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You are here: MacNN Forums > Community > MacNN Lounge > Any thoughts/advice on picking one of Verizon's 4G Android phones?

View Poll Results: Which phone should I get?
Poll Options:
HTC Thunderbolt 1 votes (100.00%)
Samsung Droid Charge 0 votes (0%)
LG Revolution 0 votes (0%)
Voters: 1. You may not vote on this poll
Any thoughts/advice on picking one of Verizon's 4G Android phones?
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nonhuman
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Jun 15, 2011, 04:03 PM
 
Probably before the end of the month I'm going to switch (back) to Verizon. I'll definitely be getting one of the 4G Android phones (don't both suggesting iPhone I'm pretty well committed to Android at this point). I realize that this is probably not the best place to get advice on this, but I figured I may as well ask.

The current contenders are:
  1. HTC Thunderbolt
  2. Samsung Droid Charge
  3. LG Revolution

After reading a couple reviews it seems like the Thunderbolt and Droid Charge are consistently getting better 4G download speeds than the Revolution. It also sounds like the Revolution has the least consistent 4G data access. I'd definitely consider that to be a significant downside, especially I plan to do a lot of tethering, so I think the Revolution's probably at the bottom of my list for now. Between the other two, I prefer the styling (and naming) of the Thunderbolt, but the Droid Charge seems to have, by far, the best battery life. The Super AMOLED screen is also extremely tempting, especially coming from my Nexus One which is essentially unusable in sunlight. The Thunderbolt seems to benchmark the best of the three.

There's definitely no obvious favorite out of these three, they all seem to have different strengths and weaknesses. My gut is saying HTC Thunderbolt, but I just don't know. I'm not concerned about whatever non-stock interface it comes with, I'll be getting rid of that.

Anyone have any thoughts?
     
mduell
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Jun 15, 2011, 05:31 PM
 
Marginal differences in bandwidth are good for epeen, but not particularly relevant to using the phone and probably not that important when tethering. Battery life for the Thunderbolt OTOH is miserable. I'd take the Droid Charge despite the silly name.
     
nonhuman  (op)
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Jun 15, 2011, 05:46 PM
 
Originally Posted by mduell View Post
Marginal differences in bandwidth are good for epeen, but not particularly relevant to using the phone and probably not that important when tethering. Battery life for the Thunderbolt OTOH is miserable. I'd take the Droid Charge despite the silly name.
The differences in bandwidth that are showing up in reviews seem far less than marginal. In some reviews the Droid Charge and Thunderbolt are twice as fast as the Revolution.

I agree that battery life is a major factor; that and the screen are the biggest selling points of the Droid Charge to me. I've also seen a lot of complaints about its construction though, apparently it's not nearly as solidly built as the Thunderbolt or Revolution.

I'm planning on stopping in the Verizon shop after work to take a look at all three. Hopefully that will help clear things up.
     
mduell
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Jun 15, 2011, 11:39 PM
 
Are you planning on downloading games/movies or browsing the web/chatting/email while tethered? For the former you may care about even a 2x difference in download speed, for the latter you probably won't.
     
imitchellg5
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Jun 15, 2011, 11:56 PM
 
None of the LTE phones (I refuse to call them "4G") are really ideal devices. All of them have horrible skins that are resource hungry, which is fine on a 3G phone, but bad on an already power-hungry phone. Anyway, I guess I'd choose the Thunderbolt, because it just feels the nicest of all the phones. Sense is very bloated and slow, but at least aspects of it can be turned off. TouchWiz is basically there to stay.
     
ghporter
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Jun 16, 2011, 06:28 AM
 
A coworker has a Verizon 4G phone; I'll find out which ne today. He has kick-@ss speed on that thing. Using the SpeedTest.com Android app, he can clock 20Mbps downloads, and insane fast (ov 10Mbps) uploads.

The Dell Streak 7 on Verizon seems to be pretty fast too, but I haven't seen any real test data to say how fast.

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
nonhuman  (op)
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Jun 16, 2011, 07:32 AM
 
Originally Posted by imitchellg5 View Post
None of the LTE phones (I refuse to call them "4G") are really ideal devices. All of them have horrible skins that are resource hungry, which is fine on a 3G phone, but bad on an already power-hungry phone. Anyway, I guess I'd choose the Thunderbolt, because it just feels the nicest of all the phones. Sense is very bloated and slow, but at least aspects of it can be turned off. TouchWiz is basically there to stay.
Yeah, I'm going to root and ROM it no matter what. The skin is irrelevant.

Went into a Verizon store and talked to a rep after work yesterday, he seemed to really prefer the Droid Charge over the Thunderbolt, but only had a dummy model so I couldn't really check it out. He said they'll probably be getting some in stock today so I can go in and actually use one though.

One factor that I'm definitely interested in, but haven't seen any mention of in reviews is GPS performance. It's excellent on my Nexus One, but I've heard bad things about other phones in that regard (including, surprisingly, the Nexus S).
     
nonhuman  (op)
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Jun 16, 2011, 07:33 AM
 
Originally Posted by mduell View Post
Are you planning on downloading games/movies or browsing the web/chatting/email while tethered? For the former you may care about even a 2x difference in download speed, for the latter you probably won't.
If I'm paying for the speed, I want to get the speed. I doubt I'll do a whole lot of streaming video or gaming, but maybe just having that option will push me to do it more.
     
imitchellg5
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Jun 16, 2011, 10:09 AM
 
Originally Posted by nonhuman View Post
Yeah, I'm going to root and ROM it no matter what. The skin is irrelevant.

Went into a Verizon store and talked to a rep after work yesterday, he seemed to really prefer the Droid Charge over the Thunderbolt, but only had a dummy model so I couldn't really check it out. He said they'll probably be getting some in stock today so I can go in and actually use one though.

One factor that I'm definitely interested in, but haven't seen any mention of in reviews is GPS performance. It's excellent on my Nexus One, but I've heard bad things about other phones in that regard (including, surprisingly, the Nexus S).
Well, if you're going to root it and ROM it, they all have a locked bootloader, so you'll have to wait for the dev community to pick up the slack. I think that the Thunderbolt has already been rooted, but not the Charge or Revolution. I wouldn't expect the Revolution to go anywhere, it's not really a flagship device or advertised much at all. The dev following will probably be pretty small.
     
nonhuman  (op)
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Jun 16, 2011, 10:36 AM
 
Originally Posted by imitchellg5 View Post
Well, if you're going to root it and ROM it, they all have a locked bootloader, so you'll have to wait for the dev community to pick up the slack. I think that the Thunderbolt has already been rooted, but not the Charge or Revolution. I wouldn't expect the Revolution to go anywhere, it's not really a flagship device or advertised much at all. The dev following will probably be pretty small.
They've all been rooted already.

Actually placed an order for a Droid Charge on Amazon this morning (saved like $100 over buying it from Verizon!). Worst case scenario I should be able to exchange it for a Thunderbolt, or just sell it and get one. I really barely considered the Revolution at all, I did get one or two recommendations for it, but everything I've read makes it seem like the obviously inferior phone. Decided to go with the Droid Charge primarily for the battery life, and also the Super AMOLED screen.
     
Mrjinglesusa
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Jun 16, 2011, 04:29 PM
 
I freakin' LOVE my HTC Thunderbolt. Awesome phone.

I'm rooted and running the Das BAMF Preview 4 (Sense 3.0) ROM. I use an extended battery and went for over 24 hours without charging. Could easily get through the day on the normal battery.
     
nonhuman  (op)
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Jun 16, 2011, 04:41 PM
 
Originally Posted by Mrjinglesusa View Post
I freakin' LOVE my HTC Thunderbolt. Awesome phone.

I'm rooted and running the Das BAMF Preview 4 (Sense 3.0) ROM. I use an extended battery and went for over 24 hours without charging. Could easily get through the day on the normal battery.
Nice!

I'm actually thinking I might change my order to the Thunderbolt, if for no other reason than that CyanogenMod is working on (though not officially supporting) it already. I'm running CM7 on my N1, and love it.
     
mduell
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Jun 16, 2011, 06:40 PM
 
Originally Posted by Mrjinglesusa View Post
I freakin' LOVE my HTC Thunderbolt. Awesome phone. I use an extended battery and went for over 24 hours without charging. Could easily get through the day on the normal battery.
And BlackBerry users everywhere burst out laughing.
     
nonhuman  (op)
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Jun 16, 2011, 06:47 PM
 
Originally Posted by mduell View Post
And BlackBerry users everywhere burst out laughing.
But were unable to post it here due to their shitty WAP browser.

Multi-day battery life is awesome and all, but I spend approximately 80% of a normal day at or near a power outlet and modern batteries are not ruined by being left plugged in. My car also has a USB port with which to charge my phone.

The more batter life the better, but except in extreme cases, it's not that big of a deal.
     
   
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