I just had a hands on with the HTC Thunderbolt

[sbmhome]

I just had a hands on with the thunderbolt and let me tell you, its going to be my next phone. My company and HTC had an event showing off the Thunderbolt. I didn't take any pictures or video as i wasn't sure if I could, but trust me, its a great phone.

1. Its fast. It may "only" have a single core 1Ghz cpu, but HTC Sense flies on it. Web browsing is definitely faster than on my HTC Incredible. Loading pages with flash ON is only slightly slower than my HTC INcredible loading pages with flash OFF. Which to me says a lot. Also, the webpage scrolling with flash enabled, while not iphone or Windows mobile 7 smooth is smother than my Incredible with flash off. Killer.

2. The screen is beautiful. The 4.3 screen makes viewing content much easier. The SLCD looks both vibrant and sharp.

3. DLNA actually works well. I was very skeptical about DLNA, but I fooled around with it for about 1 -2 minutes. There is a very slight delay when pausing or selecting new content to display on the TV, but once it gets going, the content plays without any hiccups. I was watching Avatar being streamed from the phone to the TV and it worked flawlessly. Granted the video file seemed to be sub 720p video, but worked great.

4. Its form factor is slightly on the big side and I wish it was slightly thinner, but it wasn't uncomfortable in my pocket. Seeing that big screen in action is really what make it worth it.

5. Sense now allows even the borders of android to be customized. I saw it the notification bar at the top change to woodgrain .


All in all, I can't wait until june when I can finally upgrade.


Also two things the HTC guy told me
1. The latest word on its release is early March.
2. It will NOT ship with Skype video calling...I guess thats coming a bit later.

 

[thecrimedawg]

i hate you

 

[jr313]

LMMFAO @ thecrimedawg!

 

[fortesquieu]

i hate you

bubbles busted! early March!

 

[ska.t73]

bubbles busted! early March!

You do realize that early March is only 2 weeks away right?

 

[fortesquieu]

You do realize that early March is only 2 weeks away right?

well yes, but people wanted 24th

like me

 

[project.in.process]

i think we need an official Poll with all 31 days of March available---each member votes--and then the people who were Right are burned at the stake for not sharing this information earlier.
simple as that.
burn 'er anyways!


oh, and someone HAD to have taken pictures---come on. help a forum out!

 

[Left Coast DJ]

Early March is not too far off. But still! When is the Bionic coming out?

 

[fortesquieu]

Early March is not too far off. But still! When is the Bionic coming out?

Early Q2

 

[sean76]

wow...HTC and VZW really fudged this one up!

 

[Ibrick]

wow...HTC and VZW really fudged this one up!

I don't recall Verizon ever officially saying 'The Thunderbolt will be released on _/_/_' Nevermind HTC..

The people working at VZW stores we're probably given a tentative release date, but where's the official, radio, television, billboard, media etc. ads stating a specific date?

It sucks yes.. but VZW and certainly not HTC, not even sure how they got thrown under the bus along with VZW, never officially said anything about a release date.

I'm frustrated too.. I took off work the 24th through the 28th.. Going to be paying the ETF at TMo.. all to get this phone. In reality though, we really can't blame VZW, and certainly not HTC for the delay.

 

[HTCThunderbolt]

I don't recall Verizon ever officially saying 'The Thunderbolt will be released on _/_/_' Nevermind HTC..

The people working at VZW stores we're probably given a tentative release date, but where's the official, radio, television, billboard, media etc. ads stating a specific date?

It sucks yes.. but VZW and certainly not HTC, not even sure how they got thrown under the bus along with VZW, never officially said anything about a release date.

I'm frustrated too.. I took off work the 24th through the 28th.. Going to be paying the ETF at TMo.. all to get this phone. In reality though, we really can't blame VZW, and certainly not HTC for the delay.

Its not the delay im mad about. Its lack lack of communication.

 

[willdogs]

Its not the delay im mad about. Its lack lack of communication.

What communication? They said Late Q1. We are still within that time frame.

Are they supposed to give daily updates stating "Not Today" ?

 

[Wolfedude88]

What communication? They said Late Q1. We are still within that time frame.

Are they supposed to give daily updates stating "Not Today" ?

Of course didn't you hear?

 

[sbmhome]

i hate you

LOL...you can't hate me. I only played with it for about 10 minutes and I can't upgrade until 6/6 .

 

[thecrimedawg]

LOL...you can't hate me. I only played with it for about 10 minutes and I can't upgrade until 6/6 .

at this pace thatll be right around when it gets released

 

[dm33]

I wonder how they can keep delaying a phone by a few days.

What could you change in a few days? Seems that you can't make a hardware change to the phone, takes too long to manufacture and ship. But even shipping from the manufacturer is unlikely to change in a few days.

Seems that all you can do by delaying a few days is it get a software update ready.
Or if you have somewhat longer, can apply the software update to phones in the channel?

Basically I don't understand how delaying a phone a few days allows Verizon or HTC time to change anything on phones that should have already been manufactured.

 

[Tech Addiction]

I've heard it deals with the Network hand off from 3g to 4g and provisioning.

 

[jayishere]

the hand off stuff, according to blackmanx was fixed almost two weeks ago...

 

[project.in.process]

I wonder how they can keep delaying a phone by a few days.

What could you change in a few days? Seems that you can't make a hardware change to the phone, takes too long to manufacture and ship. But even shipping from the manufacturer is unlikely to change in a few days.

Seems that all you can do by delaying a few days is it get a software update ready.
Or if you have somewhat longer, can apply the software update to phones in the channel?

Basically I don't understand how delaying a phone a few days allows Verizon or HTC time to change anything on phones that should have already been manufactured.

ha, funny thing is--if ANYTHING is wrong with the phone when it's released--it's instantly going to fall back on VZW for "you couldn't have fixed this in a single one of those several delays?!"
this phone better be perfect on release day

edit: and by funny, i of course mean--sad.

 

[jayishere]

Oh absolutely.

With what's going on, that phone better crap sprinkles every time it rings.

 

[short/y]

the hand off stuff, according to blackmanx was fixed almost two weeks ago...

Is it a fix to the radio code? On my Nexus One, radio updates are a little dicey so they may be delaying to get the radio updates into all the retail units as opposed to doing it OTA. Don't know how they'd do a mass update like that other than OTA but it's a thought.

 

[Filinator13]

I wonder how they can keep delaying a phone by a few days.

What could you change in a few days? Seems that you can't make a hardware change to the phone, takes too long to manufacture and ship. But even shipping from the manufacturer is unlikely to change in a few days.

Seems that all you can do by delaying a few days is it get a software update ready.
Or if you have somewhat longer, can apply the software update to phones in the channel?

Basically I don't understand how delaying a phone a few days allows Verizon or HTC time to change anything on phones that should have already been manufactured.

They can always push certain updates OTA. Also, we can't say that they keep delaying it a few days, since the public was never given a release date to begin with.

 

[jayishere]

it'd have to be OTA, they aren't going to power on every single phone or ship them all back before launch

 

[theacoustician]

... or ship them all back before launch

Maybe that's why they're delayed ...