Should I return TB and wait for Bionic?

[allisonkbye]

I just got the ThunderBolt. I was extremely disappointed with the battery life and the inability to delete pre-installed apps. I disabled the 4G by entering the secret code and accessing the secret menu to do so, which I also think is stupid. It should just be an option in the settings. But so far its drastically improved battery life.

I'm also frustrated because I work with a lot of "apple queers" and because they overheard me expressing the only things I didn't like about the phone, I didn't hear enough about me having the shittiest phone on the face of the earth. So I don't want to return the phone for just that reason, I'll hear a lot of "I told you so's" when I go back to work if I do return it, whatever. So I'm wondering this:

Will the Bionic have an option in the menu to disable 4g to extend battery life?
Will it have the ability to delete pre-installed app's?
Advice for what to do with my apple queer coworkers? They're so damn annoying.

TIA

 

[nateap87]

i'm only sure about one of your questions. you will not be able to delete preinstalled apps. it's just the way it goes. there may be a few however. like the atrix on at&t which is the most locked up of all carriers yet for some reason you're able to delete a few of the apps.

now about the option to toggle 4g more easily, my guess is yes. mainly because i've heard so much about them fixing the TB in this regard in an OTA.

as for your apple queer situation. just let them be. the iphone and most apple products are just a safe choice for some people and that is more of a selling point to them over the openness and extended features of android. i've always felt though that the iphone was more of a chick phone or for people that just can't use electronics very well. i'm pretty sure if steve jobs had an apple tattoo on his privates, people would eat that right up too.

 

[red66charger]

I'm doing that very thing today. I really love certain aspects of TB. Will miss the kickstand and FF camera. (Bionic FF camera is pretty much for video chat only)

But the larger stock battery in Bionic is a major reason for my return. Plus I'm taking a leap of faith that Moto's reputation vs. HTC's concerning battery life will pay off. I know LTE sucks power, but I'm hoping there will be an improvement.

It's a difficult choice, especially since I have to go back to a feature phone with no data until Bionic is released. I'm gonna be a crouch for few days!

 

[Vehtemas]

I'm doing that very thing today. I really love certain aspects of TB. Will miss the kickstand and FF camera. (Bionic FF camera is pretty much for video chat only)

But the larger stock battery in Bionic is a major reason for my return. Plus I'm taking a leap of faith that Moto's reputation vs. HTC's concerning battery life will pay off. I know LTE sucks power, but I'm hoping there will be an improvement.

It's a difficult choice, especially since I have to go back to a feature phone with no data until Bionic is released. I'm gonna be a crouch for few days!

Also, the Gorilla Glass is awesome

 

[eal]

I traded out the Incredible to a Droid for that reason and poor reception, plus hard to see screen. miss the snappyness though.

 

[63cobra]

I Returned my Thunderbolt today and had my original Droid turned back on. I hated the battery life, didn't like the overall feel of phone at all. I can't speak with any real knowledge as to whether or not It's great or a dud except to say I live in a highly covered 4g area and yet my phone was constantly going in and out of 4g coverage, when I returned it rep said they had several complaints about same thing. I don't use my phone even close to It's potential or have the "needs and want's" as most people who use these phones however battery life and coverage is very important to me, I'll wait to see the Bionic to decide if I wan't a new phone,I still love original Droid

 

[Ibrick]

I Returned my Thunderbolt today and had my original Droid turned back on. I hated the battery life, didn't like the overall feel of phone at all. I can't speak with any real knowledge as to whether or not It's great or a dud except to say I live in a highly covered 4g area and yet my phone was constantly going in and out of 4g coverage, when I returned it rep said they had several complaints about same thing. I don't use my phone even close to It's potential or have the "needs and want's" as most people who use these phones however battery life and coverage is very important to me, I'll wait to see the Bionic to decide if I wan't a new phone,I still love original Droid

I'm not sure you're going to like the Bionic any better if those are the reasons you returned the Thunderbolt..
Sounds like you could get by with a mid level phone.

If you dont need or care about most of the features/specs on the Thunderbolt you'll probably feel the same about the Bionic.

 

[King_Bean]

I've never understood why people complain about pre-installed apps. Is it really that big a deal? Don't get me wrong, some of them are pretty damn useless and can be a tad bit annoying but is it really that huge an issue? I mean, worse case scenario, can't you just ignore them?

Anyway, I've had my OG Droid since December of 2009 and I've come to realize that battery life is one of the most important factors (if not the most important) when considering a smartphone. After all, these great features are rendered nearly useless if the phone is near death after a few hours of use and/or you're constantly worrying about battery life.

 

[YankeeDudeL]

I've never understood why people complain about pre-installed apps. Is it really that big a deal? Don't get me wrong, some of them are pretty damn useless and can be a tad bit annoying but is it really that huge an issue? I mean, worse case scenario, can't you just ignore them?

Anyway, I've had my OG Droid since December of 2009 and I've come to realize that battery life is one of the most important factors (if not the most important) when considering a smartphone. After all, these great features are rendered nearly useless if the phone is near death after a few hours of use and/or you're constantly worrying about battery life.

Greatly agree on battery life. I shouldn't have to keep an extra battery on me at all times to just hope to make it through a normal workday.

I think people have a prob with bloatware as they can't be moved to the SD card and take up valuable memory. I've gotten rid of most of those on my Droid, but of course, the Droid has much less than these phones now do.

 

[rushmore]

TB is a new monster for bloatware since has almost 1gb of junk and HTC disabled 4gb. People spinning about this is funny.

VZW advertises 8gb internal, but it really has 4gb. VZW better hope the litigious folks in Caleefornyuu do not class action them.

Arnie will be baaaack.

 

[Vehtemas]

I returned my Tbolt today since the damn thing lost 3G connection twice now and required full reinstalls of the OS.

Rather PITA if you ask me.

 

[jdk2]

I returned my Tbolt today since the damn thing lost 3G connection twice now and required full reinstalls of the OS.

Rather PITA if you ask me.

Same here. I can't deal with the lack of data during work. I'm in and out of 4G and 3G all day. I need a phone that works. The TB didn't seem to want to cooperate.

 

[Germanguy]

How do Motorola phones compare to HTC phones in terms of reception on the Verizon Network?

 

[Vehtemas]

Same here. I can't deal with the lack of data during work. I'm in and out of 4G and 3G all day. I need a phone that works. The TB didn't seem to want to cooperate.

I don't live in a 4G area and what would happen is it would disconnect from the 3G then refuse to reconnect until I reinstalled the os, happened twice and I am NOT paying 250+ for that pile of shit programming.

 

[eal]

How do Motorola phones compare to HTC phones in terms of reception on the Verizon Network?

Immensely Better. Went back to droid1 from Incredible mainly for this reason. Also batt, and screen in sun. Please bionic be as good in these areas!


Nokia and Motorola, best reception!

 

[milan03]

Immensely Better. Went back to droid1 from Incredible mainly for this reason. Also batt, and screen in sun. Please bionic be as good in these areas!


Nokia and Motorola, best reception!

LTE reception in NYC is amazing on my Thunderbolt. I'm not sure what's gonna be on a phone that's not out yet, but so far so good. Also if you play around with your settings, your battery will last you 15 hours.
As for the screen under the direct sunlight, nothing beats the iPhone 4.

 

[63cobra]

Put one more in the returned column. In and out of 4g all the time then not picking up 3g before trying to switch to 4 again, all in all think it wasn't working properly more than it was. That and the battery issue and the fact I only had one more day before I was locked in made me decide to give it up. My OG Droid is still my favorite, really hope the Bionic is everything and more than people hope !

 

[dguy]

Immensely Better. Went back to droid1 from Incredible mainly for this reason. Also batt, and screen in sun. Please bionic be as good in these areas!


Nokia and Motorola, best reception!

Normally this is true, a lot of HTC phones have poor reception. However, the Thunderbolt has reception levels just about identical with the Droid X(Verizon's best smartphone reception wise), I own both and tested it myself.

 

[garnto]

people who had the 4g connection problems do realize that for most with this problem it is a verizon network issue, and not a phone issue right?

 

[jhsu123]

I just got the ThunderBolt. I was extremely disappointed with the battery life and the inability to delete pre-installed apps. I disabled the 4G by entering the secret code and accessing the secret menu to do so, which I also think is stupid. It should just be an option in the settings. But so far its drastically improved battery life.

I'm also frustrated because I work with a lot of "apple queers" and because they overheard me expressing the only things I didn't like about the phone, I didn't hear enough about me having the shittiest phone on the face of the earth. So I don't want to return the phone for just that reason, I'll hear a lot of "I told you so's" when I go back to work if I do return it, whatever. So I'm wondering this:

Will the Bionic have an option in the menu to disable 4g to extend battery life?
Will it have the ability to delete pre-installed app's?
Advice for what to do with my apple queer coworkers? They're so damn annoying.

TIA

I really like the Thunderbolt. I got the after market extended battery from Seidio 1600 mAH with the same form factor.
seidioonline.com

I also got the extended battery charger which allows you to charge the phone and the extra battery at the same time; it's very compact and makes it a snap to have a battery to swap out ready to go.

seidioonline.com

Seidio is also working on a super extended life battery, which will have a bump for the form factor, but some people want this.
seidioonline.com

There is also another post about another extended battery 1700 mAH:
HTC Thunderbolt Verizon LTE 4G 1700mAhx2 Battery+Dock USB Charger PD42100

I would also not worry about the Apple fans. People are going to like a particular brand. You've got plenty of support here on the forums, especially if you go to the TB forums. Good luck with your decision.

 

[YankeeDudeL]

I really like the Thunderbolt. I got the after market extended battery from Seidio 1600 mAH with the same form factor.
seidioonline.com

I also got the extended battery charger which allows you to charge the phone and the extra battery at the same time; it's very compact and makes it a snap to have a battery to swap out ready to go.

seidioonline.com

Seidio is also working on a super extended life battery, which will have a bump for the form factor, but some people want this.
seidioonline.com

There is also another post about another extended battery 1700 mAH:
HTC Thunderbolt Verizon LTE 4G 1700mAhx2 Battery+Dock USB Charger PD42100

I would also not worry about the Apple fans. People are going to like a particular brand. You've got plenty of support here on the forums, especially if you go to the TB forums. Good luck with your decision.

I'm not particularly a fan of the TB (or HTC for that matter), but ya gotta love a well researched and informative response.

 

[rushmore]

The key good thing IMO about the TB is the display. It is suppa' fine and easily the best display I have seen on a phone (better than my Inc). Much better IMO than the Atrix, which is probably the same display on the Bionic.

The other display attribute I like with the TB is the ratio. Though the Bionic is more suited for movies due to the display ratio, a LOT of Android games are slightly squished in due to the more narrow & longer dimension.

My Droid had the problem and so does my gTablet, since same ratio. This bugs me.