HTC Thunderbolt Review: The First Verizon 4G LTE Smartphone
by Brian Klug on April 27, 2011 12:12 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- HTC
- Verizon
- LTE
- 4G
- Android
- HTC Thunderbolt
- Mobile
- MDM9600
- MSM8655
Performance
The Thunderbolt doesn’t surprise too much in the performance category. It’s the same single core Snapdragon 45 nm SoC we’ve talked about before and become very familiar with performance-wise. Inside you get one 1 GHz Scorpion core, and Adreno 205 graphics. I’m decently impressed with the improvement from Adreno 200 to 205, but again there’s an upcoming big boost in Qualcomm’s roadmap with Adreno 220 that will debut in its first dual-core SoCs.
There’s nothing super surprising here in the performance category, but we still ran the Thunderbolt through our test suite. Subjectively the Thunderbolt feels the same as the Inspire 4G and other MSM8x55 devices I've spent time with. It's definitely current generation, but there's still a surprising amount of smoothness that dual core brings that the Thunderbolt can't quite match.
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hans007 - Wednesday, April 27, 2011 - link
i live in the bay and bought the tbolt.and WOW its like 10-20 mbps down. its insane fast. not to mention having used t-mobile before this (and i also used virgin mobile for about 3 weeks... which uh was pretty uneven honestly) the verizon network is bar none better than either of those (i dont use at&t but i hear it is horrible up here)
7Enigma - Wednesday, April 27, 2011 - link
I will second the request for a permanent post # for referencing. I know the embedded message makes this more difficult but it could simply be the start of a string gets a post number and followups a second number (or letter as rarely do comments get over 20+ replies). I know I've given up several times when I want to go back to an older article to see if the author responded to one of my comments and can't find it without reading every single one.Hopefully something like this can be implemented in the near future as the comment system has really been the only thing lacking on Anandtech compared to other hardware review sites.
Brian Klug - Wednesday, April 27, 2011 - link
We've been looking to add some features lately, I'll be sure to bring comment permalinking up. It might be a little while, but I totally agree.-Brian
CrystalBay - Wednesday, April 27, 2011 - link
Yea , nice job Brian...Omid.M - Wednesday, April 27, 2011 - link
Brian,Does it have dual mics, i.e. for noise cancellation?
I'm surprised at how many phones don't have this or at least don't advertise it.
@moids
Brian Klug - Wednesday, April 27, 2011 - link
Indeed it does, there's one up at the top near the headset jack which is used for noise cancellation. I found suppression to be very good. You can see the mic port here: http://www.anandtech.com/Gallery/Album/1039#21The problem with audio sounding strange when recording videos is still present, though HTC is going to fix this in an update soon, I'm told.
-Brian
SRHelicity - Wednesday, April 27, 2011 - link
Great review, Brian! As another commenter noted, this review is thorough and detailed. Good stuff!pandemonium - Wednesday, April 27, 2011 - link
It got me really thinking about the basis of why Verizon and Sprint are pushing their LTE out.With how fast smart phones are being adopted by the general public, they better get a faster move on with their LTE coverage. I can't imagine not being able to simultaneously use data and voice being on a widely covered UMTS service compared to the lacking LTE coverage and the need for a dual transceiver device.
softdrinkviking - Wednesday, April 27, 2011 - link
sorry to hear you were sick, brian. i know how it can be to get the double knockout, not so fun. :(nice to see this kind of form factor in the mix as it is exactly what i'm looking for.
do you, or anyone reading know if there are any similar designs around with a better screen? (ips)
i wonder what the refresh of the Dell streak 5" will add up to, if it's ever coming out?
Stuka87 - Wednesday, April 27, 2011 - link
Why is it so many (if not all) of the 4G phones out there are freaking huge?!Is this just a way of trying to move them farther up market, or what? I know there are people that want a larger device. But really, I like the smaller form factors. I would never even consider getting this device because of its size.