#Droid Bionic or HTC Thunderbolt?

[Lebowski13]

But

Been looking for tbolt news and found some interesting stuff posted in another forum.

Next is about the tbolt release date. Tbolt2011 said he heard from all the Verizon employees at his store that it would be released on Feb. 11th. There is a thread over at Android Central that's got a lot of info pointing to that being true or close to it. To sum it up, there are three dates that are prevalent, Feb. 10th, 11th, or 14th. The supposed reason for coming out at the same time as the iphone is that they want to see how the two stack up to each other. Here's the link to the thread if you're interested.

[Unconfirmed] Thunderbolt in early February - Android Forums

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There is NO WAY Verizon would launch their first LTE device against the iPhone. Why spend all that money getting the iPhone and then put it up against the first LTE phone. iPhone would destroy TB in sales, and the TB would be bogo in a month. Verizon doesn't want that! I mean seriously, VZW is already running ads for iPhone, they've got the price set and its on their website... they have done none of that for the TB.


I am pretty damn certain that the TB will release either the last week of Feb. or the first week of March..... "something" tells me it'll be Feb. 24th.


Sent from my Droid using DroidForums App

Hey, I'm with you, I'm leaning towards Feb 24th myself, but I've also heard a lot of talk lately about Feb 14th being the date. Maybe that's just pre-order, not sure. You would think that if they were releasing that close together, we probably would have heard something more concrete by now on the TB date.

As a Marketing strategy, you're right on. They wouldn't confuse the market...however, iPhone and Droid, while both smartphones, are two completely different customers. People looking for the Bionic or TB would have no interest in an iPhone, generally. An iPhone is a mass market smartphone for idiots...also the iPhone coming to VZW is not LTE! So I think it's far more important for them to hit the market with an LTE phone (TB or Bionic) in the long run. iPhone customers will come either way.

 

[DESERPENTOR]

Wow

HTC = High Trash Crap. iphones are over rated the only people who get iphones are sheep. BRING ON THE BIONIC AND WE WILL SEE THE TRUE KING OF SMART PHONES!

 

[atmcgill97]

HTC = High Trash Crap.

Whats wrong with HTC, I think they are good quality. Also Sense is a way better UI than Motoblur.

iphones are over rated the only people who get iphones are sheep.

Inncorrect again. Douchebags who sit at starbucks get iphones...and sheep.

BRING ON THE BIONIC AND WE WILL SEE THE TRUE KING OF SMART PHONES!

I don't understand why the bionic is better. Sure a dual core, but that isnt everything.

 

[Java]

BRING ON THE BIONIC AND WE WILL SEE THE TRUE KING OF SMART PHONES!

The Atrix is better in nearly every way and it's already released.

 

[doctagadget]

I think the battery life and internal storage issues are sort of moot since you can always upgrade (albeit at extra cost).

FM radio - not sure that's a huge issue with Pandora and the like.
RAM - amount vs speed, this is likely more of an issue with new Apps coming down the line. So with a two-year contract, maybe in year two.
HDMI out - sort of a convenience thing if you ask me. Could always take the micro SD out and plug directly into your PC or TV (if you have a reader).

I think one thing that might be interesting is release date. If the HTC comes out in February (strong rumor) and the Moto comes out in May (weaker rumor) - there may be some data plan price differences. You MAY be able to lock in some lower monthly prices on unlim data with the earlier phone. I am NOT saying this is true - just speculation on my part, but the longer you wait, the more chance there is for a price increase.

I would love one of these to have a slide out QWERTY keyboard. I will have to get used to the screen-based one (have an ENV Touch now).

And this would truly be my main reason for getting the Tbolt now. If Verizon ups their LTE unlimited plan to $40/mo or $50/mo then I will save more money in the long run by going with the Tbolt now and getting grandfathered into the unlimited LTE at $30/mo. I am actually think of selling the droid x in order to get in before they up the prices. We all know that Verizon loves money, so they will figure out a way to charge us more for LTE, especially when they move to a tiered pricing model. Its better to get in early.

 

[Haloman800]

BRING ON THE BIONIC AND WE WILL SEE THE TRUE KING OF SMART PHONES!

The Atrix is better in nearly every way and it's already released.

Only the last part is true.

The Bionic has better cameras, a bigger screen, and the same amount of RAM for normal cell-phone use.

The extra RAM, which is the only advantage the Atrix, is only used when using the laptop dock, and who is actually going to spend $500 and a tacked on bill of $20 more dollars a month, for a total of $50.00 a month, for an LCD display and keyboard? It's a total joke.


The Bionic is a WAY better phone. Not even ruling in that it's on Verizon and not that... No Service... Call dropping network..

 

[Java]

BRING ON THE BIONIC AND WE WILL SEE THE TRUE KING OF SMART PHONES!

The Atrix is better in nearly every way and it's already released.

Only the last part is true.

The Bionic has better cameras, a bigger screen, and the same amount of RAM for normal cell-phone use.

The extra RAM, which is the only advantage the Atrix, is only used when using the laptop dock, and who is actually going to spend $500 and a tacked on bill of $20 more dollars a month, for a total of $50.00 a month, for an LCD display and keyboard? It's a total joke.


The Bionic is a WAY better phone. Not even ruling in that it's on Verizon and not that... No Service... Call dropping network..

So, if the Atrix were on Verizon and released now, you'd hold out for the Bionic?

 

[UNC]

BRING ON THE BIONIC AND WE WILL SEE THE TRUE KING OF SMART PHONES!

The Atrix is better in nearly every way and it's already released.

How is the Atrix better in any way? Other than already being released..

 

[nhat]

The Atrix is better in nearly every way and it's already released.

how so? please explain.

So, if the Atrix were on Verizon and released now, you'd hold out for the Bionic?

if the atrix were released on verizon, there would be no bionic.

 

[BlackOtaku]

The Atrix is better in nearly every way and it's already released.

Only the last part is true.

The Bionic has better cameras, a bigger screen, and the same amount of RAM for normal cell-phone use.

The extra RAM, which is the only advantage the Atrix, is only used when using the laptop dock, and who is actually going to spend $500 and a tacked on bill of $20 more dollars a month, for a total of $50.00 a month, for an LCD display and keyboard? It's a total joke.


The Bionic is a WAY better phone. Not even ruling in that it's on Verizon and not that... No Service... Call dropping network..

So, if the Atrix were on Verizon and released now, you'd hold out for the Bionic?

I would. I want the bigger screen, and I already have an Ubuntu (XDA says the Webtop OS is basically a cut down version of Ubuntu as it is) laptop that works fine and doesn't make me pay $20 a month to use it for no reasonable er, reason.

The Bionic beats the Atrix in screen and camera. The Atrix wins in pixel density, RAM and the Webtop feature. I don't see either as better period. I do see one as better for me though.

 

[KSR17]

So, if the Atrix were on Verizon and released now, you'd hold out for the Bionic?

It the Atrix were on Verizon as well, I too would still hold off until the Bionic's release. The Bionic struck me as interesting when I first saw it and I want it even more now that I've been researching a little deeper. I have a DX now, and the 4.3" screen is perfect for me, so I think I'll be sticking with that size for awhile now. >.>

I won't argue and put down the Atrix as a device, simply because I don't believe in arguing about electronics. Debating is a different story, but I'm not one to argue that my phone choices are "superior" to anybody else's. We all have our own personal wants in a smartphone. But, for me, I believe the Bionic would fit me alot better and "feel right" in my possession, so I'll wait for it's release.

 

[bplewis24]

Disadvantages – only a single core processor (but new 2nd generation snapdragon is still very good...

Bionic advantages over Thunderbolt – dual core processor (while it will certainly be faster than single, it sounds like the software and Android won’t be able to quite fully optimize it until Honeycomb is released and games and apps are developed to fully utilize the power, which is two versions down the road, so this will not be a dealbreaker for many people)

My question is... and others have grazed on it... How usable will a dual core really be for a smartphone? ...I'm just wondering how much snappier the Bionic will be over the TB.. for the average Joe...

Good write-up comparison, guitarchris, but I'd like to address some statements about dual-core phones and Tegra2 in particular. See this quote:

Under The Hood Changes
Perhaps the biggest change in Honeycomb is that the Dalvik VM environment is now multi-core aware. This means the OS can now leverage the processing power and potential power savings of multi-core SoCs to speed things up and offer enhanced battery life. In fact, even single threaded apps can see speed improvements in Honeycomb. While running in a dual-core environment, the OS automatically lets the bytecode run on one core and the Dalvik garbage collector run on the other. Apps specifically written to support symmetric multiprocessing will see even larger performance gains.

So, even if application software isn't written specifically for dual-core architecture, there is a very real benefit to having an additional core for off-loading.

Also, see this quote in the comments section (comment page 3) of that article:

Ever since beta version Dalvik VM has supported SMP, if the kernel had that module enabled.
(Dalvik VM threads are directly mapped to pthreads. pthreads have supported multicore on ARM ever since the first ARM with multiple cores rolled down the manufacturing line and on other architectures since last century)

So, even in Froyo, Dalvik VM takes advantage of multiple cores.

Additionally, folks are pointing to the Bionic having potentially poor battery life, but so far the Tegra2 platform has shown to reasonably meet expectations for battery performance. The Motorola Atrix was previewed favorably and the Tegra2 Xoom bested the iPad in battery life tests.

Considering that all of the potential of the Tegra2 dual-core performance and battery life tests have already been reviewed by phones that are already in the wild, I'd say you can reasonably expect the Bionic to have a real-world performance advantage. It's possible that the new Snapdragon will best it in some areas and hold it's own, but I doubt it. We will just have to wait and see.

Now, don't think I'm some Motorola fanboy. I AM an original Droid owner, but I'm looking to HTC for my next phone. Unless the Bionic surprises me with an unlocked bootloader, I won't be purchasing it. I'm not interested in the Thunderbolt, but I can live with my OG Droid running Gingerbread 2.3.2 until an HTC phone comes along that catches my eye.

Brandon

 

[Vito.a]

Some of the online comparisons say the HTC quality is better than Motorola. They also say there are fewer returned HTC phones than Motorola.