HTC ThunderBolt User Reviews

There is no 4G in this area yet I still needed 2 apps to kill running apps and turn the 4G off or I had to charge the phone TWICE a day with MINIMAL use no live wpapers, minimal animation. Not sure if 4G had anything to do with it but that doesn't change the facts: the battery is good for a few hours. A a little more use & have to charge it 3 TIMES. Unacceptable battery performance. Horrible speaker. In fact the phone is LOUDER on the lowest setting sometimes than on speaker. It gets stuck, it shows the phone at the lowest sound but it's on the highest. The call quality is substandard. Compared to my old Nokia XM (with the other provider) this is garbage.

Verizon is so proud of the coverage but in this area my old XM had full bar and the TB has 1-2, if I hold the TB in my palm all the signal is lost. The coverage map is a lie or this phone is horrible.
Several calls/day go straight to the voicemail without even ringing!
My 3G turns to 1x or nothing time to time. Especially in buildings.

I only had it a few days ago so I contacted WFly - the seller - and they are sending another one. I wonder how much better that will be... I should have waited for the Bionic.... I hate the icrap for the simple minded with their Fuhrer on the top and hated the greedy at&t more with their 4GB "unlimited" plan but not sure if this is any better... at least I could make a call and hear the other side CLEARLY on my xm at at&t.

I love the size and feel of this phone. Although most reviewers feel it's too heavy I think in comparison to the Droid Incredible, that I switched from, the weight and curved shape actually makes it more comfortable to hold for extended periods of time (particularly in landscape mode). It's true the battery life needs improvement and hopefully when V2.3 comes out it will help the power management far better. In the meantime, I found if you turn off the auto-sync function and just sync manually when needed, it saves the battery life tremendously.

The buttons are flimsy and feel cheap. The device is heavy. The battery doesn't last any more than 3 to 4 hours from 100% charge, and that is no exaggeration.

It's lightning fast speeds, incomparable cameras, and wonderful display (that uses 87% of battery even on 20% brightness) are the only reasons that I held onto it for the few days that I did.

I switched to an iPhone, and although I lost my 4g speeds, I still think it was an unrealistic device for HTC and Verizon to put onto the market. I can see now why they waited so long to release it. It's a device that must be tethered to a wall most of the day, and if you spend most of your day walking around the office or a college campus with no dependable energy source a foot away, this is not the phone for you.

This was a wonderful phone, except for the call quality was unacceptable. VZW tech support poked around with a few issues I had with the first device and did not resolve anything. I spoke with a sales rep who was the first to suggest "you may have a defective phone". I swapped the device out and the UI freezing, connection failed errors ceased. I was also able to send texts in places I could not with the first TB. The call quality was slightly improved, but still only FAIR. Call quality was a long shot from other devices from "lesser" known carriers and I found this unacceptable for VZW and such a high end device.

A few observations.
Seems like there are a few network glitches to be worked out. Seems like network switching is not as smooth. It also seems like some apps need to be tweaked. Chess.com takes two launches to find the network. Pulse has some well documented issues too. I understand it's a new device and willing to deal with it while hoping some updates will iron out issues. Coming from the Eris (which had some serious issues) I have faith in HTC to provide updates.

The mobile hot spot has worked pretty well for me so far. I'm very popular at work right now.

I did only pay $150 for the device, I would have a very hard time paying the $200-$250 for it. But I'm cheap and will normally wait for the deal before buying.

Better than my droid x...except for a few things.

1) Build Quality- great build quality
2) Reception- better than my droid x. however it fluctuates more than my droid x and droid but it doesn't seem to affect abilities to call. one thing i noticed. the signal bars on my droid and droid x measure 3G, the signal bars on the thunderbolt measure 1X. so when using 4G or using 3G, not sure how well i'm connected.
3) Call quality- okay. my dx had amazing call quality!!!voices sounded like i was on a landline. thunderbolt, not so much. i hear a hiss/buzz noise when i'm on a call. both in florida and new york. also voices don't sound as crisp. it's managable but good thing i text more than i talk.
4) internet excellent. better browser than my stock dx.
5) multimedia- amazing, love sense UI
6) camera colors are amazing!! i don't care about how grainy/blurry it is when you zoom in 10X once you have it on the computer. i just care that the colors/contrast are life like.
7) Speed is amazing!!! going through menus and opening apps is much much faster than my 1.2 ghz droid x.
8) everyday use awesome
9) Text input- good.
10) display- awesome. not as bright as my droid x at max brightness, but images look more life like and natural.
11) Battery- not as bad as everyone else says. much worse than my dx and droid though. i bought an extended battery. i suggest everyone do it, it makes it thicker and heavier but it's worth it.
to conclude- love everything about the phone except call quality.

The phone is well put together when you look at the other phones that other carriers are selling including Verizon.
The reception is average at best. I keep hearing a buzzing news when I make or receive calls.
The internet is fast, but after having the Atrix 4g this phone is not on the same level as the Atrix when it comes to internet browsing.
Excellent camera and video.
Phone does lag a bit. A huge disappointment.
Huge screen to sent text out, but after a while I started getting a delay when I was sending out text messages.
Another big disappointment was the display. It reminded me of the Evo. I would think that since it's been about a year Htc would have made a better display.

I have had this phone for two days, and let me tell you this. BEST PHONE BY VERIZON SO FAR! If you are going to get this phone I would hurry up with it because it is worth the $270 I paid.The battery is a little low like all the other smart phones, The screen is great, the speeds are great. I have had the droid x until this beuty came out. I love this phone.

This phone is a beaut. The screen is nice and big (if you like that kind of thing) and has a great overall feel in your hand.

It's FAST! 4G is all it's cracked up to be (Charlotte, NC) where I am. It is noticeably faster than all other phones I have messed around with.

There are only a couple negatives to the phone.
1. Naturally, battery life. I was using the the phone on 4G and went from a 20% charge on the battery to my phone powering down in about 20-30 minutes. So take that as you will.
2. This one may seem petty...The location of the volume buttons on the right hand side. I hold my phone in my right hand. If I try to power on/off the sleep button while holding it in one hand I tend to hit the volume... which may cause beeping noises if you are trying to keep quiet in a certain setting (say a meeting).
3. The price. It's a lot of money... more than $270 from verizon after tax. I would say maybe wait a little while for the price to go down to $199. That said, be aware they may change the 4G data plans up on you and you may have to kiss the unlimited data option goodbye. But believe me, you will want it with such a fast phone! Then again the verizon associates keep assuring me there will be no changes to the data plans... but they have lied to me before. Oddly enough, the internet is a better place for info on verizon than verizon itself.
4. No skype. Poop. Maybe later?

Overall, I think the pros far outweigh the cons