Thunderbolt: Battery & Bing ??

[TexasBadger]

It now appears that the HTC Thunderbolt will likely be released before the end of February, while the Motorola Droid Bionic might not be released until July. With that schedule, I will probably get the Thunderbolt. I prefer Sense to Motoblur, and I can live with the Thunderbolt's single core processor and lower screen resolution. Two concerns remain, though, and either might be deal-breakers:

1] Can anyone confirm that the 1400 mAh battery life will be adequate? Will the Thunderbolt make it through an entire day with moderate to heavy use? Will it be a noticeable improvement on the Droid Eris, the Droid Incredible, and the EVO?

2] Will the Thunderbolt be entirely free of Bing and loaded instead with Google Navigator and the other native Google apps? For me, the subscription-based VZ Navigator is not an option.

Thanks in advance for your input.

 

[DJ_10]

idk about the battery, but if it's the same as the incredible then alot of people will have larger batteries to use anyways. I have a 1750mah battery, i would think HTC made the phone more power efficient which led them to believe the battery was good enough.

As for google. There is a large google logo on the back of the phone which leads me to believe there will be no bing on this phone. Im willing to bet the farm on that. But again im just guessing.

 

[howarmat]

It now appears that the HTC Thunderbolt will likely be released before the end of February, while the Motorola Droid Bionic might not be released until July. With that schedule, I will probably get the Thunderbolt. I prefer Sense to Motoblur, and I can live with the Thunderbolt's single core processor and lower screen resolution. Two concerns remain, though, and either might be deal-breakers:

1] Can anyone confirm that the 1400 mAh battery life will be adequate? Will the Thunderbolt make it through an entire day with moderate to heavy use? Will it be a noticeable improvement on the Droid Eris, the Droid Incredible, and the EVO?

2] Will the Thunderbolt be entirely free of Bing and loaded instead with Google Navigator and the other native Google apps? For me, the subscription-based VZ Navigator is not an option.

Thanks in advance for your input.

how can anyone know this. Every person is different and only VZW testers have the phone basically

and it is a google phone, no worries about bing

 

[fegriffith]

I've seen a few references to people saying they will use their 1750 EVO battery in the Thunderbolt, but I'm thinking there must be a reason the battery is actually 1400 (Thunderbolt) vs 1500 (EVO)...and that is size. I hope I'm wrong, because being able to use a 1750 battery in a phone that comes stock with 1400 would probably give me the edge I need to feel comfortable with battery life. But I guess what I'm saying is why on earth would HTC have put a 1400 in the Thunderbolt if the battery size is identical to the EVO? I'm suspecting it's smaller.

 

[KIlgoreBA]

Has anybody confirmed if in fact the Touch Pro 2, Droid Incredible, Evo batteries work in the Thunderbolt? I certainly hope this is the case.

 

[howarmat]

i dont think the batteries fit

 

[Evil Sports]

Battery life will be a deal breaker for me, I feel very vulnerable when I travel with my Incred, never had that issues back in BBerry days. Love the function of Droid but the battery thing takes away some of the freedom of the device.

 

[snuggles]

I rather have a couple of hours worth of battery life on my DINC vs a week of battery life on any of my past crapberries.

 

[fegriffith]

Battery life will be a deal breaker for me, I feel very vulnerable when I travel with my Incred, never had that issues back in BBerry days. Love the function of Droid but the battery thing takes away some of the freedom of the device.

+1

 

[ChiTownJim]

I think the battery is going to be the same one that's in the Nexus One .. As that has a 1400mah battery, I could be wrong but I'd put my money on it being a N1 battery

 

[ckochinsky125]

battery life will suck like with all htc phones. I mean come on 1400mah battery in a phone with 4.3 inch screen. smh they didnt learn from the incredible with its awful battery life

 

[ChiTownJim]

battery life will suck like with all htc phones. I mean come on 1400mah battery in a phone with 4.3 inch screen. smh they didnt learn from the incredible with its awful battery life

I get great battery life on my Incredible

 

[fegriffith]

I think the battery is going to be the same one that's in the Nexus One .. As that has a 1400mah battery, I could be wrong but I'd put my money on it being a N1 battery

If this is true then we can only go up to 1600 without needing a new back.

I have a Fascinate with a 1500 and I can get through a whole day with that. But Fascinate has a smaller screen (4 inches) and no 4G. And it's Samsung vs. HTC...but point is maybe there is hope if using a 1600 battery (assuming not using 4G).

At the end of the day we won't know til we get it though. I really hope it doesn't end up being a huge disappointment because it will prevent me from buying it.

 

[ChiTownJim]

If this is true then we can only go up to 1600 without needing a new back.

I have a Fascinate with a 1500 and I can get through a whole day with that. But Fascinate has a smaller screen (4 inches) and no 4G. And it's Samsung vs. HTC...but point is maybe there is hope if using a 1600 battery (assuming not using 4G).

At the end of the day we won't know til we get it though. I really hope it doesn't end up being a huge disappointment because it will prevent me from buying it.

I owned a fascinate for awhile and I can tell you the Incredble has better battery life then that and I honestly think this will have better battery life then the Incredible with a slightly larger battery and more efficient cpu. I don't think it will be an issue. Now 4g I'm hoping isn't similar to Sprints 4g that is a battery hog , but honestly keep 4g off and only use it when necessary . it will be all good

 

[fegriffith]

I owned a fascinate for awhile and I can tell you the Incredble has better battery life then that and I honestly think this will have better battery life then the Incredible with a slightly larger battery and more efficient cpu. I don't think it will be an issue. Now 4g I'm hoping isn't similar to Sprints 4g that is a battery hog , but honestly keep 4g off and only use it when necessary . it will be all good

Now see that's interesting because I had an Incredible and couldn't deal with the battery life. However it took the Fascinate a good 2 or 3 weeks to get to where it was decent on battery.

So for me, the Fascinate battery life has been stellar whereas the Incredible just couldn't keep up. I wanted to clarify battery life because with all the other "stuff" going on with my Fascinate I'm ready to throw it out the window, back up over it, and then drive over it again. Samsung got my money ONCE. Never again. And I was even warned by someone that this is exactly what would happen (no update to Froyo...at least not in a timely manner).

Regardless...fingers crossed on the Thunderbolt, and I'm not opposed to having an extra battery on me for times I need it. I just don't want to have to "need" it more than a couple of times a month.

 

[Evil Sports]

Normally I would be there the day this phone arrives, not this time. I need to see better battery life or why get it. Again I love the droid OS but Can HTC be that stupid and not be hearing our wishes.

 

[ckochinsky125]

Normally I would be there the day this phone arrives, not this time. I need to see better battery life or why get it. Again I love the droid OS but Can HTC be that stupid and not be hearing our wishes.

Hopefully with the incredible 2 they worked on battery life since they havent seemed to understand a 1400mah battery in a 4.3 inch phone with 4g just isnt going to cut it

 

[Roaddog]

Hopefully with the incredible 2 they worked on battery life since they havent seemed to understand a 1400mah battery in a 4.3 inch phone with 4g just isnt going to cut it

No way to know how the phone's battery will hold up without actually using it. Stop stating your speculation as fact. They may have optimized the crap out of it and battery life will be better than what we've seen on any HTC phones up until now. (Not likely, I'll admit, but a possibility.)

Until we have the phone in our hands, there's really no point in speculating on its performance, battery life or the quickness of the device vs other unreleased devices. At best, all we can do is look at the evidence we have available and take a shot in the dark.

 

[sean76]

The Thunderbolt uses a totally different Battery then that of the Incredible and EVO. My friend is a Beta tester for vzw, and said Battery life is decent, but not earth shattering. As for past HTC devices, I'll say that my experience with them has not been that good as far as battery life goes. My incredible was outright terrible, and the EVO was not to great either. My Fascinates battery Trumps both of them, but took about a week or so to condition and get to where it is now, which is about a full day on Heavy use. HTC is known for having bad battery life, why they went with a 1400mh battery for such a large phone with an average LCD/SLCD screen is a good question? It'll be interesting to see real world use and feedback once it gets released into the wild. I'm for one very interested to see how 4G holds up with every day use on a battery.

 

[sean76]

Hopefully with the incredible 2 they worked on battery life since they havent seemed to understand a 1400mah battery in a 4.3 inch phone with 4g just isnt going to cut it

As well as figured out on how to keep up with production and demand of their phones that have an Amoled/Super Amoled screen. I have to believe they went with a different manufacturer this time around, especially after the incredible screen shortage fiasco!

 

[fegriffith]

The Thunderbolt uses a totally different Battery then that of the Incredible and EVO. My friend is a Beta tester for vzw, and said Battery life is decent, but not earth shattering. As for past HTC devices, I'll say that my experience with them has not been that good as far as battery life goes. My incredible was outright terrible, and the EVO was not to great either. My Fascinates battery Trumps both of them, but took about a week or so to condition and get to where it is now, which is about a full day on Heavy use. HTC is known for having bad battery life, why they went with a 1400mh battery for such a large phone with an average LCD/SLCD screen is a good question? It'll be interesting to see real world use and feedback once it gets released into the wild. I'm for one very interested to see how 4G holds up with every day use on a battery.

Well decent is better than "lousy". And while I don't think anyone is thrilled to know it's coming with a 1400 battery, if there is a 1700 extended that fits in the same space (from Seidio, for example), then perhaps decent will make it through "a day". That would be on 3G. I am expecting 4G to be pretty bad. I hope I'm pleasantly surprised. I had a short experience with the EVO and I was shocked at how quickly it drained, however I know we are talking about different technologies as well as frequencies. Unfortunately reports on Verizon 4G mifi battery life have been abysmal which leads me to believe it's a 4G thing and that we can expect the same when using 4G on a phone.

 

[Zaggs]

As well as figured out on how to keep up with production and demand of their phones that have an Amoled/Super Amoled screen. I have to believe they went with a different manufacturer this time around, especially after the incredible screen shortage fiasco!

Doesn't the Thunderbolt use a SLCD screen thereby avoiding this issue entirely? As for battery, I get good life out of my incredible with the stock battery. But I don't see the 1400 holding up as well in the Thunderbolt.

 

[sean76]

Well decent is better than "lousy". And while I don't think anyone is thrilled to know it's coming with a 1400 battery, if there is a 1700 extended that fits in the same space (from Seidio, for example), then perhaps decent will make it through "a day". That would be on 3G. I am expecting 4G to be pretty bad. I hope I'm pleasantly surprised. I had a short experience with the EVO and I was shocked at how quickly it drained, however I know we are talking about different technologies as well as frequencies. Unfortunately reports on Verizon 4G mifi battery life have been abysmal which leads me to believe it's a 4G thing and that we can expect the same when using 4G on a phone.

Yes because 4G on Sprint is a major hole in a Dam! Drains really fast, so we'll just have to wait and see what LTE brings vs wimax on Battery usage.

 

[sean76]

Doesn't the Thunderbolt use a SLCD screen thereby avoiding this issue entirely? As for battery, I get good life out of my incredible with the stock battery. But I don't see the 1400 holding up as well in the Thunderbolt.

I really haven't had a lot of time to spend with any SLCD screens, only with a revamped Incredible and it was for only about a week. I'd say battery life was maybe a tiny bit better then with the original Amoled....not by much though.

IMO, HTC should have went a little further like Moto did with the Atrix and Bionic....newer screen technology, and bigger batteries...Well, we will just have to wait and see how the Thunderbolt holds up.

 

[Wolfedude88]

I owned a fascinate for awhile and I can tell you the Incredble has better battery life then that and I honestly think this will have better battery life then the Incredible with a slightly larger battery and more efficient cpu. I don't think it will be an issue. Now 4g I'm hoping isn't similar to Sprints 4g that is a battery hog , but honestly keep 4g off and only use it when necessary . it will be all good

I had the Incredible, Droid X, and the Fascinate, the Incredible was the worst to me in terms of battery life, then the Fascinate, and then the Droid X.