After I managed to shatter my Droid Eris on the sidewalk yesterday (totally an accident!), I walked into the local Verizon store with a list of requirements for my new phone upgrade. I wanted something not too bulky, with a physical keyboard, and decent battery life. Instead, I bought the HTC Thunderbolt.
The Thunderbolt gives me Froyo, which I’ve been coveting for a while, and I’ve grown attached to HTC’s Sense interface. Beyond that, I sacrificed most of my must-haves for the sheer sexiness of 4G. That, and the idea that the Thunderbolt is a newer platform that will continue to get supported – and hopefully upgraded – for a while.
I’ve only lived with the Thunderbolt for a few short hours thus far, but I already have a list of likes and dislikes. (You’ll see that many of the likes are a product of the antiquated platform I was on until yesterday.) Here’s the good and the bad.
The Good:
- 4G! Alright, that’s an obvious one. But beyond the speed, I love the fact that the phone jumps automatically between 3G and 4G, and that the price of my data plan hasn’t changed with the higher data rate.
- Front-facing camera. Guess what, I can video chat! One of the first apps I downloaded was Tango in order to hold video calls with other Android and iOS phones.
- Pre-loaded Slacker. I’m a Slacker geek, and with the new premium service, having a decent mobile handset is fantastic. Any song I want, any time I want.
- Processor speed. Boot-up and app load times are significantly faster than they were on the Eris thanks to the 1GHz Snapdragon processor.
- Removable SD card. You mean I can just take this SD card out and it’s got all my stuff on it? How novel.
The Bad:
- The battery life. Yes, it sucks. Clearly I’ll have to get some kind of extended battery option and perhaps carry a back-up battery around.
- Micro USB port. Seriously, wasn’t the point of USB that it would be nearly universal? Now I’m finding I have to switch cables with all my new devices from mini USB to micro USB. Ridiculous.
I am in new gadget heaven. No doubt my rose-colored glasses will slip soon, but for now I’m happy to play with apps that feel like new, on a 4G network that promises magic.