Great! But... July 5, 2011

Reviewer:  Ronnie Meek "RamMan"  (Nashville, TN USA) -

I've had this phone for two months now. It is a beautiful piece of equipment that feels sturdy and well made.

Pros: This thing is nasty fast. If you are in a 4G area it makes web surfing actually useful. With 3G there is often the embarrassing wait as people look at you and thing, "Poor thing." With this they look at you and simply say, "I want one." Apps pop up quickly and operate smoothly. Did I mention that it is also fast?

Cons: The battery life is embarrassing. (I guess you have to be embarrassed about something.) If you are not going to be able to charge you phone during the day you MUST carry an extra battery and if you plan to do a lot with your phone you likely need two extras. I'm getting ready to breakdown and buy a long life battery. The reviews say it will take you through a day but I have my doubts. Also, the phone has a handy kick out stand on the back but in a move sure to generate serious consideration for the "Idiot Engineer of the Year" award when you use the stand it is impossible to plug in the charger.

If you can deal with the battery issue and overlook a dumb engineering move this is the phone you want. Did I mention that it is fast?

UPDATE: I purchased a 2750 mAh battery. Problem solved! Now this phone last the entire day with moderate to heavy use. Also, the form factor is still quite satisfactory with the larger battery. I would now give it 5 stars in spite of the dumb engineering boo boo about the kick stand.

Dont Buy: Battery life sucks June 23, 2011

Reviewer:  S. Jain "Happy Shopper"  (Somewhere in CA) -

- Phone is good with great features (Better than iPhone that I switched from) but credit for that should go to Android not HTC.
- 4G Speed is great but credit should go to verizon not HTC.
- Battery life is the main problem. It drains in 4 hours. If you use 4G, GPS and other features together it may drain in 1-2 hours.

What were they thinking ? People will carry charger with them just because they made a mistake of buying this phone ?

Verizon must replace this phone with other phone. If they don't, they will see more reviews like this for the device and their service.

Battery Eater & Loose Jack June 15, 2011

Reviewer:  Vaughn Grisham  (Alpine TX) -

After a month of use, I've just pulled the trigger, and I'm swapping this thing for a Droid Incredible 2.

The Thunderbolt's battery use is atrocious and inexcuseable. I took my kid to an amusement park earlier this month. We arrived at 9:00 am. I took a few photos, texted them to my wife, checked Facebook a few times, and took one phone call. By 11:30 am, I had to change batteries. And this is on 3G--I was not in an LTE area.

The killer though was the audio jack, which developed a loose connection after four weeks of very light use.

For what was supposed to be such a great phone, I am sorely disappointed in the hardware of this phone.

I'm going to miss the kickstand.

DO NOT *228 This Phone...YOU WILL DESTROY THE SIM CARD. May 8, 2011

Reviewer:  John M. Dunn 

Unfortunately, I did this and now I have to get the sim card replaced. I was informed by the Verizon Rep. after not being able to activate the phone that if you *228 the Thunderbolt you will damage the sim card. I wish AmazonWireless would have made this clear. The phone seems cool, but I can't make a call on it yet.

I was braced for the worst and was pleasantly surprised. April 30, 2011

Reviewer:  T.C.  (Dallas, TX USA) -

After all the complaints on here and some other sites, I was apprehensive on trying the Thunderbolt. But this morning I got brave, went down to the Verizon store and picked one up (I did NOT order on Amazon, so I can't rate the activation service here). The extended batteries are out of stock at the moment..basically everywhere. So I'm stuck with the standard battery for the limited time. I'm going to try this phone out for few weeks and if it's abysmal I'll return it before 14 days. However, I don't think that's going to happen based off my first impressions.
First off: yes the battery is underpowered for the device. I'm really not sure what they were thinking with giving the Thunderbolt a 1400 mAh battery. However, it's really not all that bad from what I've seen so far. And this is just after one charging session..supposedly it gets better after the battery is 'trained'.. I had the thunderbolt first fully charged by 3:00 and it has been on 4G for the rest of the day. As of now (9:00pm) after more use than I'd typically do on a typical day (more games, 4G downloading, youtube, texting, pictures) the battery is 50%. There are better devices as far as battery life goes, but I'm actually impressed. I was half expecting it to be dead by now. I will still be buying an extended battery when they get back in stock, but for now I'm quite confident I can make this work.

That being said, there are some tweaks to help you get the best charge. As many have pointed out, there are some apps now that allow you to easily turn the 4G *off* and only rely on 3G. This will still allow you to talk and surf at the same time even. It will also make a huge difference with the battery from what I'm told. It makes sense since 4G is a big battery draw. I have tried it, and it seems to work without a hitch. I'll see what the battery life change is in a few days. I don't need 4G all the time, I see no reason to leave it on if it's detrimental to the battery charge. I'll just turn it on when I was to watch videos or surf!
As for the rest of the phone features: Yay!
I'm coming from first generation Moto Droid. What a difference. The droid was a tank, but it moved like molasses compared to this thing - in both processor and wireless speed . Verizon's 4G network is fantastic. I'm averaging 10-12mbps down in Dallas. That's faster than my home internet. The phone itself is very responsive. Night and day compared to the droid. HTC Sense isn't too shabby, though I'm still getting used to it. Despite the added stuff it's very responsive. The screen is nice and big (though it puts out some heat!), the kickstand is really useful. Games work great. It's not the most powerful gaming phone, but it can certainly hold its own. Call quality hasn't been bad at all, though admittedly I haven't talked much on it. Haven't noticed any problems!

2 things I dislike so far: the notification led is kind of pathetic. And the speaker is covered by the kickstand. So if you want the best audio quality you'll have to have it out (I actually found it is a nice safety while holding the phone).
I'll be getting the extended battery soon. If that changes anything major I'll update this. All in all with some of the promised updates and gingerbread coming, I'm very optimistic! I think I found my new phone.

Battery Hype is nonsense. April 16, 2011

Reviewer:  Tom C 

Absolutely amazing product. Don't buy into the battery issues, I got 16 hours with light-moderate use (Facebook, texting, web browsing) in a non-4g area with 32% battery life remaining. In my 4g area I still get a good 14 hours of use out of the thunderbolt. However, I do have juice defender downloaded, but it is only on the balanced setting.

Imagine coming from an old-school NV touch to the thunderbolt! It's like I've been pushed into the future... Lol.

Almost returned but.... April 11, 2011

Reviewer:  Tinoskier  (Boston, MA) -

I was in the verizon store on the last day of the return period, seriously contemplating returning this phone but instead I downgraded to a 1 year plan. I was considering getting the iphone 4 but that is not available on a 1 year contract from verizon. This is why I kept it.

1. It is nice phone. The screen size and HTC sense operating system simply make the phone a pleasure to use. For those of you new to Android (I was) there are truly a ton of apps. I am findings ones everyday that my fiance does not have on her iphone 4. She is jealous. And more of these apps are free than on apple. Upgrade to Gingerbread is coming soon. This phone will continue to get support for some time (obviously).

2. The 4G LTE is ridiculously fast. I live in a Boston, which has been recording some the fastest speeds and can confirm that. I routinely get downloads of 20Mbps. This is often faster than my comcast cable. Unfortunately this really drains the battery as others have noted. I actually have the 4G turned off almost all the time, since it is not really that much faster than wifi and I can be on wifi at home and at work.

3. The battery isn't that bad. I use the phone info app to turn of the 4G and another app green power which shuts down all network connections when the screen is off. You can still get phone calls and text messages, however, the phone will only connect to the internet at certain intervals (mine is set for every 30 min) to download email and update your other apps etc. You can set all this up on manually but the app makes it easier. This extends my battery life easily past 24 hours with moderate use. I took it off the charger at 6 am and when I got home at 10 am the next day that phone had about 20% left. It also took about a week of charges to condition the battery. Yes, with the screen brightest up and the 4G on, browsing the internet and doing some heavy downloading the phone will probably die in about 4 hours. But, how long does your laptop stay charged? If you're going to use it like that, the expectation should be that it is going to act more like a tablet or laptop.

My first droid... April 11, 2011

Reviewer:  bcspiel 

My choice came down to the Thunderbolt and the iphone 4. And, after a couple of weeks of research leading up to this momentous decision, which would change my life (not quite, but don't we all make our phones part of who we are?), I decided to go to best buy, use their free 30 day trial, and take the thunderbolt out for a spin. Plus I know I would have been cool with the iphone if the TB didnt do it for me:

Cons:

*The only thing that I have issues with is the battery. I have barely used it today (my first day back to work after a week long spring break) and after seven hours of the charger it is down to about 35%. Once again, with about a total of 30 minutes use. But, I was aware of the battery issues when I bought it.

*No skype yet, but the app said it is coming.

*If you take a lot of photos of your self, its nearly impossible. There is no analog button to use to take a shot, just a button on the screen. Makes it very hard to shoot photos

Pros:

*My city is not in the 4g LTE area yet, but I got to experience Verizon 4G in a neighboring town, and to say its fast is an understatement. It is faster than my cable modem through ethernet. 3G is quick, 4G is insane. A 5 minute youtube video began in 3 seconds with zero buffering for its entirety.

*One concern I had and a reason why I originally was leaning to the iphone was my 4000 songs on itunes (I have a Macbook Pro) and the prospect of not being able to use them on a droid. After some digging in online forums, I found double twist, which converted all but 6 songs into Droid capable mp3's. It took me a few attempts to sync, but when it worked, I had about 1500 songs on my phone, sorted by my existing playlists. (Double twist looks just like itunes in set-up and syncs exactly the same).

*Droid App Market- Most everything I need has been free, including Google Nav (which is as good as any standalone Nav system I have been witnessed too)

*I realize that the TB only has "one" processor. Its not dual core. But I have no idea how much faster the OS can get even with two processors. It runs multiple Apps smoothly (Angry birds and pandora radio is a mad combo), switches screens almost immediately, and will make you breakfast to boot (Okay, not quite).

*Another small thing, You can make any song in your digital library a ringtone (I finally got the Black Keys' "I Got Mine")

*Talking and internet at the same time. Never thought this was a big deal until I had it.

*Finally, everything on the phone that I have found is speech driven. Talk to text, navigation, websites, etc. You say it and the TB does it. Extremely convenient when on the road.

*Hope this helps, but the Thunderbolt is basically a well polished mini laptop that you can make calls on!

A nice phone that should be nicer after some updates... April 7, 2011

Reviewer:  St. "Liebowitz"  (NC, USA) -

Update 04/09/2011:
Switching the phone mode with the 4G Switch or LTE OnOff apps does make a difference in battery consumption, as suggested by Ebony Prince and others. I'd estimate that my battery lasted 30% longer.

Me:
I had the Motorola Droid before buying this, use various Google services frequently, and didn't expect perfection from this phone. 4G is not in my area quite yet but supposed to be coming.

Like:
HTC user interface stuff. On my old device I had installed several apps attempting to emulate the coolness that HTC bestows :)

Everything looks good on the beautiful, spacious screen. Using Kindle for Android on this thing, for instance, is a pleasure.

Fast - extremely responsive in apps and browsing, even at 3G.

Dislike:
Mine so far has been an absolute pig on the battery. No kidding. Even at 3G. Even with Task Killer running, auto-brightness off, wireless off. To sum up, if battery life was a top priority, I would definitely have made the wrong choice. Of course, I expected *some* of this.

Recorded video audio levels seem low on playback, relative to my old device.

Having experienced the joys of OS updates on my old Droid, I fully expect some of my minor gripes will be taken care of within a month or two. For the battery use, I may end up buying a larger capacity battery.

Perfect - except for battery April 5, 2011

Reviewer:  dalupster "jb"  (Oakland, CA) -

Everything is completely amazing about this phone - including how fast the battery goes down. My only complaint, but be sure to buy extra cords for work, car, etc. You'll need them.

DOWNGRADED my Review after 4 Months... March 28, 2011

Reviewer:  Harold Griffith  (Denver, CO United States) -

In Order of Most Significant to Least Significant:
- Battery: Max of 4.5 hours... Strongly encourage you to buy an extra wall charger for work & another one for the car. (Might be worth buying an extended life battery once those start getting better reviews.)
- I have to reboot my phone at least once a day because it is overwhelmed and the touchscreen stops responding to my touch
+ 4G Speed: AMAZING! Faster than my home and work internet.
- 4G Off/On Capability: To save batteries, I've been forced to turn 4G off the majority of time, so when I reach for my phone to use the internet or google maps, I have to go into the program, turn on the 4G network (process takes about 15 seconds), wait for 4G to turn on & recognize a 4G signal (1 minute), and then do my searching in super-fast 4G LTE. In comparison, my friends using an iPhone on a 3G network get the information sooner, because their 3G with another carrier is faster when you aren't in the constant crisis mode of "Have to save my battery!"
- I have spent a lot of time with iPhone users. And While I'm a big fan of having an open platform for the sake of having an open platform, Apple's platform means an iPhone is super-smooth. Android phones have more "hiccups" due to too many software programs running at once and demanding power from your device.
- I get jerky graphics on my phone daily. The OS just can't keep up with the demands of the programs running in the background. (I have to use Advanced Task Killer at least 10 times a day, and I'm always surprised what programs have woken up on their own.)
+ Hot Spot: Had 2 computers on it both getting 10+ mbps while still surfing internet on the phone. When connected as a hotspot, the phone can get a little jerky... But with only a 1GB processor, I think that's reasonable.
+ Screen: Large w/Good to Great resolution.
+ HTC Sense: Easy to customize, smooth transition between pages/apps (most of the time its smooth... The older your phone gets, the more frequently you'll have to start rebooting it)
+/~ Phone Calling: Good. Had a little trouble syncing with my Bluetooth (Wouldn't let me pick up calls at first... Worked itself out.)
+/~ Web Browser: Good. Hitting the menu button to get to other "Windows" is annoying, but having multiple windows is a great feature.
+ Apps: Some of them still catching up to support the Thunderbolt, but overall Good to great.
- Video Chat: The accidentally released version of the video chat works fine. Two things happen with this type of feature if you are on for more than a few minutes: 1) Your arm gets tired or 2) People start to see a shot of your nose hairs as you lower the screen down (from your arms being tired or from sitting it on a desk). So, maybe not the best choice if you are looking for a professional look.
- Minor Design Flaw: The kickstand is great, but when you plug the power cord in, you can't use the kickstand and have the phone on its side. The result? You have to hold the phone in your hand while watching videos/movies if you want the biggest picture possible. This is a minor annoyance, but it is annoying.

Ridiculously Short Battery Life!!! April 26, 2011

Reviewer:  Wendy Cheung "wendy"  (san francisco) -

This is my first Android phone after my i-phones and I am loving the 4G speed. However the battery life is ridiculous, I would have to go back to the charger three times a day to avoid it from shutting down. It would only last 6-7 hours on a full charge. I went to Best Buy for some advise and the guy told me I should download the task killer app to stop the apps that are running in the background, it is suppose to drain the battery slower, or NOT! It doesn't help at all. I found some stronger 1700mAh battery at $40+, but seriously, the phone itself cost $250 already and now I have to pay $40+ more for a battery? I thought they would have fixed the problem since the release date got delayed so many times, apparently not.

Avoid this phone April 24, 2011

Reviewer:  Josh 

First off, they don't tell you that verizon needs you to call and tell them your sim card number, otherwise the phone won't work. After an hour on the phone with verizon they were able to finally activate it. The phone was working fine for about 3 days, even though the battery lasted at most 4 hours. Then the internet stopped working. I called verizon and they guy told me that there were a bunch of phones that just are defective and don't work. Wait a few months until the new 4g phones come out. This is the worst phone I've ever had.

Update: Amazon sent me a new phone and after 20 minutes the internet stopped working again. For over 3 days Verizon has done absolutely nothing to fix it.

Expensive paperweight May 24, 2011

Reviewer:  Surfdaddy "singlefin"  (Santa Cruz, CA United States) -

This phone came with a lot of hype that it doesn't even begin to live up to. I should have bought an iPhone instead. It is unstable, and unrelaible, plus I am tethered to an electrical outlet because the battery life is absolutely terrible. The phone malfunctions on a regular basis (like almost every time I want to use it), and shuts itself off randomly. The lack of reliability makes this essentially an expensive paperweight. Be forewarned; HTC and Verizon rushed this out and it is totally unstable. I would never buy this phone had I known what I know now, so be forewarned.

Battery life is no worse than my previous Incredible or iPhone March 30, 2011

Reviewer:  Kirk Petersen "kirk.petersen@gmail.com"  (Seattle, WA USA) -

Love the phone. It is rather large but the screen is much nicer to read on than my previous two phones (HTC Incredible and iPhone 3GS). The battery life has been comparable to other high-end smart phones (recharge it every night).

The camera is faster to load and takes pretty good pictures and videos.

It has a lot of plastic parts but feels much more solid than my Incredible.

LTE is ridiculously fast and I'm getting great coverage all over Seattle.

Overall, I'm really happy with this phone.

It's not Bad March 24, 2011

Reviewer:  W. Flack "ravenpunk"  (Alb Nm) -

I switch from the original Droid which I loved to the Thunderbolt. I spent 2 hours on the phone with Verizon on Mon when I got the phone and then spent 2 hours in store on Tues with Verizon to get the Thunderbolt activated. They told me on the phone, I blew the sim card following Amazonwireless.com directions for activation. The store told me that wasn't true although they didn't seem to know where the difficulty was coming from. I began to wonder if I made a mistake but I believe the problem lies with the network and not having the 4G in my area yet, not the phone itself. Over all the more I play with the phone the more I like the phone. Unfortunately the cons list is short but rather irritating to me and the way I use my phone.If you use a bluetooth and not a wired headset then this phone is awesome.

Pros: -much faster for running apps although I don't have a 4g network here the internet is about the same
-smooth interface took a little learning time not much though
-Love the fact it's a bigger screen
- Not missing the keyboard at all
-Really like most of HTC widget selection
-speaker is great when standing on a hard surface using the kickstand

cons:
-HTC requires an adapter to talk with a headset(that ridiculous in my opinion)this caused my biggest complaint because now I have another small cord to keep track of just to use my phone with a headset or to plug it into my car stereo, if you use bluetooth this isn't an issue.

-The alert sounds are not as loud so I miss messages all the time
-Annoyed that the Google calender has to run through a HTC widget that I don't like
-Battery life seems to be a minor issue (but it is a new phone so I'm on it constantly)

So disappointed! September 10, 2011

Reviewer:  immaRN 

I went in to buy an iphone and was talked into the thunderbolt after rave reviews from people in the store that were using it themselves. After 3 months, I am now counting down the days until I can get out of this contract and trash the phone! It never will auto connect to the internet, so I need to manually turn off the internet and turn it on. Once on, it will only stay connected for 20-30 seconds, so surfing the net is next to impossible. So much for paying $30 a month for internet service that is never available. While on a thread of messages, it will post onto another. When buying it, I specifically asked about battery time and they told me 48 hours after charging. The truth is more like 2-6 hours, depending on the applications in use. The worst is in the middle of a phone conversation, it will automatically decide that it needs to turn off and restart. I would have really expected better out of a $250 phone and am now kicking myself for being talked out of the iphone!

The big Preinstalled Apps question for Thunderbolt August 5, 2011

Reviewer:  Zenon W. Pylyshyn  (New York, NY United States) -

[[ASIN:B004M5HB6U HTC ThunderBolt 4G Android Phone (Verizon Wireless)]]
I have been trying every way I can to get an official answer to these two questions about preinstalled Apps on the Thunderbolt Verizon Phone: (1) Is there NO way to remove Apps I don't want? (Even sending the phone back to the factory!) (2) Do these Apps draw down the battery (e.g. are they running in the background). I find it hard to believe that HTC would force Apps on users who don't want them, especially if they are shortening battery life.

Nice phone: HORRIBLE battery life! July 22, 2011

Reviewer:  Don Snyder "The Idea Guy ...creative powers beyond those of mere mortals."  (Columbus, OH USA) -

I figured out why they called this model the "Thunderbolt" -- it needs to be struck by lightning every 30-minutes in order to keep it charged! The short battery life is the only complaint I have about this phone, unfortunately it is SO bad that I would not have purchased this phone if I'd had an inkling just how fast it burns through a charge. The other issue I have with it is a design flaw. This model has a kickstand display so you can watch video from your phone, but with the charging cable plugged in, the kickstand is rendered useless in landscape mode (which is how you'd view 99% of videos) and without the power cable, you won't be watching videos for very long with the device's extremely limited battery life!

**Updated** Decent Phone, but nowhere as good as OG Droid July 18, 2011

Reviewer:  Zachary A. Barnes  (Blacksburg, VA USA) -

Update 3/20/2012
I've now had the phone for a little over 6 months and i'm no longer pleased. The software became buggy and the overall lack of quality of the product has come out to the point where I am now forced to purchase a new phone, short of my two year contract expiration. The charging port started acting up somewhere between 5 and 6 months of what I consider to be normal usage. The plastic casing also hasn't held up too well to the test of time, it shows wear and has started to crack. Overall my lasting impression is less than impressed. Over time, the software updates caused the phone to be buggy at times, compounded by the breaking of normal components and the overall dissatisfaction with build quality.

I got this phone as an upgrade from my long outdated, but workhorse of a phone, the flagship Motorola Droid. I kept telling myself to wait for the Motorola Droid Bionic to come out but no one could give a timeframe on its release so I decided to jump in with both feet and purchase the Thunderbolt. I am now a little over a month and a half into my ownership of the Thunderbolt and feel I have given it time for a honest review.

Now, before I start this review just know that I can't help but be a little biased. My previous phone was the Motorola Droid 1, and my first smartphone so all of my experience is based off of that phone.

I do not live in a 4G available area but I do frequently travel to these areas so I do feel the need to echo how incredible fast the 4G LTE network is, faster than my Comcast cable setup at home. All of this comes at a price with the phone however, when connected to 4G the phone becomes one power hungry beast, lasting only about 6 hours on standby and even less depending on how heavy you're using the network (and with speeds like 12MBPS down how could you not use it?). They do offer an extended battery... for a price... that's an additional $40-50, and the price of losing the sexy form factor of the phone with a bulky new battery door. This is not as big of a problem when you're on 3G data connections, when i'm running 3G only with normal usage (text messaging, little talk time, and the occasional lookup online) I can generally get from 10am to midnight.. still not as great as the original droid but not bad considering the faster processor, bigger screen, and features of the phone. There is also the option in the phone to turn off "always on data connection" which helps the connection a great deal because it only connects to 3G or 4G when you access something that needs 3G or 4G.. the downfall is that it screws with applications that pull data in the background.

This leads me into the look and feel of the phone. Let's start with the obvious, its a big phone! But, while it is a big phone it doesn't feel TOO big.. it fits nicely into your pocket without a case but i'd imagine that with a case of any size to it that it would feel a little bulky in the pocket. In terms of problems with the phone casing i've noticed that the kickstand has some sort of protective coating over the metal and that it likes to flake off over time.. not a major deal, but does make the phone look cheap. I also don't feel like the screen is as scratch resistant as my original droid. With my MotoDroid I would put the phone wherever I wanted and never got a scratch, but already with this phone I have a few scratches on the screen. This is probably due to the lack of a protective "lip" around the screen like my original droid had.

As for call quality, I will also echo other reviewers as saying its "ok"... the biggest problem with it is that you sound like you're talking through a tin can at times. This seems to be due to a design flaw in the phone as the microphone is mounted on the bottom edge of the phone to preserve that big beautiful screen so you're not actually talking directly into the microphone. Also, speakerphone isn't as loud as I would have liked, especially for a media phone. The kickstand tends to muffle the sound coming out.. and if you put your phone into a car mount as I do then there is no way to open the kickstand in the car to adequately use the speakerphone.

The phone itself is fast for a single processor. It doesn't choke when I have the Internet Browser open watching YouTube videos, while listening to music, while downloading a torrent in the background.. which is a far stride better than my MotoDroid which seemed like the "Sunday driver in the left lane" by the time I was ready to upgrade. I only have two complaints about the phone's operating system. First and very much foremost, and one of the major reasons it lost a star is because its filled with a bunch of bloatware apps that I cannot delete!!! The MotoDroid haad no bloatware and was absolutely amazing because I very adamantly delete applications that I do not use. This comes pre-loaded with crap that can't be gotten rid of in any way short of rooting the phone and very riskily rearranging some system files. If these were good apps it would be tolerable, but the apps are the worst apps I could think of. One is a Blockbuster application (yes, Blockbuster, the one filing for bankruptcy and probably doesn't have a store near you anymore) so a year down the road when there isn't anymore Blockbuster I still have the app. Also have a slew of other applications like a mini golf DEMO app, that once you use is useless and you have to buy the full copy and about 5 other apps that I have never used. But, with that rant off my chest let's move on. With the most recent update of the OS a lot of thunderbolts are plagued with random reboots. This is most definitely an android problem, but is limited to the thunderbolt. Nothing is more frustrating than attempting to enter an address into navigation while going down the road and having your phone shut off and reboot (which takes about 2 minutes). Apparently a fix is in the works, but until then this statement will stay in the review.

The camera is nice, its 8 megapixels on the back and 1.3 in the front. The 8 megapixes is good for your everyday picture taking and has replaced my digital camera for most short vacation shots and the like. If you're a photography aficionado then it will probably leave alot to be desired because there aren't many settings available to tweak camera settings, but it works for me to take pictures in my everyday life. The front facing camera is a nice thought... but is utterly useless until there is a use for it. The only app available that uses the camera is the camera application and a hacked version of skype (which you can stream, very choppily mind you, over a 3G connection).. you'd think there would be an application lined up before a feature like this was put into the phone.

So, all in all, I like the phone. It has its own faults like every other phone on the market. In my opinion, this phone's three weak points are the battery life, bloatware, and the random reboots. All of these could be fixed with one simple software update, which could come any day from HTC. Other than that I think it's a solid and powerful phone. Especially to be a flagship 4G LTE phone. I have left my individual ratings below.

Design: Poorly placed microphone, kickstand coating rubs off, kickstand blocks speaker, solid and non-bulky feeling, nice form factor.
7/10
Call Quality: Sound like you're "talking in a tin can", low speaker phone volume
7/10
Camera: Lack of settings, point and shoot, clear picture quality, 720p video recording
9/10
Phone Usage: Random Reboots, So-So Battery Life Depending on Usage, BLOATWARE GALORE, responsive UI, snappy processor, Blazing fast 4G LTE connections
7/10
OVERALL:
8/10