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Techie Tuesday: Review Droid 4G HTC ThunderBolt by Verizon Wireless

For the past couple months I’ve been testing out the HTC Thunderbolt by Verizon Wireless. It’s their first 4G LTE Android phone on the new 4G network.  Although I’ve owned smartphones in the past (Palm and Blackberry) I had never owned a Droid based phone and at first I was lost until I talked to the nicest man from Verizon named Pete who was able to teach me some tricks and tips.  I learned there are some apps that are a must such as Advanced Task Killer and that the social media applications made for Twitter and Facebook are much better than third party versions.

I also learned some stuff about how 3G and 4G stuff works.  I always assumed (you know what they say) that if your phone was 4G it would always be 4G no matter where you were but unfortunately that is not the case.   In order to get 4G reception you have to be near a 4G tower and Verizon has a pretty large coverage area.  If you are between a 3G and 4G tower your phone can act a little silly some times.  When the Thunderbolt is in a 4G area you can really tell a difference as it is much faster.

Things I Loved

I love the body style of the Thunderbolt and button placement although sometimes I actually turn the volume up/down by accident when holding it.  I loved the accuracy of the touchscreen.  I very rarely had to backspace and make corrections.   The screen is pretty big and made browsing the web a pleasant experience.  I also loved the thunderbolt sound whenever you boot it up – but that’s really not what you want to read about – just had to share it.

Things I Didn’t Love

Yes, unfortunately there are a couple small things that I didn’t care for with the Thunderbolt such as the battery life.  I don’t think they make an extended life battery for this phone yet, but if you purchase one you will at least want to invest in a spare battery.  Also, every once in a while there would be an occasional bug but once I updated the software this was much less often.

Overall Opinion

Buy it!

About the Thunderbolt by HTC

With this much power, speed and Android™ awesomeness, it’s not your dream phone. It’s the one after that.

Infinite entertainment. Download movies, e-books, games, music and more in seconds. Pop out the kickstand, turn up the surround sound and enjoy hours of entertainment on the hi-res 4.3″ screen.

Infinite possibilities. With an 8MP camera, LED flash, in-camera effects and a 720p HD camcorder, you can capture every moment in picture-perfect resolution.  And with 4G uploads, you can unleash it instantly, for all your friends to see.

Phone screen, meet flatscreen.
Built-in DLNA connectivity takes all the music, movies and photos on your phone and beams them up wirelessly to your flatscreen.

Beyond wireless. Launch a mobile hotspot and just like that, your phone turns into a wireless router, providing a Wi-Fi™ connection and the power of 4G for up to five devices.

The wait is over. With a 1GHz Snapdragon Processor and the power of Verizon’s new 4G network, you can say goodbye to the loading bar.  And with the new instant-boot feature, you can say hello, faster than ever before.

 

You can purchase the Thunderbolt from Verizon for $249 with a 2-year contract.

Disclosure:  The Thunderbolt HTC was provided to me by Verizon Wireless for this review.  Opinions are honest and my own.

Comments

  1. Ah Lisa I wish I could be as happy with mine. Sadly, I am not the only one either. I really wanted to love it, but after the update did it in I am fast failing out of love

    • I hope they will be able to fix it for you Lisa. Perhaps it’s the phone – like I said mine did something funky at first until I installed the update and then it was fine. I never lost any data or anything.

Trackbacks

  1. […] speed of 4G regardless of my phone.  For others though, that may be an issue and I recommend the Samsung Thunderbolt if that is the case.  Finally, the Droid X and X2 are a bit awkward for me or maybe […]

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