Its ok December 2, 2012

Reviewer:  christina93 

This phone's really durable I dropped it a lot on gravel, on the floor, even dropped it in a lake once it still worked. I wish I liked it more but after a while it just got annoying, but that was probably all the problems I caused from damaging it. If you buy this phone I suggest getting a case for it right away, don't put it off at all because I kept on putting it off and now my phone completely broken.

Thunderbolt: Most hated smartphone I ever owned June 1, 2012

Reviewer:  Isabelle Gray  (USA) -

Where do I begin? When time for an upgrade last summer I tried Samsung because of the super AMOLED screen and yes it is pretty but I was not happy with call quality, signal, or internet speed so I traded that in for the Thunderbolt. I picked the Thunderbolt because I had experience with HTC after being satisfied with the Droid Eris which was my very first smartphone. I knew Thunderbolt had horrible battery life but I THOUGHT I could compensate by just having a cordless charger and if battery life was the only negative, then I could deal with it. BIG MISTAKE. First, it had horrible signal both call and internet and I'm in a 4g area. Most of the time I'm lucky to get 3g. They replaced the SIM card TWICE. The second time it was better for a while but it's terrible again. I'm back to being on 1x most of the time. The phone turns itself off at random times. The phone would lock up constantly and I'd have to take the battery out for a hard restart. I don't understand why Verizon didn't replace the phone when it was obviously defective but they wouldn't. The battery would overheat and I'd have to open the back up to let it cool down. The antenna is behind the battery so I couldn't use a case on the phone or I would have no signal. That led to more dents in the phone because I literally couldn't use the phone if I used a case. The screen was pretty but I just recently accidentally dropped it, and the screen cracked because there was no case to absorb the fall. I feel like I got screwed over bit time on this phone which I bought in May of last year for myself for a birthday present. Nice present. It is the only phone I've ever actively hated and wouldn't recommend it to my worst enemy. I've only had it a year and I need to trade in but I'm having trouble deciding what to get. I'm afraid to choose another HTC after this horrible experience. I hate that every phone we get is obsolete 2 months later. The whole smartphone racket is a scam especially with Verizon doing away with unlimited data, discounts for New every Two, and their new $30 upgrade charges. If I could go somewhere else I would but no one else in my area can match the signal so I feel stuck. In conclusion, the Thunderbolt blows and Verizon sucks.

Good performance, but a power hog May 10, 2012

Reviewer:  J. Lewis  (Lake Oswego, OR United States) -

The Android platform is interesting, though not, to my mind, as rich as that if the Iphone. (I know others disagree.) But it gets the job done. The Thunderbolt 4G is a bit heavy, but it's solidly built and, with a plastic holster around it, shows no sign of wear and tear after eight months of very heavy use.

My principal complaint, however -- and it's a big one -- is that it drains the battery something fierce. I know that battery life is an issue with 4G phones, but this one is a real power hog. Even with power management features enabled, it cannot get through an entire workday without needing some charge. I plug it in whenever I drive, must fully charge it every night, and by 7:00 in the evening, it's down to one bar.

In addition, the micro USB plug on the charger does not fit flush with the unit with the plastic holster fitted. This means that the all-important charging process is easily interrupted if the unit is moved or touched.

I would shop some more before purchasing this one.

Thunderbolt April 5, 2012

Reviewer:  Puck's Voice  (USA) -

I've had my Thunderbolt for over a year, and love it. True, the battery life is less than stellar, especially if using 4G, so I purchased an extended battery through Amazon, and with this new battery the phone easily lasts all day. The phone is a bit heavier with the extended battery, but I don't mind that so much. When I'm not using the phone as much I put the original, more lightweight battery back in. The only problems I've had with the phone have ultimately been user issues - not using settings correctly, etc. The large screen is so nice, and the 4G speeds are awesome. I love my phone, and hope it will last me a long time.

Over a month with this phone overall underrated March 4, 2012

Reviewer:  ronisize15 

I have had this phone for over a month. Verizon doesn't even still have it in the store. This phone overall is underrated. It first came out it was scrutinized for the battery issue. Here is the truth battery is not that great just like many smart phones. However if you have a battery saver like 2x battery, toggle 4g data you will be fine. I have a setting that my data turns off every time I put my screen to sleep. I get through a day easily. Yes I charge my phone every night but I did that with every phone I ever had. I came from a palm to this phone and I really enjoy it. It doesn't lag and I think the kick stand is the sweet. I don't understand why the got rid of that idea it is awesome. O yea it is getting ice crea sandwich as well. This phone will be fine for me for two years. I will order cheap batteries from amazon if I have too.

Defective Phone x 5 March 3, 2012

Reviewer:  Zone Five 

I had FIVE of these phones through Verizon and every one had the proximity sensor fail after 2-3 weeks. That meant that the phone screen stayed on when held to one's face, and calls were routinely terminated by the end call button being pressed.

Battery life is abysmal.

I will NEVER buy an HTC product again.

HTC Thunderbolt February 21, 2012

Reviewer:  Coze 

The short answer, it sucks most of the time. Takes very long to boot up, unresponsive at times when slecting various tasks, locks at times whereas you have to shut down and do cold boot, phone speaker quality very poor and not loud enough, battery life really bad, DLNA does not work,Verizon staff intructed to remove the battery once a week should clear up problems, are you kidding me! There was no mention of all of the above when you sold me on this piece of junk! Do your self a favor, buy something else.

Good phone, annoying quirks. February 4, 2012

Reviewer:  MR  (Houston, TX USA) -

I've had this phone for about 9 months. Overall, it's a good phone. Larger than most phones, but I like that - for internet browsing or e-mail this phone and screen are the perfect size. After researching my initial purchase, I was concerned about battery life. However, this has turned out to be a non-issue. It does consume more power than my previous phones, but it does a lot more so that's to be expected. I try to keep it charged when possible (at office, overnight). Internet browsing and e-mail are very fast on 4G. In fact, it's basically replaced my computer for e-mailing.

There are a couple of annoying features. First of all, I hate touchpads. To date, I not worked with a touchpad that wasn't completely aggravating to type on, and this pad is no exception. Typing in the landscaping position helps somewhat, but I'd rather have keys. I've also found that it can be easy to dial wrong numbers and send texts to unintended receipiants - sometimes this happens when scrolling through names or old texts. This can be very annoying and embarassing. May be due to my clumsiness, but the touchpad sensitivety doesn't help. I now carefully check texts, etc. before sending. I also found the spell check extremely annoying, and removed that feature in short order. Phone quality is OK, not great.

Finally, I purchased through Verizon, which I'm very happy with - good reception throughout most of the places I travel in the U.S.

False Advertising January 29, 2012

Reviewer:  androidkin 

"And you'll be able to pinpoint the location of a lost phone on a map, send a command to make the phone sound an alert--even while on "silent" mode--through the htcsense.com web site. If needed, you can also remotely wipe all of the phone's data with a single command in addition to forwarding calls and text messages to a different number."

The HTC Thunderbolt is not supported on htcsense.com, So all of these features are unusable without a third party app.

Get an iPhone January 24, 2012

Reviewer:  Austin Rob "Rob"  (TX) -

I have been seriously disappointed with this phone, and really regret getting stuck with it when I could have got an iPhone for the same price. I thought I would go against the trend and switch over to a droid. Dumb.
I was drawn to it because of the capabilities and specs- which were much better than the iphone. BUT, this phone constantly crashes, has TERRIBLE battery life (if 4G is on, a fresh battery wont last through the day--even if you keep it on standby all day!). The battery thing wouldn't be that big of a deal if my charge port didn't break. Yes, a daily and necessary action almost rendered my phone useless- and Verizon won't do a damn thing about it. I had to buy an external charger and transfer all my files through dropbox.
Bad reception (I am in central Austin- I get 1-2 bars, none while in some buildings), inaccurate (as compared to the iphone) touch calibration, scratchable screen, I could go on, but you get the point. I know there are issues and gripes about the iphone, but at least they make a quality product and bugs are addressed quickly.

It looks like Verizon might be offering this phone for free? That's about the only price I would pay for it. I would even be wary of that, because this phone will not last the two years. Buying this phone is one of the worst purchases I have ever made.

I only gave this phone 2 stars because I know it technically has the capabilities of being an awesome device-- so it may work out for someone. This phone almost made me decide to go back to a non-smart phone.

What You Need To Know January 23, 2012

Reviewer:  ashertopia 

LTE is blazing fast and this phone rocks while using it. But there are some things you should know.

First, the form factor (what it looks like) is boring. You can't tell from the pics but the phone is bland and almost ugly. No sharp edges. No colors. Bland.

Second, the screen is tough to look at sometimes. Outside, forget about seeing anything. Inside, you get a washed out screen that is dated. Compare this with a Super AMOLED like the Samsung Charge or Droid Razr and there just isnt a comparison.

Third, Sense UI is one of the best stock user interfaces that there is on Android. Out of the box, this phone is easy to set up and easy to use.

Forth, this phone will sometimes send your TXT to the wrong person. I had this phone for six months and it happened maybe four times. My wife had this phone for about three months and had a similar amount of errors. Also, sometimes it will send messages with an identification number (that is supposed to be private) instead of the mobile directory number. (If that happens pull the battery and you should be set.)

Finally, the phone has a ton of memory and runs programs really well. Especially now that you can get it so cheaply.

Bottom line, if you are looking for an inexpensive LTE phone this is a good shot. I liked it while I had it but I am much happier with the Bionic. And if I could go back I'd choose the Charge from the same generation of LTE phones on Verizon.

Thunderbold v. iPhone January 19, 2012

Reviewer:  GBM 

I have the Thunderbolt, and 3 members of my family have iPhones. I am the most technilogically savvy, so it is good that I have the most difficult phone.

The Thunderbolt has a few features that the iPhone does not have: GPS (not as good as a stand alone GPS, but useful at times), WiFi Hot Spot (usefully, but there is a cost to using it. Also, you should use your computer's battery to power the phone). Perhaps there may be an advantage to 4G.

The downside is the poor battery life. I will turn off the GPS, Bluetooth, WiFi, features to extend battery life. I have loaded Juice Defender, which may or may not be helping. Some days the phone will last until bed time. Yesterday it drained down to nothing within 4 hours of taking it off the charger.

The iPhones can last well more than a day. The batteries are probably similar in the different devices. Apple is using better power managemenet strategies.

Phone turned out great! January 17, 2012

Reviewer:  Darkrage 

I have had this phone for about 3 days now. before I bought it I read reviews of how the battery life was terrible, however a friend of mine has one of these and put the extended battery on it and his will last for days without recharging. So I have done the same, on purchase I bought the extended life battery and I have yet to charge it after the one time I have since I got the phone which was three days ago. It is running on the 4G network and so far..it's only down to 73% battery life. Though to be perfectly honest, I don't text a crap load like most people nor do I play games or add a bunch of apps. I use this phone as it's needed, when not in use I push the button at the top and put it in sleep mode. It all depends on how much your going to use this phone and what it's going to be used for. As long as you just use it to text some during the day and for calls...I am sure it can last you about 2 days or more on battery power if you have the extended life battery on it. The only con with the bigger battery is it is bulky, however that doesn't bother me. I am sure you can make the normal battery last if you had to, but for those who are constantly doing other things like on facebook, youtube, skype, etc etc..probably will have battery issues as you will with any phone if you use it for hours at a time. So basically stating, I advise getting the extended battery life for the phone if your worried about power issues and this is still a great phone.

On the topic of quality of calls. I definately have heard better quality on other phones, but this phone isn't that bad. It's just decent. You can hear and understand them and they can hear and understand you. It's really not that quiet, not as loud as other phones and yes there isn't an option to turn it much louder if you wanted, but honestly I can hear everyone just fine even when my kids are running around me going nuts.

Sound quality for music and sound files are ok. Your phone isn't going to bounce up and down to the boom sounds of bass coming from it's speaker. If you plug in headphones the music sounds just fine and in perfect quality..however like I said up above, if you use your phone for downloading music and listening to music you will probably have battery issues as you will with "any" smart phone.

Camera quality is really good when you use the back camera. My pictures and videos come out crystal clear. The front camera as stated in the phones spec isn't as great as the front however it is still decent. You can use it to take self portraits or skype for video calls, there again though I stress thats hard on your battery ;). You can also use the phones flash lights as a flashlight as you can with most HTC phones. has the settings of brightness and the brightest is pretty bright.

My personal thoughts about this phone is it's a great phone, it is fast and easy to use and if your worried about 4G taking up alot of battery power you can use 3G if your going through a day where your using your phone for entertainment purposes such as traveling or bored at work. The one thing I don't like about it which really doesn't have to do with the phone at all, but it's with all the bloatwear Verizon loads onto it. There is just a bunch of preloaded apps on it that I will never use and cannot take off.

So with this being the end of my review I give the Thunderbolt 4 stars. It is indeed a awsome phone, but yes I agree with some it could use a few tweeks with sound quality and it shouldn't have to come with so much useless apps which is Verizons fault anyway. I only reccomend that if you go with this phone, get yourself the extended life battery and you'll have yourself a pretty cool phone. Thanks for reading :)

Best Phone I've Ever Owned (10 year Verizon customer) January 11, 2012

Reviewer:  Ken79 

I held out as long as possible before retiring my old Palm. Followed Thunderbolt development and press. I've got 3 kids, one has I-Phone, one has Incredible, and one has Incredible-2. Based on pur family's experience with the Incredibles I decided to upgrade to 4-G with the Thunderbolt. I'm sold on HTC products. There have been absolutely zero problems with all three phones. I've been using the Thunderbolt for 6 months. I don't recall a single dropped call. All the apps I've tried have worked well. Battery life has been excellent after I followed recommendations for shutting down or deleting some of the "bloatware". It is a little heavy, but seems to perform better than many of the other 4-g phones sold by Verizon.

Fail. I am returning mine. January 4, 2012

Reviewer:  maddog  (New Mexico) -

I have two phones on my plan, one for my fiance. I upgraded both to HTC thunderbolts a week ago.I bought these from Best Buy for $50 ea with a plan upgrade. I was very much looking forward to using this phone and understood that there would be a learning period before I got comfortable with it.

It's fast. Apps work well. Browser is good. Camera is high end. The case is slim and feels sturdy. The display is generous by phone standards.

Camera stopped working. Had to spend 30 mins researching the fix which involves resetting the date, enabling the camera and then setting the date again. Needless to say, I lost chance at the shot I wanted.

Autorotate stopped working. I have tried soft reset, g sensor calibration and other stuff - nyet! A factory reset might do it but I am not going to reconfigure my phone every time this craps out. However I did manage to blow a couple of hours researching and experimenting.

I find the touch interface uncontrollable. I work with my hands. My fingers are thick and calloused. Despite calibrating the keypad I cant set the general sensitivity. Apps open wildly and random contacts get phone calls when I am trying to operate the phone.

This is an expensive phone and the one thing I expect from it is to be able to quickly, easily and reliably make and recieve phone calls! After a week of use, I still can't get to an incoming call in time. About half the incoming calls are lost because it takes too many steps to get to the phone if the display is off, the screen is locked and some app is displaying. On my Motorola Razr you just flipped it open! HTC seems to have forgotten this is a PHONE. The phone function is not just another app, its the main reason for owning the damn thing.

It does not operate on 4G anywhere. The Verizon agent assured me that there was universal 4G coverage in my state.

The internal memory is choked with apps that I dont need and can't seem to remove.

Battery life is ridiculously short. The power monitor says that the display eats over 50% of the power, but even with the display turned off, the brightness set very low and basic apps running, it will last less than 8 hrs. You had better have a car charger for this pig.

I read on the web that HTC has *terrible* customer service. I haven't tried to call them but this is yet another drawback to the phone.

My fiance & I are software developers. (I know I said I work with my hands, but software devo is my day job). We are fairly savvy about technology. In fact we bought these phones intending to learn how to write apps for them. Yet after a week of use where each of us invested at least an hour a day to learning the phone, we both find it hard to control, hard to find things and have difficulty answering calls in time.

It doesn't make a difference how amazing the features are on a phone if it doesn't perform its basic function properly

If you want to spend your time on the help forums figuring out how to troubleshoot its problems you might not mind these drawbacks. I have other things to do.

Update: Camera stopped working again. I will be taking it back to Best Buy today

NEVER BUY January 4, 2012

Reviewer:  dre51298 

This is my 3rd thunderbolt , 2 broke and my replacement is slow worst phone on 4g nothing ever works on it its made out of cheap material i wish i could go out and get moto droid or samsung

Good hardware undone by software December 8, 2011

Reviewer:  P. Bhowmick "CompFinance" 

This is a good phone, with a big screen and a mostly responsive build of Android but I don't know what HTC/Verizon did with the build but the OS and its basic tools like dialer come off a pretty buggy. For example, I have a custom ringer for when my wife calls. For reasons unknown, sometimes it will use the default ringer when she is calling (no, she is calling from one of the phones listed on her contacts card). Worse, sometimes, when my friends call, the ringer used is the one I have set for just my wife. There are times when the OS "drops" the SD card and only way to redetect it is to restart the phone. Until then, any podcasts, music, photos and videos I have cannot be accessed.
The HTC Sense UI is clunky at best. The should have stuck with Google's default UI.
The OS build comes preloaded with junkware which cannot be uninstalled. Another useful feature missing on this which I had on my G2 is the Swype keyboard.
In short, you can do better for the money. For the money, iPhone would have been better than this.

Request to ship cellphones outside the U.S September 7, 2011

Reviewer:  Anthed 

I'm a mauritian and very regretfully i cannot purchase any mobile phones on amazon since shipping of cellphones is restricted. I've bought a kindle on amazon and i was very pleased and really satisfied with the services offered. Unfortunatley, many people like me are sad because of this restricted service. I would have liked to own an HTC Thunderbolt since it is unavailable here in Mauritius. I hope my request will be taken into consideration and others will join me. Thank you.

Great phone September 1, 2011

Reviewer:  Howard Hillinger  (Redmond, WA, US) -

I upgraded to this phone a couple of months ago from a Motorola Droid. I love this phone - the screen size is huge by comparison to what I had before. HTC seems to make a good quality product and the HTC interfaces are nice touches - for example, there are onscreen widgets for stopping/starting wi-fi, GPS and Bluetooth, and for adjusting screen brightness - all helpful in managing battery life.

The large screen size is really great - makes it possible to actually use websites and see streaming video without having to squint so much. And the phone is fast, way way faster than my previous phone.

I'm not technical enough to say how much faster the phone operates, but I can say that it is fast enough that when I tether it to my notebook computer I can browse the internet at what feels like normal broadband speed when I get the 4G signal.

I bought a silicon case (about $12) fairly soon as the phone feels fairly smooth in and would be pretty easy to drop - cheap insurance in my mind.

Other significant issue is that the stock battery doesn't last long without a lot of active battery management - hence the widgets - but even then I couldn't go more than 5-6 hours without access to a charger. But that seems to be the problem with all of these phones - too much going on to for the batteries to keep up. Not sure if the battery makers will solve this issue but I'm buying an extended battery today and expect that will improve things.

It has a handy flip out stand which allows the phone to be stood up on its left side for viewing, but for some unknown reason HTC also put the micro USB charger slot on the left side so renders the kickstand unusable while the phone is charging. Maybe I'm missing something but that should be fixed. I believe there are charger stands that fix the issue but it is annoying.

Other comment is that I'm very happy with the Android operating system. While I'm sure Apple makes a really good product, I like the fact that Google allows a lot more software developers to make applications and does not control them and mark them up the way Apple does. Why pay so much more for the same thing - and there a lot of really great apps on the Android system - Google Maps for one, I LOVE that app.

As to product quality, this is the second HTC phone in the family. My wife has an HTC Google Nexus One which she loves and has had zero issues with. And I have had no issues with mine either.

So, bottom line - this is a really really good phone from a quality maker. It has its limitations as I described above but I don't think any phone would be perfect. I would heartily recommend it.

thunderbolt August 16, 2011

Reviewer:  donna pandolfo 

Battery life is horrible too many quirks, freezing- screen locking at times (etc) It has a great camera -screen is large -fast internet but after 1 or 2 hrs of internet use sizable battery drainage it's just not worth all the hype. I also cant use this phone in rain a little rain and I'm not talking about being drenched by water by any means it starts acting up cant use touch screen I got rid of it. Many people said my speakerphone wasn't clear also.