all the marketing that came out and even the manual. There is absolutely NOTHING listed about the internal memory storage whatsoever. I don't think I've ever seen anything like this before - there are no specifications in the manual either. Fascinating. The complete lack of any spec for RAM makes me wonder whether some crafty person said "let the street provide the wrong information and we just won't say anything and won't be responsible for the overhyping." Oddly enough, their entire sales and support staff is absolutely convinced it has 8GB of internal memory and raves about the 40GB of storage.

In the store, every sales employee says exactly what has been on the street for months -- the device has a huge 40GB of storage, no different than the Incredible if you had one, 8GB of internal memory less the amount lost to standard formatting. I've had calls with Verizon Wireless and went into the store -- they insisted this will be fixed with a software update and I should hold onto the phone. At the end of the day, the representations made by employees of the company are the only thing that matters.

Tidbits

androidburn wrote:
Tidbits, I just looked at all the marketing that came out and even the manual. There is absolutely NOTHING listed about the internal memory storage whatsoever. I don't think I've ever seen anything like this before - there are no specifications in the manual either. Fascinating. The complete lack of any spec for RAM makes me wonder whether some crafty person said "let the street provide the wrong information and we just won't say anything and won't be responsible for the overhyping." Oddly enough, their entire sales and support staff is absolutely convinced it has 8GB of internal memory and raves about the 40GB of storage.

In the store, every sales employee says exactly what has been on the street for months -- the device has a huge 40GB of storage, no different than the Incredible if you had one, 8GB of internal memory less the amount lost to standard formatting. I've had calls with Verizon Wireless and went into the store -- they insisted this will be fixed with a software update and I should hold onto the phone. At the end of the day, the representations made by employees of the company are the only thing that matters.

You further prove my point. You do have 40GB of total space. They may have raved about the internal storage, but they not once mentioned you could use all of it, and it's SAFE to assume you won't use all of it as things are always loaded. Sorry, but it seems more like someone looking to complain about something. IF it bothered you that much return the device. Nothing is stopping you from doing so, but yourself.

We can go on and on about this, but it has always been this way since the very first computer designed.

troadey

I work for Verizon and its not " word of mouth " or what's been advertised is why we say it has 8 gb. That's what we were told by Verizon. When they send us information saying it has 8gb's of eMMc then that's of course how we are going to push it. It's deceiving to the customer and make the employee took bad. And I'm sure that's what HTC told them that's what it had so they relayed it to us that way. Just like AT&T advertising the iPhone 4 . Customers assumed it was a 4G iPhone.

wgragg1

Ok, I am NOT advocating this, but I remember a few years back that there was a lawsuit over hard drive capacity and another over monitor size where the respective manufacturers were taken to task for the way they advertised the specs on those devices. It turned out that the class action suit forced the manufacturers to be more explicit in their specs so that somewhere on the packaging they had to state the actual viewable size of a monitor screen and give the actual number of bytes available on a hard drive.

In my mind, it was some way for some lawyers to get rich and they found some gullible consumers to agree to be represented. Lawyers got millions, members of the class got just a few dollars each (if that much). The actual plaintiffs may have gotten a few thousand.

I wonder if HTC and or Verizon may be the subject of a similar frivolus suit?

androidburn

(1) Many of us upgraded our HTC Incredible. That came with the same reported 40GB potential storage and 8GB internal memory. We were able to use most of it. Nobody questioned why a bit less than the norm wasn't available. The HTC Thunderbolt has LESS THAN HALF of the available storage. Verizon Wireless is now blaming HTC for this "misinformation." No offense but that is about the biggest crock of nonsense I've heard in a long time. Did all the "extensive" testing that Verizon Wireless swears is the reason for delays of phones appearing on the network just not happen at all? Did thousands of people just miss the fact that most of the internal memory was missing? Nobody read hundreds of reviews touting this phone as having a huge 40GB of storage and 8GB of precious internal memory (most useful for HD recording)? Please.... don't insult our intelligence. Someone is trying to set a new standard and say "eMMC memory is different than other memory." And how many of us are to know that? It seemed to have fooled hundreds of industry pundits too prior to release.

(2) Verizon Wireless gets paid by app developers to dump apps that we may not want into the phone's memory which we cannot delete. Let's take Golf for example -- which takes up over 100MB of that internal memory. Don't you think that we should know about this beforehand? There is no way any consumer can know how much user accessible storage is available because Verizon Wireless will determine this on a phone to phone basis. So what's next? 32GB eMMC with 5GB of user accessible storage and 20GB of preview demo apps?

(3) Nobody has clarified this issue. I've had my phone for 2 weeks and Verizon Wireless' only official word to me (via a store employee who didn't believe me and called in and spoke to them for 30 minutes) was that it was being fixed in a software update. I keep hearing different things -- it is a formatting problem, it isn't a formatting issue since the new system is taking up most of the space, etc. Nobody knows and the folks at Verizon Wireless obviously know about it -- I looked in the store and it is the ONLY phone without any internal memory amount listed.

(4) Time is money. I had no idea about this issue and invested time with this phone. Tidbits obviously has endless time, perhaps he lives with his parents and doesn't have a job. But this is a problem that could have and should have been avoided. Returning the phone is not the only issue. Deceptive business practices are similar to the way many "rebates" work -- they know that once the money is gone, most consumers won't want to go through the hassle of getting their money back. And will just getting money back compensate you for all that lost time, accessories you've bought, etc.? NO.

Let's just say that the longer this goes on without any official explanation, the larger the problem becomes. They could become the poster boy for deceptive practices in the industry. I wonder whether some group of people are responsible and thought they could report record earnings, higher profits.... and big bonuses being paid. Bad idea. In tech, most people aren't stupid. Be assured that Sprint won't make the same mistake with the new 3D.

Tidbits

androidburn wrote:
(1) Many of us upgraded our HTC Incredible. That came with the same reported 40GB potential storage and 8GB internal memory. We were able to use most of it. Nobody questioned why a bit less than the norm wasn't available. The HTC Thunderbolt has LESS THAN HALF of the available storage. Verizon Wireless is now blaming HTC for this "misinformation." No offense but that is about the biggest crock of nonsense I've heard in a long time. Did all the "extensive" testing that Verizon Wireless swears is the reason for delays of phones appearing on the network just not happen at all? Did thousands of people just miss the fact that most of the internal memory was missing? Nobody read hundreds of reviews touting this phone as having a huge 40GB of storage and 8GB of precious internal memory (most useful for HD recording)? Please.... don't insult our intelligence. Someone is trying to set a new standard and say "eMMC memory is different than other memory." And how many of us are to know that? It seemed to have fooled hundreds of industry pundits too prior to release.

(2) Verizon Wireless gets paid by app developers to dump apps that we may not want into the phone's memory which we cannot delete. Let's take Golf for example -- which takes up over 100MB of that internal memory. Don't you think that we should know about this beforehand? There is no way any consumer can know how much user accessible storage is available because Verizon Wireless will determine this on a phone to phone basis. So what's next? 32GB eMMC with 5GB of user accessible storage and 20GB of preview demo apps?

(3) Nobody has clarified this issue. I've had my phone for 2 weeks and Verizon Wireless' only official word to me (via a store employee who didn't believe me and called in and spoke to them for 30 minutes) was that it was being fixed in a software update. I keep hearing different things -- it is a formatting problem, it isn't a formatting issue since the new system is taking up most of the space, etc. Nobody knows and the folks at Verizon Wireless obviously know about it -- I looked in the store and it is the ONLY phone without any internal memory amount listed.

(4) Time is money. I had no idea about this issue and invested time with this phone. Tidbits obviously has endless time, perhaps he lives with his parents and doesn't have a job. But this is a problem that could have and should have been avoided. Returning the phone is not the only issue. Deceptive business practices are similar to the way many "rebates" work -- they know that once the money is gone, most consumers won't want to go through the hassle of getting their money back. And will just getting money back compensate you for all that lost time, accessories you've bought, etc.? NO.

Let's just say that the longer this goes on without any official explanation, the larger the problem becomes. They could become the poster boy for deceptive practices in the industry. I wonder whether some group of people are responsible and thought they could report record earnings, higher profits.... and big bonuses being paid. Bad idea. In tech, most people aren't stupid. Be assured that Sprint won't make the same mistake with the new 3D.

So waste more money while stomping your feet? Sorry if my time was that important to me and would cost me so much money the phone would be out of my hands faster than kids finding candy in a candy store. I have better things to do than to complain about a phone I could return.

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