Gadgetblurb

The HTC/Verizon Thunderbolt is the first device to utilize Verizon’s new LTE/4G service.  This device, which reminds me a lot of the HTC Inspire on AT&T, has some major differences.  This review will look at the good and the bad of the latest and greatest that Google, HTC and Verizon have to offer.

Hardware

I won’t go into details about the specs, you can find them at verizonwireless.com.  What I would like to focus on is my opinion on the device in terms of what makes this different/good/bad.  As stated above, it is built with a similar construction as the Inspire.  It is a unibody construction that feels very well built.  The battery cover is the only thing that is plastic on the outside of the unit.  HTC did a good job, unlike the Inspire, in creating a unibody device that can accommodate an extended battery.  The battery cover is strategically placed above the kickstand so that it doesn’t get in the way.

The headphone jack is at the top, which I like (I can’t stand headphone jacks on the bottom of a device) and the micro-usb port is on the lower left side.  When I first saw this, I thought it was pretty stupid.  Without a dock (which are available), you won’t be able to charge the device and rest it on the kickstand in a horizontal position.  A design flaw if you ask me, but perhaps they want to encourage everyone to use a dock.

The speaker is located behind the kickstand, and to be honest, the kickstand doesn’t really muffle or mute the sound in any way when closed.  The speaker is LOUD!  I was streaming Pandora and playing it over the speaker and in all honestly, it sounded almost as good as my Sony Dash.  Ringtones can be easily heard and using it to play music will be a pleasure compared to other smartphones.  Very impressed.

The screen is big, but not the nicest screen out there.  The iPhone 4 still holds that title.  It is a WVGA screen, so the tech is a bit old.  However, it still is pretty nice tolook at.  The device has a front and rear facing camera.  The rear camera is 8MP and took pretty good images.  The front camera is 1.3 MP and will be quite nice to use for video chats.  Again, my favorite phone camera is the iPhone 4 and it’s quality has yet to be matched.

There is 8GB of onboard storage and a pre-installed 32GB micro-SD card.  40GB is plenty of storage and I do believe the Thunderbolt has the most out of the box storage for a phone.

Software/UI

The Thunderbolt comes with Android 2.2 and Sense 2.0.  It is pretty identical to the Inspire in that regard, and Sense 2.0 has some extra goodies that I really enjoyed.  Scenes and skins are new to Sense, and provided a nice customization capability.  While the skins are downloadable from HTC, the choices are few at the moment.  We should see more coming in the future.

The three big disappointments from a software perspective were: No Skype, No Netflix and Verizon’s NFL Network app didn’t work.  Much was hyped at CES about this device having Skype built in to allow video chats, but was not included in the retail devices.  This may come in the future, but for now, don’t expect to use Skype for video chats.  Netflix is also missing and it is truly unfortunate since there have been rumors and speculation that it would be included in the final build.  Sorry, to disappoint, but it isn’t there yet.  Finally, the NFL network app that many of you enjoy and were looking forward to on this huge display doesn’t work.  You can download it from the Market, but when you try to run it, it says it’s not supported on this device.

Using the device is a pleasure.  The Snapdragon processor flies.  Moving through various applications and windows is seamless.  While I don’t have any benchmarks to prove it, it felt as snappy as the Motorola Atrix.  Users will not be disappointed as there was very little, if any, lag.

Call Quality/Battery Life

Call quality on the Thunderbolt is excellent.  Callers were able to hear me clearly and the speaker front speaker is very loud.  On most calls, I needed to turn down the volume a bit.  It never distorted, but it is really loud.  Using the back speaker for calls is also very loud and clear.  For those business users that sit on conference calls all day will love the volume the rear speaker projects during a call.

Ok, here is where things git a bit dicey.  The battery life on the Thunderbolt reminds me of the EVO 4G.  I wasn’t able to make it through the day on a single charge.  I needed to both bump charge the device in the morning (removed from charger at 8AM) and by 3PM, with moderate usage, got the 15% warning.  One of the real issues here is you CANNOT turn off 4G.  For the life of me, I couldn’t find a toggle switch or setting to enable/disable 4G, much like the EVO.  I even tried downloading Widgetsoid and the 4g toggle is grayed out.    I am pretty certain that users in a non-4G area will not have as bad a battery problems as those in an LTE area.  So, I recommend you; get an extended battery, have a charge close by or buy an additional battery.

LTE

Here is where the Thunderbolt really shines.  It is fast!  The LTE in my area is strong and using the web version of Speedtest.net yielded consistently fast results.  I was able to achieve 9-12Mb/sec download on average and 2-5Mb/sec upload.  One word about the speedtest.net app for Android.  It is flawed on the upload speeds showing a consistent 28-35Mb/sec.

Browsing web pages is unbelievably fast and downloading apps is equally as fast.  No app took more than 5 seconds to download, although, most of the apps I was downloading were less than 5MB.  Still, the launch of LTE for Verizon is going to be big.  It is no comparison to AT&T’s HSPA+.  LTE blows away Sprints 4G as well,  I haven’t tested any T-Mobile phones so I cannot compare their 4G, but I find it hard to believe anyone will equal Verizon’s LTE in the near future.

Summary

The Thunderbolt is an amazing phone, no doubt about it.  My only real gripe at the moment is the battery life, which can be addressed in a few ways.  I have read that users experienced improved battery performance over time and I am sure the rooting community will come up with ROM’s that improve battery life as well.  Why Verizon and HTC elected to remove the ability to switch off 4G is beyond me.  It is a battery crusher and I believe with 4G turned off, battery life would improve greatly.  Oh well, you can’t have everything.  All of that being said, I do highly recommend the Thunderbolt!

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