HTC Thunderbolt

So after further investigation jcase, jamezelle, and scotty2 and AndIRC discovered that HTC had signed the recovery and bootloader on the Tbolt. :(

Well it didn't last very long. Last night they successfully rooted the release version of the Tbolt, achieved S-OFF, and loaded ClockWordMod recovery. Tbolt has been cracked wide open. Let the development begin!

http://www.androidpolice.com/2011/0...orkmod-recovery-loaded-rom-floodgates-opened/
 
So I did an interesting test last night. My phone was at 60% after playing with it, and I went it to bed without hooking it up to a charger to see what the percentage would be in the morning. It was off come morning. I am kind of surprised since I have Advanced App Killer which should have killed any running apps, and I always figured it the screen was what ate up so much battery.
 
Just picked up the thunderbolt -> $229 with 1yr contract at verizon.com, which is super cheap :)
 
Canceled the wirefly order since they didn't ship yet and went to Verizon. Got the phone cheaper there as well.

Speed test showed 10mbps down 33mbps up.
 
Couple questions for all you android vets. Is it worth it to have an app killer? My brother says it messes with the java virtual machine. Also, is it worth it to leave wifi on all the time? The verizon turned it off and said it drains the battery more if your not using it. I only use wifi in my house, but the 4G is just as fast.
 
Couple questions for all you android vets. Is it worth it to have an app killer? My brother says it messes with the java virtual machine. Also, is it worth it to leave wifi on all the time? The verizon turned it off and said it drains the battery more if your not using it. I only use wifi in my house, but the 4G is just as fast.

no need for an app killer.....

no need for wifi on all the time, you can set it to "sleep" when you turn the screen off
 
Couple questions for all you android vets. Is it worth it to have an app killer? My brother says it messes with the java virtual machine. Also, is it worth it to leave wifi on all the time? The verizon turned it off and said it drains the battery more if your not using it. I only use wifi in my house, but the 4G is just as fast.

Unless you have a rogue app running in the background, task killers typically hurt battery life more than helping it.
 
Ok I removed. I've just heard of people saying apps constantly running the background really draining there battery life, and the verizon guy recommended it. Although I am always skeptical when salespeople recommend things which is why I posted on here :).
 
Ok I removed. I've just heard of people saying apps constantly running the background really draining there battery life, and the verizon guy recommended it. Although I am always skeptical when salespeople recommend things which is why I posted on here :).

Android has really good garbage collection and task management. A lot of tasks will simply relaunch on their own (which is a large drain while it is happening) if the task was killed. Relaunching the tasks is more CPU and power intensive than just letting things handle themselves in the background. You can get stuck in this trap where you keep killing everything to save battery, and it keeps draining more battery power relaunching tasks.

The only app I have seen cause a problem on my personal Android was Farm Story. It would just sit in the background doing ??? until the battery died. I uninstalled it :eek:
 
I wonder how much data we'd be able to use before VZW finally cracks down with a soft cap or whatnot. The speeds are so amazingly fast a cap like 5gb would be a gosh-darn shame. They say "unlimited", but what is the true limit? I would love to tether the hell out of the connection with a PC like with PDANET. I did that with Sprint, I wonder how much VZW would tolerate it?
 
Canceled the wirefly order since they didn't ship yet and went to Verizon. Got the phone cheaper there as well.

Speed test showed 10mbps down 33mbps up.

How much did you pay, and how did you get it cheaper at Verizon? Dont they have a fixed price of $250?
 
How much did you pay, and how did you get it cheaper at Verizon? Dont they have a fixed price of $250?

New every 2 credit possibly?

Other option is some people have employment discounts, sometimes there can be an additional discount if business pricing is used.
 
I paid $219 from Vzw online. $14.99 overnight shipping, and got it the next day before noon.

I am at 20% and 9hr39min. A few phone calls, texts, an hour or more of X Construct, some Pandora, web browsing, ect ect.
 
Well I'm rooted, S-OFF and CWM installed. Process is quite involved but it works. Getting rid of the bloat is great. Phone was great before. Now it's even better.

http://www.androidpolice.com/2011/0...he-htc-thunderbolt-and-unlock-its-bootloader/

The AndIRC team are kings. Beat the signed bootloader and opened up the Tbolt like a can of Spam.

So how much internal space is left after bloatware removal? Was VZ Navigator most of it? Has battery life improved since you initial results?

Still not sure if I should get this Monday.. I really wish there was a hard date for future phone releases :mad:.
 
So how much internal space is left after bloatware removal? Was VZ Navigator most of it? Has battery life improved since you initial results?

Still not sure if I should get this Monday.. I really wish there was a hard date for future phone releases :mad:.

With initial use I'd say yes my battery life is improved. How much improved I don't know. SetCPU doesn't work right with the Tbolt yet so right now I'm still at the mercy of whatever the phone does.

Internal space is still the same. With the phone open like a can of spam I'm guessing we will have some clever person(s) figure out where all the space went. It's probably some weird partitioning done by HTC.
 
How much is verizon charging for LTE? It sounds like no surcharge ?

btw speed test for upload seems bogus (from what I've read; I do not own the phone). Something about the data being buffered but not fully sent. Still 10mb/s seems pretty decent for download; certainly >> than sprint 4g.
 
How much is verizon charging for LTE? It sounds like no surcharge ?

btw speed test for upload seems bogus (from what I've read; I do not own the phone). Something about the data being buffered but not fully sent. Still 10mb/s seems pretty decent for download; certainly >> than sprint 4g.

For the moment LTE is still $30 a month for unlimited data.

The test speed is a speedtest.net issue. They will be fixing it in the coming days supposedly. However, if you tether a computer to the phone and do the test via the computer the speed the numbers you get are accurate. They aren't as fast as they currently appear for upload but it is still incredibly fast.
 
For the moment LTE is still $30 a month for unlimited data.

The test speed is a speedtest.net issue. They will be fixing it in the coming days supposedly. However, if you tether a computer to the phone and do the test via the computer the speed the numbers you get are accurate. They aren't as fast as they currently appear for upload but it is still incredibly fast.

I did 25/5 on while tethering.

Still better then my home connection. :(
 
For the moment LTE is still $30 a month for unlimited data.

The test speed is a speedtest.net issue. They will be fixing it in the coming days supposedly. However, if you tether a computer to the phone and do the test via the computer the speed the numbers you get are accurate. They aren't as fast as they currently appear for upload but it is still incredibly fast.

I went to http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/ on my phone and got about 1.5Mbps up.
 
Android has really good garbage collection and task management. A lot of tasks will simply relaunch on their own (which is a large drain while it is happening) if the task was killed. Relaunching the tasks is more CPU and power intensive than just letting things handle themselves in the background. You can get stuck in this trap where you keep killing everything to save battery, and it keeps draining more battery power relaunching tasks.

The only app I have seen cause a problem on my personal Android was Farm Story. It would just sit in the background doing ??? until the battery died. I uninstalled it :eek:

What do you use to monitor your apps?
 
I got 4m down and 22m up with two bars.

Also been messing around on a bus bored for a few hours and still have over half the battery left. Not as bad as I thought the first day.
 
Yea I think the battery just needs a couple charges to build up. Pretty sure this is standard with phone battery. Mine has been doing a lot better, after 6 hrs, I still had 70% left. Played some angry birds, did a bunch of texting, and been messing with it on and off all day.
 
I can now confirm that after rooting with S-OFF my battery life is much better. My guess is because of the bloatware that I killed. Some of that horseshit must have been sucking up a lot of CPU at times because my battery life has probably doubled since yesterday.

I'm at about 12 hours now with 40% left. The phone got a pretty good amount of usage today as well so I think that's pretty good.
 
I can now confirm that after rooting with S-OFF my battery life is much better. My guess is because of the bloatware that I killed. Some of that horseshit must have been sucking up a lot of CPU at times because my battery life has probably doubled since yesterday.

I'm at about 12 hours now with 40% left. The phone got a pretty good amount of usage today as well so I think that's pretty good.

I can also confirm this, I also remove almost all the bloatware as well. From the looks of it I might now need the extended battery pack.
 
I'm curious, can anyone share their data usage so far? I am curious as to how far you can go with VZW's "unlimited" 29.99 plan before they catch wind. Same goes for Sprint. I wonder who is the most lenient about this sort of thing?
I know at least VZW will soon move to tiered smartphone data pricing, get rid of unlimited and Sprint is proud of their unlimited stance.
 
I'm curious, can anyone share their data usage so far? I am curious as to how far you can go with VZW's "unlimited" 29.99 plan before they catch wind. Same goes for Sprint. I wonder who is the most lenient about this sort of thing?
I know at least VZW will soon move to tiered smartphone data pricing, get rid of unlimited and Sprint is proud of their unlimited stance.

If you are in the top 5% of users they may throttle you in times of high data usage to ensure the quality of the network.


Take that however you see it. There is no hard cap, and they might not necessarily throttle anyone at all so long as their network can handle it. It seems mostly that their throttling policy is in place in case their network starts getting swamped like ATT so they have a recourse to do something about it. I wouldn't worry too much unless you are tethering your phone and torrenting stuff all day long.
 
Exactly, there is no published rate and could change from month to month depending on the average user's use. Why are you so worried about exceeding Verizon's "unlimited limit"? I would think they would warn you once before just shutting you off.
 
Regarding "bloatware". What is there and how did you remove it? I want stock gingerbread and maybe sense if possible. Also would like the option to run stock version thunderbolt came with in case there are problems.
 
I was a bit pissed to know I have 8gb internal then saw there was only 2.something available on first boot after purchase. WTF HTC and Verizon?

I saw some twitter post saying that if you install the first update for tbolt that the root will no longer work.

Not sure if I'm going root yet or not but glad to see the option is there.

Otherwise this phone is absolutely badass. Hands down the smoothest Android phone released to date (or so from what I've seen).
 
I was a bit pissed to know I have 8gb internal then saw there was only 2.something available on first boot after purchase. WTF HTC and Verizon?

I saw some twitter post saying that if you install the first update for tbolt that the root will no longer work.

Not sure if I'm going root yet or not but glad to see the option is there.

Otherwise this phone is absolutely badass. Hands down the smoothest Android phone released to date (or so from what I've seen).

Yeah. Still waiting on an official comment about the 8GB internal down to 2.3GB or so.

AndIRC has told all people who rooted to not let the OTA install. It'll only take a few hours after the initial push to get the info out of a stock Tbolt so you can update your build.prop to trick Verizon into thinking you're updated. ;)
 
Just to be clear - if I root and want to run any stock update Verizon pushes, I can, it just might take a bit for someone to make it available, right?

I came from Droid1 and I'm not sure I really like sense like I thought I would. Stock android seems pretty good to me. Would like to go 2.3 stock but I'm a little concerned there might be driver issues or other compatibility problems with this new device. For example it has a front facing camera and I'd like to use it with Tango or some other video chat app.

Can you dual boot or something similar so I can have my stock OTA version to boot to and also some super cool 2.3 version to try out at the same time? Would they share files/resources if I did that, possibly causing problems as I switch back and forth between versions?
 
Just to be clear - if I root and want to run any stock update Verizon pushes, I can, it just might take a bit for someone to make it available, right?

I came from Droid1 and I'm not sure I really like sense like I thought I would. Stock android seems pretty good to me. Would like to go 2.3 stock but I'm a little concerned there might be driver issues or other compatibility problems with this new device. For example it has a front facing camera and I'd like to use it with Tango or some other video chat app.

Can you dual boot or something similar so I can have my stock OTA version to boot to and also some super cool 2.3 version to try out at the same time? Would they share files/resources if I did that, possibly causing problems as I switch back and forth between versions?

Correct. You will probably have to wait for a custom ROM that incorporates the OTA update in the ROM. That way you get the fixes you need and not a fix that closes say the exploit that gives you root access. ;) Personally, I've never been real big on the random OTAs especially when some of them actually ADD bloat to your phone.

You don't have to use Sense. You can just install a 3rd party launcher like ADW or Launcher Pro. I'm using my ADW Launcher Ex (Well worth the $2) right now instead of the Sense bullshit.

There is no dual-booting this phone. Your best bet would be stick to custom ROM's that are built off the original RUU (sorta like SBF) for the time being. Any AOSP built ROM for the Tbolt you will want to stay away from until they work out the bugs and get things like 4G and the cameras working.
 
Anyone go from an Incredible to the TB? Is it a worthwhile upgrade? I was going to get an HTC Pyramid until the news broke that AT&T was buying T-Mobile. Awful news. Now, I'm looking at the Droid Bionic, Incredible 2 and TB as possible successors to my Incredible.
 
Anyone go from an Incredible to the TB? Is it a worthwhile upgrade? I was going to get an HTC Pyramid until the news broke that AT&T was buying T-Mobile. Awful news. Now, I'm looking at the Droid Bionic, Incredible 2 and TB as possible successors to my Incredible.

Wife has a Dinc and I have the Tbolt. Not a worthwhile upgrade for most unless you want the bigger screen and the LTE. Honestly, if I had a Dinc (I came from a Droid) I'd probably just keep it for another 12 months and see what else is on the horizon after that.
 
Wife has a Dinc and I have the Tbolt. Not a worthwhile upgrade for most unless you want the bigger screen and the LTE. Honestly, if I had a Dinc (I came from a Droid) I'd probably just keep it for another 12 months and see what else is on the horizon after that.
I have an Incredible myself and I agree. I went into Best Buy to play with a Thunderbolt and while the Thunderbolt looks and feels like a great phone for someone upgrading from a much weaker phone, it's not so much better than an Incredible that I'd want to upgrade. I'm eagerly waiting for a higher-resolution screen (some of those qHD 960x540 phones or higher), a dual-core proc and an AMOLED screen. The Pyramid looks to be amazing, but if it's only on T-Mobile/AT&T, I'll have to wait longer.
 
Sooo, just buying the Dinc now for a first time Android user, would probably be a smart thing to do?? I am most interested in a good battery life. I want to go Android, but I find the entire battery life thing abysmal.
 
Sooo, just buying the Dinc now for a first time Android user, would probably be a smart thing to do?? I am most interested in a good battery life. I want to go Android, but I find the entire battery life thing abysmal.

Depends on cost. If you want to go cheap then Dinc is the way to go. If you want the latest greatest stuff then you go Tbolt. I find Tbolt's battery life to be OK now that I rooted it. It will get even better once SetCPU has been updated for the Tbolt.
 
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