HTC ThunderBolt
Phone Scoop Review
Mar 18, 2011 by Eric M. Zeman
Phone Scoop takes an in-depth look at HTC's Thunderbolt, the first LTE 4G smartphone to become available from Verizon Wireless. Can it live up to the hype -- and the hope -- for the future of 4G? read review ›
User Reviews
Average Ratings
Great Phone
I have owned all Iphones(Iphone, Iphone 3G, Iphone 3GS, & Iphone 4), BB Torch, BB Storm, BB Bold, & BB Curve and must admit that the HTC Thunderbolt is the best phone I have ever used. This phone does it all and has the best Internet experience, for a phone, that anyone could possibly ask. The Web is super fast at even 3G speed and the Flash is flawless. 4G speeds are amazing. The battery life for me has been as good as my Iphone battery. The Screen is outstanding. My opinion is that one should not slam a product based on your particular expectations, rather do the research and find the product that suites you the most. I believe I have found a phone that I will hang on to for quite some time. I am needless to say very pleased. I have no Cons because the HTC Thunderbolt has met or exceeded all of my expectations.
my thunderbolt review.
I wasn't going to write a review due to so many already. But there are some things not covered.
Pros :
Screen. I'm outside now. I can read, type well. If I get a glare, just tilt a little.
Camera. Great colors. Love the auto compress to send photos. And videos.
Web access. Great to open several pages. And to go back & forth between them. Saves a lot of time.
Copy & past works great.
Flash player, big improvement. Adobe reader is great to. Love being on the phone, and finishing up paper work. Great for us multi tankers.
Key board. Less type O's. For me anyway, and I type faster.
Cons :
Battery life. Improvement for me though. I now only charge the phone 3xs a day instead of six.
I can't create folders unless I put SD card in pc. Just one extra step I didnt need.
Occasionaly my web access turns itself off. Not WiFi, but mobile access.
Good Phone
PROS
- 4G [faster than cable speeds]
- Big screen
- kickstand
- Good camera [and front facing camera too]
- 32GB SD Card
CONS
- Battery life [yea it was expected]
- Only 2.5GB storage for the user instead of 8GB [They lied about this]
- Charger port and kickstand placement fail
- Verizon's 4G is still flaky (sometimes I lose the signal)
Overall, I like this phone. I don't pay any extra premium for 4g data, so its a worthy buy. Yes, the battery life sucks, which is why the rating is low, but its improved with the new software and radio thats is pushed out.
Another thing, they advertise this as 8GB onboard storage (both at Verizon and HTC, and this site says so too for user storage), but the actual user storage available is around 2.5GB. HTC needs to stop lying, as there is a total of only 4GB available to the entire system by the way the emmc is partitioned, and apparently its permanent. I have read about this with other HTC devices too, and they gotta stop misinforming us.
Can't knock it until you understand it.
Most of the negative reviews are complaints about the battery and the size. It is exactly like someone buying a Cadillac escalade or a range rover and then complaining about the gas mileage.
The thunderbolt is a large device with a very fast processor that requires a lot of its battery, and if you know how to deal with it, the battery delivers.
Also, if you are not into larger phones then you will not care for the phone. But you can't knock it for it's size. YOU bought the thing!
Now, this is a very advanced phone that does a lot. The 4g is blazing fast if you are in a 4g area, and the phone's screen provides a very large display for your fingers to work with.
My only criticism of the phone is that the display should have had a higher resolution screen. 480 x 800 does not cut it for a device like this with a 4.3 inch screen.
One Of The Best Phones
I've had many cell phones -- Palm Treos -- Windows phones -- iPhone -- Google OS phones. However, this is by far one of the best phones I've had so far.
Everything on this phone is good, screen is just the right size, it is not as sharp as iPhone, but is still very nice. Long pressing the dial numbers for speed dialing is an excellent feature. Also, we can block certain callers, & their calls would directly go into voicemail. I wish there was a standalone widget for that. The feature is imbedded inside the phone menu.
Some negatives are:
1. Same sentiment by everyone, & yes it is the awful battery life, & extended battery is a must have. Other accessories would not fit once you've installed the extended battery such as protective covers, etc. What a shame! Battery cover, the way it snaps in feels cheap.
3. This is my 3rd T-Bolt, the other 2 had software/hardware issues. Verizon/HTC have been slow to react to address the connectivity issues from 4G to 3G. If you are on the road, & you enter 3G after 4G area ends, it would not connect. However, this seems to have been corrected recently. But, still it was somewhat of a nuisance to carry on for many weeks. Volumes of information on the net, how aggravating!
4. I wish they did not have crammed the junk-ware apps that canât be un-installed unless one roots the phone.
5. MSG alert light is flimsy, & doesnât stay ON after 5 minutes or so. It is menu controlled, which was a smart thing to do, but it is same as not having one. If they could work on this feature, it would make this phone shine in the professional business world.
I would definitely recommend this phone over the current iPhone where one canât even download a picture from Gmail account email unless an app is purchased. The best of all is the 4G speed which is awesomely fast. It could very well be because of the little traffic on 4G, only time will tell. I canât give it a 5 star rating.
The Wait is Over.. but..
This phone is fast.. very fast..
4G LTE on this device can't be compared to any phone or service provider.
It was a little rough getting it to activate.
The sales reps were confused about removing the Sim card to start the activation.
Some of them were trying to dial *228..
All the rumors about the battery being horrible are true.. I had to charge it twice today.
At the end of the day, I'm not regretting my purchase.
Pros-
Speed
Speed
Speed
Cons-
Standard battery sucks..
Its a little big for my liking, but I can get used to it.
The ringer could be louder.
Amazing.
wow this is excatly what ive been waiting for! i bought mine at shock city cellular in ridgedale mall and not only was Zach (sales guy) the best the phone is perfect so far!! great screen and touch screen is amazing! battery life seems great and the 4g speeds are unreal! cant wait to keep using this phone!!
Great Phone, but a Bit Raw
PROs:
- features and user interface
- screen size
- speed (esp on 4G)
- features
CONs:
- battery life in 4G areas
- some software bugs
Got this phone a couple of months ago.
Absolutely love the product design.
It can do everything, and very fast (including playing the Flash videos), especially on 4G.
The screen is big and high-contrast, I like it better than of the iPhone because it's bigger. Resolution is not the only thing that matters.
One huge disadvantage is the battery life when 4G network is available. It sucks all the juice out of battery even on standby.
It seems like the 4G circuit itself in the phone is a huge power hog. Luckily, I found a way (online, look it up) to lock the phone down to the 3G mode through the hidden test menu.
It does make the battery life similar to most smartphones. Not amazing, but tolerable.
I would have turned the phone back in, if I had not found that option.
-1 right there for HTC's and Verizon's apparent oversight.
I took another half a point for:
- Back button stopping working sometimes (reboot needed)
- New message indicator not going away sometimes (reboot or new message received clears it)
- Sometimes unable to start typing the response to a text message (exiting the messaging app and coming back usually helps).
Love This Phone
Just got the Thunderbolt upgrading from a Blackberry Tour. Phone is very responsive, sounds good and has a lot of capabilities. The screen is crisp and clear and the sound is very clear on calls. Battery life as already mentioned in other posts could be a lot better. And I had a issue with Bluetooth loosing sync with my Camry phone control. But a repairing it and a battery pull on the Thunderbolt has so far corrected this. Overall I love this phone and with the exception of the Battery and Bluetooth I would give this a 5. So deducted a half a point for that. I would love to see Verizon open up some and allow apps to be removed that the user does not want. But, that will never happen.
Not even a good try
After being with this company since 1995, this is the first phone I have even been totally disappointed with. Even the BBerry storm did better than this.
The battery is the worst in the world to most phones. The only reason I can give it a 2.0 on the scale is because I like the programming. For the average geek, it's a cell phone dream.
Although it can be a little complicated to get used to, it can be quite fun once you get accustom to it.
Drawbacks seem to be that darn battery. It looks like the wise choice will be the Iphone after all. Hopefully Apple with address the common 4G issues and come hard with something good to WOW us!
