HTC ThunderBolt release thread

**t6821hn** · 03-19-2011, 11:24 AM

My unit exhibited some hiss and buzz at all volume levels. My hotspot kept disconnecting every 30 seconds. I tried to exchange it and was denied so I returned it. Verizon store said it was normal since their store units had frequent hotspot disconnects. I was astounded by that admission. Anyway, got hit with the $35 restocking fee but at least I got rid of that defective phone.

Went online to order another to see if it is better. By the way, the sim from the Thunderbolt can be used in a LTE card for internet access.

**hopn** · 03-19-2011, 12:26 PM

Originally Posted by jseah

The stores around me still has plenty in stock. A couple of reasons for this is

1. Priced at $250, it is the most expensive Droid phone.
2. Where I live is outside of a 4G coverage area (I live about 35 miles from the edge of the NYC 4G service area) so for many local customers, there is really no benefit to get a 4G phone if they are going to be staying around here.

When I picked up the Thunderbolt yesterday, only one other person was buying one, and he was going to be moving down to Tampa (which is a 4G area) in two months.

Tbolt is selling like hotcakes here in Houston. My girlfriend just upgraded her phone to tbolt and while in store, we discovered they had to drop ship 15 more units to the store and hers was second to the last remaining. And they don't close to another 4 hours.

I'm an IT consultant, and remote desktop is my bread and butter. LTE makes this easy. Now if only I can get citrix to work (waiting on the citrix admin on this one), I'm all set.

**dconfer** · 03-19-2011, 03:57 PM

Originally Posted by FAUguy

With all the phones I've used and tested over the years, its unfortunate that they occasionally have these problems. I have pretty good hearing and can tell right away if there's a problem with the phones speaker, or if there's a background hiss. If you have that buzzing rattling sound, then get it exchanged, but I think all of theme will have the background hiss, as it sounds the same regardless of call volume. I think the Droid Eris did this too.

What I find interesting is that my other phones here (Droid X, iPhone 4, and LG Clout) don't have these problems. That's why I'm questioning HTCs quality control. Who knows what manufacture actually makes that speaker that cost them 10 cents to buy.

Update to my problem. I got up this morning and could get no data on the phone. The up arrow would lite up and stay lite. No downloading data at all. At first I thought ok tower problems what for a few hours still nothing, so I called verizon and the confirmed no tower problems. Had to take the phone to the local store they could not get the phone to hook up with data. Told him about the noice in the calls and he said doa. They swapped it out everything is good call quality is perfect and I can get data. They also swapped out the sim card said that it could have been it and they didnt want to take the chance since I have to drive 30 miles to the store.

**LeroyTheGreat38** · 03-19-2011, 05:15 PM

I went to my local Verizon store today to check the phone out because I've been reading about the awesome 4g speeds. 4g is available in Boston and I live about an hour away. So I was hoping I could get 4g in my area but it was only connected to 3g. I tried seeing if I could connect it to 4g but no luck.

**FAUguy** · 03-19-2011, 06:36 PM

Here's my review
http://www.phonearena.com/reviews/HT...-Review_id2689

I also just finished my first battery test, and was able to get 6hr 58min of continuous talk time, without any data usage in the background. Up next I'll have to do a mixed-usage test to see how long on average the battery would last with regular daily usage.

**FAUguy** · 03-19-2011, 06:39 PM

Originally Posted by t6821hn

My unit exhibited some hiss and buzz at all volume levels. My hotspot kept disconnecting every 30 seconds. I tried to exchange it and was denied so I returned it. Verizon store said it was normal since their store units had frequent hotspot disconnects. I was astounded by that admission. Anyway, got hit with the $35 restocking fee but at least I got rid of that defective phone.

Went online to order another to see if it is better. By the way, the sim from the Thunderbolt can be used in a LTE card for internet access.

I had the Thunderbolt's hotspot turned on for about 15 min yesterday and had a Droid X connected to it. It never lost the hotspot connection, but was only about a foot away.

**100South** · 03-19-2011, 06:44 PM

Just wondering if the new version of sense still has the "phone keypad, t9" keyboard option for one handed texting?

**jseah** · 03-19-2011, 09:12 PM

Originally Posted by FAUguy

Here's my review
http://www.phonearena.com/reviews/HT...-Review_id2689

I also just finished my first battery test, and was able to get 6hr 58min of continuous talk time, without any data usage in the background. Up next I'll have to do a mixed-usage test to see how long on average the battery would last with regular daily usage.

I unplugged my phone this morning at 8. It is 10:15 at night now and my battery is still at 70%. For my purposes, the battery life is fine. As long as it can last me a day, I'm happy since I always plug my phone in at night when I went to bed.

**ShortSxit** · 03-19-2011, 10:57 PM

Originally Posted by 100South

Just wondering if the new version of sense still has the "phone keypad, t9" keyboard option for one handed texting?

Yep. You've got: qwerty, compact qwerty, and phone keypad

**FAUguy** · 03-20-2011, 03:07 AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NuAEa-inls

My newest video showing the web browser speeds of the ThunderBolt vs Droid X.

**Trey1475** · 03-20-2011, 03:31 AM

Well let me tell you my experience... I receive my Thunderbolt around 11:30am from fedex. For some reason my T.Bolt would not activate. I talked to 5 different technical reps and no one could figure out the problem. One reps said he was going to call me back but he never did. 6 hours later I called VZW back and they were sending me from 1 rep to another..... It still would not activate on my account. Then that rep said he would call me back. Two hours went by and he hadnt call me back so I decided to do a factory reset and viola... I was able to activate it on my own...

**FAUguy** · 03-20-2011, 04:46 AM

Originally Posted by Trey1475

Well let me tell you my experience... I receive my Thunderbolt around 11:30am from fedex. For some reason my T.Bolt would not activate. I talked to 5 different technical reps and no one could figure out the problem. One reps said he was going to call me back but he never did. 6 hours later I called VZW back and they were sending me from 1 rep to another..... It still would not activate on my account. Then that rep said he would call me back. Two hours went by and he hadnt call me back so I decided to do a factory reset and viola... I was able to activate it on my own...

Which way did you do the reset? From the settings menu, or by powering it up and holding the lower volume button at the same time?

**Extraordinary** · 03-20-2011, 05:03 AM

Originally Posted by FAUguy

Here's my review
http://www.phonearena.com/reviews/HT...-Review_id2689

I also just finished my first battery test, and was able to get 6hr 58min of continuous talk time, without any data usage in the background. Up next I'll have to do a mixed-usage test to see how long on average the battery would last with regular daily usage.

Was that 6 hr 58 minute just 1 call, volume level low? Bluetooth? Wired headset?

Cause if you put like a Droid X in call with no bluetooth, volume low, screen off, and mute the mic.. you can get 10 hours.

**lazarus** · 03-20-2011, 01:49 PM

Originally Posted by t6821hn

My unit exhibited some hiss and buzz at all volume levels..

i also have some buzzing and coming from a motorola I noticed it pretty quickly, mine does seem to lessen with lower volumes and does not transfer to bluetooth so it's clearly a speaker issue..

My house is not in a 4G area but i work and frequent 4G areas often.. but the last couple days my phone has had a lot worse signal strengh and it seems when i lose 4G my phone will take a bit to go back to 3g coverage and no data or calls work.. becuase of this i just thought i would try a *228 and it disconnects instantly which i think is weird.. anyone else having similar coverage and PRL update issues?

**FAUguy** · 03-20-2011, 11:49 PM

Originally Posted by FAUguy

Here's something I can't figure out (or maybe this phone is really defective)....
The Thunderbolt is said to come with 8GB eMMC (internal memory) with a 32GB microSDHC memory card.
When I connect the phone to the PC via USB, and select Mount Drive on the phone, I can access the 32GB memory card, but not the 8GB internal. Or when selecting HTC Sync, it shows up on my PC as a HTC Phone with 32GB of external memory, and still doesn't show the 8GB internal. When I go into the Phone's Setting and click on memory, it shows 2GB of internal memory, not 8GB.

So I'm not sure what is going on here. Does this phone have 8GB or 2GB or of internal memory, and how do you access it when connecting the phone to your PC?

I sent an email to HTC about the 8GB internal memory, and was told that it was misprint on their site and in fact the Thunderbolt only has 4GB, and that the majority of this space is used to make sure the phone is running at optimal performance levels.

So if it is 4GB, you'd get about a 3.6GB formatted capacity, of which about 1GB is used between the RAM and ROM, leaving about 2.6GB for application storage.