Processor Speed. This has to be the fastest smartphone on the market. Opening applications, working through applications, scrolling emails/Tweets…etc, all are a flash. This is the first phone I’ve
owned where I’ve had to “slow down” the scrolling speed to see what’s passing on the screen.

Large Screen. Amazing viewing for mobile web, pictures, and video. However, some people have been surprised with the effect this has on battery life. As with a laptop, the more you task the video and the brighter you want it, the shorter your battery life. You’ll need a portable charger and/or the extended battery which is now being introduced. Manage your applications, screen brightness, and battery capacity with this phone!

Android Apps. I found that my Blackberry Storm (stalled at BB OS 5.0) had limited application functionality. I was pleasantly surprised to find upgraded features in Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, etc with the newer/faster phone. (I didn’t know what I was missing).

32GB External Hard Drive. Yes…plug this into your computer and “mount” the device and you now have a very useful portable flash drive. The HTC comes with the 32GB microUSB card installed.

Size. The device is noticably larger than my BB Storm (due to the larger screen). As a huge plus, the phone fits perfectly in my hand during phone calls (i.e., not too big, not too small…as some phones are becoming). However, if you want to wear the HTC Thunderbolt on your belt…prepare for “Geek Style”. (It’s big). Get screen protectors and a rubber “skin” if you want to carry in your coat pocket, etc. Otherwise, be prepared to deal with how to carry this small computer.

Office/Acrobat. I installed many PDF and Word files on the device. This is the first device where I’ll actually use this function (i.e., good viewability on the screen). Given the 32GB of storage, you can take files to read/review and the installed applications open them very quickly. Scrolling and “pinch” to zoom/unzoom is a breeze.

Battery Capacity. Again, the biggest user complaint/concern. Manage it. Turn off WiFi when not in use, don’t run GPS-intensive apps unless you need them (or you have a car charger), remove unwanted/unneeded apps. Be prepared to plug the device into a charger (i.e., home/work/car) if you’re using a lot of GPS, Video, or Application power. You can’t ask for an “SUV of Technology” without expecting to use more energy. Easy to deal with, in my opinion and worth the tradeoff from my outdated Blackberry Storm.

Enjoy! 

*** P.S. If you will buy this HTC ThunderBolt I suggest at: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004M5HB6U/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=slashgear.com-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B004M5HB6U

I have had this phone since its launch and i have replaced it three times and this last time the new phone came defective. last i checked My verzion app still is not compatible along with many more apps. If you are thinking of getting this phone DONT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Not only is the speed no where near what they claim the phone is constantly crashing and turning its self off. Most the time when in 4G this phone loses data all together, i was not able to do anything with this phone, and the more you download to it the worse it gets. I use my phone for everything and my incredible was better then the thunderbolt….

All in all its awful if i could give it a negative rating i would.

I have had this phone since its launch and i have replaced it three times and this last time the new phone came defective. last i checked My verzion app still is not compatible along with many more apps. If you are thinking of getting this phone DONT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Not only is the speed no where near what they claim the phone is constantly crashing and turning its self off. Most the time when in 4G this phone loses data all together, i was not able to do anything with this phone, and the more you download to it the worse it gets. I use my phone for everything and my incredible was better then the thunderbolt….

All in all its awful if i could give it a negative rating i would.

I have had this phone since its launch and i have replaced it three times and this last time the new phone came defective. last i checked My verzion app still is not compatible along with many more apps. If you are thinking of getting this phone DONT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Not only is the speed no where near what they claim the phone is constantly crashing and turning its self off. Most the time when in 4G this phone loses data all together, i was not able to do anything with this phone, and the more you download to it the worse it gets. I use my phone for everything and my incredible was better then the thunderbolt….

All in all its awful if i could give it a negative rating i would.

Adding core’s doesn’t make things efficient, if you want proof go check power dissipation of AMD/Intel CPU’s of same series between different core CPU’s. Quad core of series XX will always use more power than dual core of series xx.

To compare power usage between different designs you would have to check company’s(qualcomm/nvdia) feature list, unless they specifically say it’s more efficient overall (not just at peak multiplier or sleep mode) it probably is less efficient. If they just list performance benchmarks without mentioning anything about efficiency then you know it uses more power.

Great phone, battery is weak, no cases instore that have the extra battery power yet.

its only locked up on me once… Iphone used to do that too though.

Realworld downloading is awesome. Unbelievably fast. Other than for downloading apps, I’ve not found a use for the bandwidth (just how fast do you want to download facebook and email updates?!)

Android Marketplace seems more chaotic and more junk released, but thats not the phones fault.

http://inkcartridgecoupons.net

I’ve learned recently that there is a very distinct difference between sub-par performance, on-par performance, and above-par performance. The interesting bit, is that you want neither above-par nor sub-par performance. Above-par is pointless, because running an app faster than you can keep up with it doesn’t let you run it any faster, sub-par performance is annoying because waiting around twiddling your thumps while your device catches up to you is boring.

The Thunderbolt provides on-par performance. It runs perfectly fast, unless you try to run a game built for a more powerful device, or attempt to run multiple apps simultaneously while rapidly changing between screens/pages/apps. Scrolling and changing screens/apps generally happens with little or no lag/jerkiness, which had prevented me from getting a smart phone during their older generations. Running any non-gaming app seems to work perfectly without lag. Running most games works wonderfully without lag.

What exactly is this sub-par to? The Bionic? Maybe if the bionic was on-par to begin with, yes. It isn’t though, it’s above what you could reasonably need right now.

For example: I build my own computers, and I recently really shelled out to build a top of the line rig. Here’s the thing, the difference between my top of the line rig costing around 2000$ and a 800$ or 1200$ PC is small. In fact, it’s practically non-existent. Sure, I might have to turn down some settings on a game that looks creepily realistic already, or I might have to wait 0.8 seconds longer on every loading screen, but if it’s 0.8 seconds longer than 0.2 seconds, I’m not missing much. Catch my drift? Furthermore, there aren’t any programs out there that my machine was intended to run, that it has the slightest challenge running. That is to say, I have to wait around on my hands until more power consuming software comes out so I can actually use my hardware, and a much cheaper computer probably would have yielded similar performance for months, until software caught up. Even then, the cheaper PC would probably be capable of running this new software, and still maintain it’s level of performance in other tasks. You’re CPU doesn’t get slower just because newer software is out.

The whole point is, that you need a better point of comparison. If you want the best Verizon phone, the Thunderbolt is perfect. If you want a real 4G phone, the Thunderbolt is perfect. If you want the best phone on any carrier, the Thunderbolt might not be a clear winner, but it’s competition.

Sure, if you compare it to a future device, which is not currently out, it may lose.

By how much though? And does the comparison between a device which you can buy and use, and one you can only drool over and wait for make any sense?

Ok, this really needs a tl;dr so.

tl;dr. It’s inaccurate to say the Thunderbolt is a sub-par phone, perhaps the designers could have done better, but it’s still on-par with other devices at the very worst right now. That might change in the future when better devices are released, but the future is not now. Finally, it’s a great product that works extremely well within reasonable expectations.

PS. Dual core != better performance.

PPS. Yes, the battery life sucks, and I would have expected them to just stick a larger battery in there at the least. It is manageable though, and by no means a deal breaker.

A dual core CPU with two CPU’s clocked at 0.6Ghz use 0.7 W seconds a piece of power at full load and the process takes 3 seconds to finish. That’s a total of 0.7 W seconds/core * 2 cores * 3 seconds. Thats a total of 0.42 W seconds. A net savings of 0.08 W seconds for that specific process by using two cores.

This is the premise of SMP or Symmetric Multiprocessing. More cores, lower voltage and power dissipation while accomplishing the task FASTER and returning to idle faster thus saving power.

Counter-intuitive but if implemented correctly (which it really isn’t in Android tbf) it can be quite useful.