Thunderbolt questions - Seeking info

[McBain01]

I was trying to find a little more info about this phone for my brother. He is finally taking the leap from crapberry to android now that he can upgrade. I have a DX and not avail to upgrade for a while so i havent been following the new phones all that much. I was hoping some of you guys could give me your honest opinions (from those that have the phone) on what you like and dont like so i can help him make a more informed decision

Was seeking some info on:
Overall impression of the phone
Do you wish you maybe waited for some of the ones coming later this year?
How is the battery stock?
Anyone use the extended battery, what are the results, is the hump huge/uncomfortable?
Can you turn 4g off to conserve battery?
Availability of good custom roms etc?
Whats the current stock os froyo, gbread?

Anything else along these lines would be helpful

Thanks in advance for your help guys

 

[wctaylor79]

Well all of your questions have answers here in the forum. Just use the search tool.. To cliff note real quick..

Phone great, battery sucks, but that is HTC for ya, and the battery drain is worth having 4G LTE.. I am using the 1600 extended battery and works great. From what I have seen the hunchback extended works too, but the phone wil still suck down some battery using LTE. There are ways to turn off 4G and a couple apps in the market to make that transition easy for you, but once you see the speed you will not want to go without it.. This phone is being picked up by all the great devs out there and the list is growing. XDA has a nice spot for customizing as well as here on DF. So customizing once rooted is wide open and the phone will continue to have great support. It is currently running Froyo, but Gingerbread due out by end of Q2 according to HTC..

For more detail just search the forums.. There are tons of threads about all the questions you have.

Overall.. I LOVE MY THUNDERBOLT!!!!

 

[McBain01]

Thanks for the cliff notes. I mean this with all respect and am not being contentious, I am familiar with searching the forums for answers to all of those questions as i do routinely for my DX but cliff notes is what i wanted from actual users like yourself to give a holistic impression that i can pass on to someone not as versed as us as opposed to searching individual questions for hours on end. Again, im quickly trying to do this for my brother, not spend too many hours on forums doing the individual searching. I truly do appreciate the insight you provided

Any one else have any thoughts or comments? Anyone using higher than the 1600 ext batt or any gen battery stats/estimations? Your help is greatly appreciated

 

[jeffly777]

Well all of your questions have answers here in the forum. Just use the search tool.. To cliff note real quick..

Phone great, battery sucks, but that is HTC for ya, and the battery drain is worth having 4G LTE.. I am using the 1600 extended battery and works great. From what I have seen the hunchback extended works too, but the phone wil still suck down some battery using LTE. There are ways to turn off 4G and a couple apps in the market to make that transition easy for you, but once you see the speed you will not want to go without it.. This phone is being picked up by all the great devs out there and the list is growing. XDA has a nice spot for customizing as well as here on DF. So customizing once rooted is wide open and the phone will continue to have great support. It is currently running Froyo, but Gingerbread due out by end of Q2 according to HTC..

For more detail just search the forums.. There are tons of threads about all the questions you have.

Overall.. I LOVE MY THUNDERBOLT!!!!

+1.

My own experience is not much different. Yes, you can turn off 4G, but if you're in a 4G area you will now want to. The speed is absolutely remarkable; it lives up to the hype in every respect.

I'm using the stock battery, and get a good day's life out of it before requiring a recharge (100-200 emails. maybe 20 texts, 2-3 hours of talk time, a few internet searches, maybe a couple of hours listening to music). By the time I go to bed I'm usually down around 25-30%. It's not great, but it's far from unusable. Granted, that's partly because I rooted and deleted bloatware and my kernel underclocks when the screen is off and the speed isn't needed, which helps. But really, it's a Li-ion battery; there is no reason that someone can't throw it on a charger or usb in their car or at work if their battery drains too quickly. Li-ion batteries have no memory, and if having to charge it at your desk for an hour after lunch is the only payoff for having a WICKED fast phone, that's not a big deal.

As far as rooting, the TB has an unlocked bootloader, unlike the Motorolas, that allows custom Kernels, so many devs are moving over. I personally think that the TB is going to take the place of the OG Droid and have a ton of ROMs, Kernels, and hacks.

 

[sincitygrrrl1]

I love it..it's super FAST. Like any android phone there are plenty of apps to customize it to do the things YOU want it to do. Yes the battery could be a little better but when I'm sitting at my desk and not using it I plug it in for a quick charge and before I go to bed I put it on the charger. I'm not a heavy user, few emails, texts & phone calls a day and lots of playing games while on downtime at work, and listening to music.

As far as regretting getting it...NO WAY...this phone will satisfy me for the next 2 yrs. It has and does everything I need it to do.

I'm not one of those people that have to have the newest phone everytime one comes out. My upgrade was available now, this phone is the best one available for me now. I don't care what's coming out in the next few months. I'm happy with what I have!

 

[McBain01]

Thats great info guys and it helps a lot. Thanks again