Thunderbolt is HUGE letdown for me

[kingwilliam]

I am usually not one to complain; Im very tolerant and patient with just about anything, but the TB is a big disappointment in my opinion.

Obviously the battery is useless. (Mine is red by noon each day)

The phone runs slow, sometimes it needs to be restarted...

There is no decent video chat application (Ive tried them all)



These 3 items pretty much sum it up for me, but they are MAJOR issues

I know this has already been brought up and complained about, but I just had to vent as it is causing me much anger and frustration.... anger leads to hate, hate will eventually lead to the dark side.

 

[Yeahha]

I am usually not one to complain; Im very tolerant and patient with just about anything, but the TB is a big disappointment in my opinion.

Obviously the battery is useless. (Mine is red by noon each day)

The phone runs slow, sometimes it needs to be restarted...

There is no decent video chat application (Ive tried them all)



These 3 items pretty much sum it up for me, but they are MAJOR issues

I know this has already been brought up and complained about, but I just had to vent as it is causing me much anger and frustration.... anger leads to hate, hate will eventually lead to the dark side.

Have you taken steps to conserve battery, disabling LTE when not in use, changing your brightness settings, ect...

With any smartphone you should restart it periodically.

I'm not into video chat so I can't address that issue, I know google is trying out video chat with google+ I would expect them to try to expand it to their OS as well but it is currently not supported.

 

[nerdstaz]

Have you taken steps to conserve battery, disabling LTE when not in use, changing your brightness settings, ect...

With any smartphone you should restart it periodically.

I'm not into video chat so I can't address that issue, I know google is trying out video chat with google+ I would expect them to try to expand it to their OS as well but it is currently not supported.

I like you Yeahha...but I have to disagree here. It still is a disappointment...but for the hell of it, I tried the Evo3d for about 2 weeks. With stock battery in a "4g" area, my battery lasted 32 hours with the same use my Thunderbolt EXTENDED battery...rooted...gets about 20 hours and that's toggling LTE off as needed. This issue along with how they update this phone, just continues to point to the fact that the TBolt is the bastard child of HTC. They no longer want to claim it. The damn EVO3D had 2 updates on release day. I hate sprint, but that phone was amazing compared to the TBolt. I truly wanted to see if the HTC experience ever was going to be what people say. I have to toy with this phone as much if not more than I did with my OG Moto Droid to get it to last long enough and not need rebooting. Evo3d didn't require that, neither did my rooted X. Wife has the Droid 2 still, after a root and bloat removal...it's fine too. The TBolt, while still a decent device, best with 4g...is still a bit of a let down...could be because some of us expected too much.

You should never EVER have to buy an accessory to use a product as intended. That is not the case with my beloved Tbolt =0

 

[kingwilliam]

I realize all the tricks you can do to conserve the battery, but I dont want to have to do that in order for my phone to function as good as other phones do right off the shelf......

I dont believe you should have to restart a smart phone more than once a day...

 

[WormDoes]

There are people who have nothing but issues with it and there are others, like myself, who don't have a single issue with it and love everything about it

 

[bulldogmoe7]

I realize all the tricks you can do to conserve the battery, but I dont want to have to do that in order for my phone to function as good as other phones do right off the shelf......

I dont believe you should have to restart a smart phone more than once a day...

You shut off or restart your computer daily or so right? Same thing

 

[brizey]

I like you Yeahha...but I have to disagree here. It still is a disappointment...but for the hell of it, I tried the Evo3d for about 2 weeks. With stock battery in a "4g" area, my battery lasted 32 hours with the same use my Thunderbolt EXTENDED battery...rooted...gets about 20 hours and that's toggling LTE off as needed. This issue along with how they update this phone, just continues to point to the fact that the TBolt is the bastard child of HTC. They no longer want to claim it. The damn EVO3D had 2 updates on release day. I hate sprint, but that phone was amazing compared to the TBolt. I truly wanted to see if the HTC experience ever was going to be what people say. I have to toy with this phone as much if not more than I did with my OG Moto Droid to get it to last long enough and not need rebooting. Evo3d didn't require that, neither did my rooted X. Wife has the Droid 2 still, after a root and bloat removal...it's fine too. The TBolt, while still a decent device, best with 4g...is still a bit of a let down...could be because some of us expected too much.

You should never EVER have to buy an accessory to use a product as intended. That is not the case with my beloved Tbolt =0

Comparing WiMAX to LTE is not exactly apples to apples. WiMAX is older (and therefore more mature) and...well no nice way to say it...inferior (lower real world bandwidth). A lot of the battery issue is attributable to LTE. But put it this way...I'd rather have an LTE radio that works and works well but sucks down the juice than a thrifty WiMAX radio that works so infrequently it might as well not be there.

The updates come through Verizon, so HTC is not the only one to blame on that front.

I bought the Thunderbolt just a few weeks ago, so I knew all about the issues. But I bought it anyway since it was, and is, still the best 4G phone available in my opinion. But my situation is probably a lot different than a lot of people on this board. I work from home and have two toddlers. So the chances of me being out and about for a long period are pretty limited. Also, I am an old dude. I have a landline, and access to VOIP if I need it, so I am not as dependent on the phone as a lot of younger people are.

 

[Yeahha]

I like you Yeahha...but I have to disagree here. It still is a disappointment...but for the hell of it, I tried the Evo3d for about 2 weeks. With stock battery in a "4g" area, my battery lasted 32 hours with the same use my Thunderbolt EXTENDED battery...rooted...gets about 20 hours and that's toggling LTE off as needed. This issue along with how they update this phone, just continues to point to the fact that the TBolt is the bastard child of HTC. They no longer want to claim it. The damn EVO3D had 2 updates on release day. I hate sprint, but that phone was amazing compared to the TBolt. I truly wanted to see if the HTC experience ever was going to be what people say. I have to toy with this phone as much if not more than I did with my OG Moto Droid to get it to last long enough and not need rebooting. Evo3d didn't require that, neither did my rooted X. Wife has the Droid 2 still, after a root and bloat removal...it's fine too. The TBolt, while still a decent device, best with 4g...is still a bit of a let down...could be because some of us expected too much.

You should never EVER have to buy an accessory to use a product as intended. That is not the case with my beloved Tbolt =0

The EVO 3D uses a different type radio than the bolt, but WiMax is on the way out, Sprint is testing LTE. Just search for the ISP Clear to see how badly WiMax is doing. The update issue I believe is a carrier issue not HTC not having respect for a certian phone. Sprint is much better at giving out updates than VZW, I would love for that to be false but I doubt anyone will argue with me about that. I also think LTE is making it harder for HTC to develop the updates for the bolt.

I loved my D1, I love being able to tinker and change my device. I had a D2G and hated the lack of being able to do what I wanted to with it. The bolt is perfect for how I want to use my phone, I love being able to flash roms and try different things, you sound like someone who is not as into it as myself, there is no problem with that I am not the "average user" but I have not purchased an extended battery or any additional battery.

@kingwilliam, I generally restart my phone once daily, I agree with Worm if you aren't satisified with it you should shop around see what other phones offer you very well could be happier with something else.

 

[DJ_10]

I gotta say it. Verizon gave you 30 or 14 days. None of these issues are new. Why complain about them now?

 

[WormDoes]

I gotta say it. Verizon gave you 30 or 14 days. None of these issues are new. Why complain about them now?

Maybe he just got the phone? Not everyone has had the TB since release

 

[Dmags]

I've had the same TB sense day 1. I have experienced most of the issues talked about in these TB forums. I've had random restarts, freezing up and needing to pull battery, short lived battery. I've read a lot of suggestions to try to fix these problems and have been holding out hope that Verizon/HTC would come to the rescue and finally provide a update that will fix it all....lol When the phone works it is amazing, but this phone is UNRELIABLE. I would not recommend this to anyone unless they enjoy being frustrated most of the time. Anyways, this is my two cents worth.

 

[nateap87]

My battery doesn't last as long as it used to but it's definitely manageable.

 

[jcnyc]

Would say vast vast majority of tbolt owners don't frequent the various forums out there posting their problems and would without a doubt say that the tbolt gets shitty battery life to the average user, as demonstrated by every one of my friends who got it and don't know much about phones. The question is, is it the phone manufacturer/cellphone carrier's job to just make sure it works well/not load shit bloatware? Or is it the cell phone user's job to tweak their phone properly and know the ins and outs of everything? Probably a combination of both but I'd reckon it'd be heavily favored to the former.

So in that sense, the thread owner is completely right. The phone gets terrible battery out of the box, compared to say the iphone4 or my GF's htc sensation. I'd say scour the boards for as much help as you can find (there are lots of tricks) but at the end of the day, that all becomes moot and you should just root the f*cker and save yourself a lot of time and grief (like me)

 

[nerdstaz]

You shut off or restart your computer daily or so right? Same thing

Actually I personally haven't shut off my computer since I built the thing in february minus 2 power outages.... i7 and Solid State are a different world than Androids and SD cards...


And to you guys talking about WiMAX vs LTE....you are exactly right. I meant to comapre to 3g hence toggling 4g off when i go into those areas... I was typing and not thinking (from work) so my point failed. 3g on the TBolt vs 4gWiMAX on the Evo3d...the Evo still gets better battery life. Don't believe me? Go get one, you can return it within 30 days, hassle free. I mistyped a little in that thread, what I meant to say is...I get worse battery life on 3g than the other phone did on 4g.

I like tinkering with roms, not a big deal. I like playing will that stuff just as much as the next guy, otherwise I would have an iPhone. But....a lot of the tBolt roms blow. Most blow. They still have flaws that cause random reboots or take away pure functionality. That wasn't really the case on the OG droid, likely because of bootloaders and the lack of leaks.




The EVO3d worked nice out of the box. Why couldn't the Thunderbolt? Rooting a phone should be an option, not the only way to make it work as it should have to begin with. I am going to root regardless and install custom roms...but that shouldn't be because they never got it right at the factory. It should be able to do certain things...like..you know sit idle without rebooting? I have had SEVEN thunderbolts. They all were randomly rebooting before this last update..even with NO 3rd party apps. That's ridiculous. That update should have came weeks not months after the launch. I shouldnt HAVE to reboot it either. You can say what you will about everything but when it boils down to it, how many times do your friends restart their iPhones? I hate Apple..don't get me wrong. Iphones freeze and crash. Seen it happen...I am not defending the phone either so no trolling me please. But if they can figure it out, Android can. Period. So to say it's a necessity, is not proper. Because even though those occur in the iWorld, it is far and few between.

But I love Android. Yet the topic here is : The thunderbolt is disappointing. I am not saying either the iPhone , Tbolt, or EVO3d is a superior phone....more like...just the TBolt is so lackluster compared to everything else released in a similar market. It feels like a burden...and has been one.

I just got 4g LTE in my area on Monday of this week. My battery lasts 15 hours, I am going to try another rom (running BAMF 3.0 RC4.9) but....I will likely bitch and complain enough that when the Bionic releases I get it for free or at an extreme discount. Verizon will do that if you pay them enough monthly!

(yeayea rambling again)

TLDR:

Radios aside, the Thunderbolt is flat out disappointing because it isn't reliable and HAS to be rooted AND have extra accessories/charging time to even be useful at all. Not to mention every other rebooting, crashing, non-app delivering problem it has had. But rooted with the right stuff? It's tolerable. No one that loves their money wants to use this for the next 2 years and it hasn't hit the 6 month mark yet. That's why it's disappointing. But I have it for now and will cry if I want to.

 

[Yeahha]

There are plenty of stock bolt owners that are happy with their phones, the ones that are unhappy and are not android buffs often stumble into forums to complain. Just like the large root community here and on other forums it is the vocal minority. I am in no way saying all new users are unhappy with their phone or aren't into android but when you go to a forum for a phone that is frequented by less than 1000 people (like the thunderbolt forum here complete guess by the way) and see posts about complaints you can't assume that is the majority of users. Yeah news wires reported on it because the wires are competing with many more places than they used to and believe it or not seek out forums like these to get stories.

I rarely tell someone outside of the root section here that rooting is the only option. Usually I reserve that response for when someone wants something you must be rooted for like removing bloatware. If I can give someone an answer that would allow them not to void their warranty or do something they aren't comfortable with I always provide that option.

If your experience with the evo3d was so much better than your experience with the bolt why would you not jump ship and go to sprint? (I know I would) If you want to hold out in hopes of getting something better down the line you feel you deserve then why stir the waters here with whining? Wouldn't your efforts be better spent making your phone more suited to your liking for the time being? Most the roms available currently are stable and work well perhaps trying them out could give you more satisfaction with your phone currently.

I am not trying to bash you, I understand you have been frustrated by your phone but you said you like to tinker with your phone. If that means you are like me or others that means your phone is constantly evolving and may be completely different two days from now.

 

[nerdstaz]

I didn't start the thread with the "whining" but your response really doesn't justify anything more than 2 things:

1) If Sprint worked in my home, I would have kept it. It was THAT much better. Worth switching carriers.

2) I root and enjoy "tinkering" but I shouldn't be forced to make a job of tweaking it out until I get desired performance. That should be a hobby not a necessity. I have been using Droids since the OG and owned multiple. I am such a buff that I KNEW that it was basically a tad bit better than the Droid X I replaced with 4G LTE. New technology has problems. Problem is , they don't work as hard to fix it at HTC as they do their FLAGSHIP EVO devices. The Droid X was probably a better phone all in all and I wished I would have held out tbh. But I am sort of happy at the moment, actually content is a better word.

The thing is Yeahh, I didn't buy an old muscle car to fix up, I bought a new top of the line speedster and wanted it to someday perform so. Yet it doesn't. Some people are happy. Not knocking them, I was just saying why I was disappointed to go along with the original topic.

Some people are happy with McDonalds on nights I want a Porterhouse. Some people are happy with living in a box in an alley..

When it comes to this phone? I expected a bit more is all. I shouldn't have had to root it, rom it, overclock it....and buy a brick to get it to work how I expected it to when there are devices capable of doing it on it's own. PERIOD. There was no reason to argue, I know how I feel. If you are happy, we can agree to disagree and move on. I like to spend my money on things that are going to last. I don't see how anyone claiming to be an "Android Buff" can be satisfied to stick with this phone for 2 years. And I doubt you plan to. Meaning, the phone is disappointing. This is the first phone since a Blackberry Tour that has made me feel this way. And happens to be my first HTC phone.

 

[nerdstaz]

Also, I have worked in QA before. That makes me scratch my head about HTC when it comes to the Thunderbolt. Use case scenario:I use my phone. Problem: It won't let me use it. Lol. <3 But this was just friendly conversation, sorry if it offended you brother Yeahh

 

[Yeahha]

You didn't offend me, and I can see your point of view. Remember if you go out and buy the top of the line speedster on its first production year there will be issues and if you want aftermarket performance parts you will need to wait.

It seems like the bolt was released before it should have been. I think HTC was trying to get a jump on the Verizon LTE market

 

[nerdstaz]

You didn't offend me, and I can see your point of view. Remember if you go out and buy the top of the line speedster on its first production year there will be issues and if you want aftermarket performance parts you will need to wait.

It seems like the bolt was released before it should have been. I think HTC was trying to get a jump on the Verizon LTE market

Now that we agree on!

 

[jreed2560]

12 to 14 hours of battery since day one. Never had a random reboot. My phone is supafast. I've had two thunderbolts and both were exactly the same, only had to replace mine because I put it on the roof of my car and drove off Maybe I'm lucky, but I seem to be lucky with every phone I own. Battery life on the TB is less than other phones, but no worse than any other HTC device. Sense UI is a hog for both resources and battery. But thats the trade off for having the most polished of all the custom android UIs. You really don't have to cripple the phone to get decent battery life either. I keep my data and gps turned on all the time. I keep my brightness down, and only refresh items as I open them. (Honestly do you really need Facebook to update in the background every 15 minutes? ) We are required to carry smartphones for our company email and that along with the weather are the only things I need to auto update. Just keep in mind that Android assumes you want everything right now. Most if not all apps are set to refresh as often as possible. You have to take the time to set things up properly if you want to best balance of performance/battery life. I would almost bet that 75 to 90 percent of the complaints on battery life are for this very reason. That along with the expectation that 4g speeds weren't gonna come with any concessions to battery life.