6 replies to this topic

[tedkord]

Verizon forced my hand - I wanted to wait for more 4G phones to be released, and see if any gems drop out, but I don't want to be locked in for two more years. (And I also don't want to get stuck when the tiered data comes along. Assuming they make as much effort to inform customers as they did with the 1 year contracts going away, there's a good chance I wouldn't find out until I tried to renew.)

So, I re-upped today for 1 year with a Thunderbolt. It's not really the phone I want, and if something else drops within the 14 day trial period, it may go back. But, my (t)rusty Omnia II is being retired. (Heh - the 14 day trial starts today, even though I won't receive the phone until Monday or Tuesday. Verizon is really going backwards in customer service)

Let's be honest, it had decent sounding specs, and a beautiful amoled screen, but otherwise was a real piece of garbage. But thanks to the kind folks here, it was tolerable, and even in some ways good. Shemmy, Steel, AMDZero, Xlightwaverx, and of course the man who made it all possible initially, WoZZer - a heartfelt thank you to you all. There are also the others who helped make this a better device - Epsylon3 for S3Clock, NuShrike for FPUEnabler, Mirko Schenk for MortScript. I'm sure there are others, but I can't think of them all right now. All of you made this smartphone so much smarter than it initially was, and in turn made my life much easier.

Then there are the rest of you, the forum regulars who always chimed in with help when a semi-literate like myself got lost or confused. Thanks to all of you, too.

It's time to start a new learning curve - rooting, superuser access, deodexing - it's all greek to me. I only hope the folks in the T-Bolt forum at XDA are as kind and understanding and helpful as everyone here. I'll very likely still check back in here just to see what's going on every so often. I still do in the i910 Modaco forum, and it's till alive and kicking!

[kdkinc]

You'll really like the TB its a rocket.
Follow MyDroidWorld.com.
p3droid has a lot going on as well as bgil55 .

rooted and Rom'ed maybe my next phone also but still liking my DroidX.

[the sandman]

My brother has the Thunderbolt and he says the battery life on it is terrible. He even bought the extended battery and it still doesn't last him a whole day. Other than that he says the phone is great.

I'm waiting for the Droid Bionic to come out, whenever that will be. I heard it has battery issues too

[tedkord]

the sandman, on Apr 16 2011, 21:28, said:

My brother has the Thunderbolt and he says the battery life on it is terrible. He even bought the extended battery and it still doesn't last him a whole day. Other than that he says the phone is great.

I'm waiting for the Droid Bionic to come out, whenever that will be. I heard it has battery issues too

PA is reporting the Bionic has been cancelled, and it's successor (Targa) will take the name Bionic when it arrives. They claim to have inside sources who say the Bionic (codenamed Etna) has been scrapped due to issues they couldn't work out between the this phone and the LTE radio chipset, plus the power issues. According to these sources, testers with the Etna have been ordered to disocntinue testing send them back in.

I wanted to wait also, not necessarily for the Bionic, but to see what LTE phones drop and have some choice - Verizon made that impossible.

They turned the screw on me anyway by eliminating 1-year contracts online on the 12th (with no advance warning, of course). When I logged into my account on the 11th to check what the 1-year upgrade price of the Thunderbolt would be, my price was $239.99 - not bad. A day later, when I'd decided to to go for it, I found the online 1-year option removed, and was told I'd have to call in for a 1-year upgrade. When I did, the price had magically jumped to $319.99, an $80 jump.

The price had been $239.99 for a 1-year extension everytime I had logged in since the T-Bolt came out, but when I actually go for it, $319.99. I'm not really happy, but at least this one year extension gets me more in line with the other lines in my family plan for upgrade time. If the 1-year plans are still gone by then, I'm off to Sprint. If I am trapped in 2-year contracts, I might as well get better value for it.

[haveitnow]

Was in a similar position a couple months ago when they were about to cancel the NE2 plan.  So I wanted to wait for the tbolt or the bionic, but ended up getting the X for myself after seeing the tbolt I couldn't be happier.  I still use my O2 as my BT HID remote control for my media PC since android can't do it.  Otherwise I love my Droid X now running GB.

[Omega Ra]

I too have moved on. I switched to AT&T and got myself the Samsung Focus. It is a beautiful phone and works so smooth. WP7 is great and with the new features announced at MIX that are due out later this year...it is going to be even more awesome.

[tedkord]

Omega Ra, on Apr 18 2011, 08:34, said:

I too have moved on. I switched to AT&T and got myself the Samsung Focus. It is a beautiful phone and works so smooth. WP7 is great and with the new features announced at MIX that are due out later this year...it is going to be even more awesome.

Congrats. The focus does look nice, and playing with it at the ATT store, I did find it very smooth. But, due to a bad experience I had with ATT 11 years ago, I've refused to go back to them, and I won't any time soon.

I'm also not on entirely board with MS playing Apple with this OS - can't customize the UI, only apps from app store, the genral lock down of the OS requiring a "jailbreak" to access some features fully. I didn't expect it to be exactly like Android (anything goes), but I was hoping for more of a middle ground. I haven't had a terrible experience with WM6.5 (though it is dated compared to iOS/Android), and was looking forward to WP7. Their reaction to the first "jailbreak" was encouraging. Now, I'm on a more wait and see holding pattern.

It doesn't matter what I think, though. All that matters is you love it, and it sounds like it's only going to get better for you!

I would have given serious thought to a WP7 phone on VZW, or even just a different LTE enabled handset, but they just cornered me. I'd have loved more choices, and I was planning to hold out. But time ran out, and if I waited any longer, I'd have been forced into the 2-year contract, and possibly into tiered data. Had to jump.

BTW, Verizon contacted me today, and they credited me the $80 difference in phone price - so I'm a bit happier today!