Official ThunderBolt thread

[Pliablemoose]

When is the Charge supposed to be available?

(can't believe I'm suggesting a Samsung phone...)

The ThunderBolt is amazingly fast but I'm reading good things about the Charge...

 

[Obsoleet]

Nice results! If you knew how bad 3G reception is where I tested my result though, you'd be far more impressed with mine I'm going to have to test on the streets away from the high rises and skyscrapers.

Actually there is NO where without those things here (at least where I live).. not sure if I can even get a remotely unobstructed test.

 

[Pliablemoose]

Nice results! If you knew how bad 3G reception is where I tested my result though, you'd be far more impressed with mine I'm going to have to test on the streets away from the high rises and skyscrapers.

Actually there is NO where without those things here (at least where I live).. not sure if I can even get a remotely unobstructed test.

Yep, I work downtown, my speeds are about a third slower...

The ThunderBolt is great if you realize it's a 4G modem and a phone soldered together

 

[Bateluer]

The ThunderBolt is amazingly fast but I'm reading good things about the Charge...
[/IMG]

Android Police's review of the Charge tore it up. Slow, buggy, flimsy, and very easily scratched.

 

[Ika]

Well, their 4G lineup for this summer is the TB, the Droid Charge, and the LG Revolution. The TB and Revolution use the same Qualcomm 2nd Snapdragon+ Adreno 205, and the Charge uses the Hummingbird. Its all old, rehashed hardware. They're all decent phones, but they'll play second fiddle to dual core phones from other carriers.

Typical Verizon - boring/old hardware, but great network. Not much has changed. I picked up my TB for two reasons: 1) locked into an unlimited 4G plan, 2) Verizon's not going to release truly sexy hardware for quite some time (no Atrix, no Galaxy S II, etc etc).

 

[Bateluer]

Typical Verizon - boring/old hardware, but great network. Not much has changed. I picked up my TB for two reasons: 1) locked into an unlimited 4G plan, 2) Verizon's not going to release truly sexy hardware for quite some time (no Atrix, no Galaxy S II, etc etc).

What Verizon needs is a Nexus phone, with specs that outstrip everything else. I'd have my TB up on Swappa in a heart beat.

 

[brandonbull]

Does anyone have an idea how the LG Revolution will stack up against the TB? I see that they share the same chip but was wondering if the LG does anything better?

 

[Bateluer]

Does anyone have an idea how the LG Revolution will stack up against the TB? I see that they share the same chip but was wondering if the LG does anything better?

Possibly less locked down, Netflix out the gate?

 

[rstove02]

OTA update is out for the Thunderbolt. May have to manually check for update to get it to show.

 

[_Aurel_]

When is the Charge supposed to be available?

(can't believe I'm suggesting a Samsung phone...)

The ThunderBolt is amazingly fast but I'm reading good things about the Charge...

The Thunderbolt gets 40% faster benchmarks on quadrant, and you can tell by it just by doing basic things like panning and scrolling or browsing the web. Samsung's Charge is choppy and sometimes freezes altogether when loading complex websites (like Phonearena) while Thunderbolt does it all mostly very smoothly and with little lag. Also, Thunderbolt has 300+ RAM free to the user in stock, while Charge has less than 70.

Still holding off on a new phone until the Bionic (or whatever its going to be called) is released this summer, but of the two Thunderbolt is a far better choice, unless you really need the extra 2 hours in battery life. Sorry for continuing my rant from another post but I can't stress how much of a disappointment the Charge is and how surprised I am that it has gotten the positive feedback it has received so far.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Both phones use 1ghz processors right? I believe you can get both to be the same speed approximately with better optimizations. Why the Charge is choppy I do not know... I mean the thing is specced as well as a Nexus S, so if the NS can hit 2600 Quadrant or something, you'd expect the Charge to also. Perhaps Touchwiz really slows things down.

 

[Bateluer]

Both phones use 1ghz processors right? I believe you can get both to be the same speed approximately with better optimizations. Why the Charge is choppy I do not know... I mean the thing is specced as well as a Nexus S, so if the NS can hit 2600 Quadrant or something, you'd expect the Charge to also. Perhaps Touchwiz really slows things down.

The choppiness on the Charge, and all other Galaxy S phones, has been well documented. Its because of Samsung's choice to use the RFS file system instead of ext4. Root the phone, and perform the lag fix to convert the file system to ext4, and the lag almost goes away. Anything left is from TouchWiz, remedied by installing LP/ADW/etc.

The Nexus S uses ext4 filesystem.

As with desktop CPUs, you can only compare clockspeeds within the same family of silicon. A 1Ghz Snapdragon vs a 1Ghz Hummingbird vs a 1Ghz OMAP3, these three ARM CPUs all run at 1Ghz and all are Cortex A8 designs, yet all perform differently.

 

[Bateluer]

Any T-Bolt owners flash the new Gingerbread leak? Sense 2.1, I think the Froyo TB uses Sense 2.0?

Requires a new radio, which apparently only works with the GB RUU, so I'm hesitant to try it out. Its taken some time to nearly completely de-Sense my TB to as stock as it can get until the AOSP builds begin arriving.

 

[Bateluer]

http://www.droid-life.com/2011/05/1...gingerbread-android-2-3-4-on-htc-thunderbolt/

Droid Life's video walk through of GB 2.3.4 on the TB. GTalk also has a video call tab on this build, per the 2.3.4 notes.

 

[Bateluer]

Sorry to bump this again, but Netflix seems to be working on the new CM7 2.3.4 Test build.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1049542

Not too shabby. Still a very rough build though.

 

[sweetrugger]

Just got a text that the free Mobile Broadband has been extended until 06/15/11.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

4g just became available in my area 14.5 down 4.3 up ^.^ although now my battery just barely makes it through the day : ( I haven't changed my phone at all to save on battery so hopefully I can tweak it to be reasonable.

 

[stag3]

i go to software update but it finds no updates, is there another way ?
i've also turned the phone off and back on, no dice

 

[rstove02]

i go to software update but it finds no updates, is there another way ?
i've also turned the phone off and back on, no dice

If your phone is rooted/flashed I believe the update does not apply. Can always check Android Forums under Thunderbolt tab for a large threads talking about the update for more info.

 

[bonkers325]

Any T-Bolt owners flash the new Gingerbread leak? Sense 2.1, I think the Froyo TB uses Sense 2.0?

Requires a new radio, which apparently only works with the GB RUU, so I'm hesitant to try it out. Its taken some time to nearly completely de-Sense my TB to as stock as it can get until the AOSP builds begin arriving.

i hear good things about the 2.3.4 leak, but a few things don't work (like camera) and some apps force close.

i run CM7.1 right now, haven't had it running long enough yet to really test the battery, but everything seems to be in working order.

CM7.0 had some gps and wifi issues, but overall that worked quite well and was better than sense-based roms in terms of battery life

 

[Borkil]

anyone have troubles with the phone rebooting? over in the xda forums a lot of people have been complaining about reboots after the ota update. i haven't updated yet and my phone has never rebooted on its own

 

[fluffmonster]

i had a spontaneous reboot after the update. Just one so far.

 

[tonygeor]

hows the 3g speeds on the thunderbolt?

 

[thecoolnessrune]

hows the 3g speeds on the thunderbolt?

Fantastic for me. About as fast as you can get in this area on my phone. Also, the fact that I can use data while using voice is way more handy then I thought it'd be at first.

 

[Reliant]

Latest OTA helped my battery life a good chunk. Enjoying the phone so far. It's the biggest phone I've ever had, not sure if I like that or not. Next phone might be a smaller one (previous phones were the Incredible and iPhone 4). No gripes speed wise, don't really feel bogged down due to lack of dual core.