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
Camera
HTC’s camera designs seem to have notably improved this refresh. The newer phones I’ve seen have both better codecs for video and substantially improved image quality for stills. I have to give credit where it’s due, the new cameras are definitely better. The Thunderbolt continues the 4.3-inch HTC form factor tradition and carries an 8 megapixel rear facing camera with dual LED flash illumination. Images shot on the rear camera are 3264 x 2488 in size, and are compressed to just under 2 MB in size. There’s still no way to change how much compression is actually applied to images, and the majority of HTC’s camera interface is familiar territory. By default, shots are widescreen aspect ratio, but a quick toggle to 4:3 gives you the full 8 MP sensor size.
Switching cameras is done through menu. The Thunderbolt’s front facing camera is 1.3 MP and shoots 1280 x 960 or VGA size images. By default, the Thunderbolt horizontally flips images, thankfully you can toggle image flipping through the menu very easily. The front facing camera isn’t super impressive, and has a slightly yellowish cast in our lightbox.
Per usual, we took shots with the phone under test inside our lightbox target with the lights on and lights off, and in our usual outside test locations and added the images to our smartphone bench gallery for comparison.
I've also included a gallery with miscellaneous shots taken with the Thunderbolt that also illustrate camera performance outside of our normal testing locations.
Probably the easiest way to see the generational improvement in image quality that HTC has made is by comparing the HTC EVO’s lights on image with the HTC Thunderbolt’s. Likewise, the Inspire 4G/Desire HD shows notable improvement over the previous generation of HTC smartphones packing 8 megapixel cameras.
Left: HTC EVO 4G, Right: HTC Thunderbolt (click to expand)
When it comes to stills, the Thunderbolt finally does away with HTC’s previous tendency to oversaturate. More notably, the Thunderbolt has much much more fine spatial detail (higher spatial frequencies) visible than the EVO. Comparing things like the edge of the books, lines in the camera focus barrel, and detail in the pen shows a huge improvement. Subjectively, the new cameras also seem to have much less distortion at extreme field angles. The generational improvement in cameras is a notable difference, and HTC deserves credit for fixing things here. It still isn’t entirely perfect, for example, outdoors there still seems to be notable amounts of glare at the wrong angles. In the dark, there’s also ghosting from some extra reflections that clearly happens as well.
In the dark, the Thunderbolt shows the same increase in fine spatial detail as with the lights on. White balance with the flash is a bit cooler than it should be, however. The Thunderbolt properly illuminates the scene while doing autofocus and exposure, before taking the photo.
Outside at our test location, again sharpness is dramatically improved without being artificial. I truly feel like the 8 MP camera system that HTC has is much better than the previous generation of 8 MP HTC camera systems.
Video
When it comes to video, again codec selection and optical system has changed for the better and resulted in an all around improvement. Video quality is much improved. I keep using the EVO as a comparison, but here again the improvement is notable.
The Thunderbolt shoots 720P 30 FPS video in H.264 baseline with 1 reference frame at 8 megabits/sec, instead of 8 megabits/s MPEG-4 simple. Audio is now single channel AAC at 64 Kbps, which is a dramatic improvement over AMR-NB. Oddly enough there seems to be some noise cancellation oddness going on and audio still doesn’t sound good on the Thunderbolt, though I’m told this is something that’s also going to be soon remedied with a software patch. Both the front facing and rear facing camera samples are zipped up and available for download in their original form here.
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HangFire - Wednesday, April 27, 2011 - link
I credit this to Angry Birds. The bigger the tablet, the better the experience.MilwaukeeMike - Wednesday, April 27, 2011 - link
Well... it comes with a kickstand, clearly they want us to watch movies on them, which means they're not going to get any smaller. Have you ever had one though? It's not that bad. I have a double sized battery on my EVO and the extra width actually makes it easier to take out of my pocket (The ridge by the kickstand makes a little 'handle') and easier to hold sideways.MilwaukeeMike - Wednesday, April 27, 2011 - link
Oh... and a thicker phone means it's more likely in contact with your leg (guys) if in your pocket and increases the chance that you'll feel it when on vibrate.HangFire - Wednesday, April 27, 2011 - link
Brian, great in-depth review.The original Tbolt specs had 8GB of NAND Flash, but mine only reads 4. I've heard a rumor the that half was locked out to help deal with the battery issue, and another rumor that it might be "unlocked" some day. Do you have any info?
Also, some mention should be made of the awful Blockbuster app that comes pre-installed, with permissions to spy on everything, running processes that constantly use data, and cannot be uninstalled short of rooting. HTC and Verizon should be made to understand that such shovelware/crapware is totally unacceptable.
I found the 5MP T-Mobile G2 camera much better indoors/low-light than my Tbolt. Alas, T-Mobile has poor data in my area so I moved over to Verizon and the Tbolt. I think the pointless increase in Megapixels is the cause. I'd like to see better pictures, not better specs.
Brian Klug - Wednesday, April 27, 2011 - link
Interesting, I went with the HTC specifications which list 8 GB, but see what you mean about 4 GB now on this Thunderbolt. Very curious. I don't think the reason could be battery usage since it's nonvolatile, though I've heard lots of discussion about devices with 1 GB+ of RAM using more battery. I'll ask some questions and find out.The funny part about the crapware on the Thunderbolt is that it's actually far less than I see on the Inspire 4G. I haven't seen the Blockbuster app be persistent (though that could be because I haven't launched it), but otherwise yes you're completely right about the preload situation.
-Brian
sooper_anandtech12 - Wednesday, April 27, 2011 - link
Nice to see that the 3.7" 854x480 display on the Droid and Droid 2 still rockin' it as one of THE best displays in the mobile space. As for the push towards qHD displays. To be honest, I would like Motorola and the rest of them to hold off on these qHD displays. They all employ PenTile pixel substructures which effectively means there are less pixels than advertised. Looking at an Atrix display compared to my Droid's display and it's clear the Atrix should have been called Atrocious. The pixelation around widgets and on wallpapers was unacceptable. I haven't seen pixelation like that since AMOLED. Why release qHD PenTile LCDs when Samsung recently admitted PenTile stinks and is going with a normal RGB set up with S-AMOLED+? I'd rather see a nice IPS display like in the LG G2X, running at the antiquated 800x480 than a qHD display running 30% less pixels than the 960x540 that's advertised.mlosee222 - Wednesday, April 27, 2011 - link
Confirmed by threads at xda developers and other sources:http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/27/verizons-lte-ne...
Maybe its just the verizon commercials, but what has me sold is the network. I could honestly care less about the phone compared to the speeds LTE offers. Voice is a secondary consideration to data throughput for me. I would buy the thunderbolt for the network alone.
With that being said, I sincerely hope verizon's LTE isn't as overloaded and useless as T-Mobile's "3G" network is.
hans007 - Wednesday, April 27, 2011 - link
i agree. as someone who just left t-mobile for verizon, their network is terrible now at least for data. their voice isn't really spectacular either.in the bay area, their 3G coverage was really spotty.
and i am also in los angeles a lot and t-mobile has a ton of dead zones. i can't believe they advertise it as 4G as it felt slower than 3G on verizon.
Brian Klug - Wednesday, April 27, 2011 - link
It's a bitter irony really, of course the day after I post everything, eHRPD goes down and takes 4G LTE and 3G EVDO (on eHRPD) with it.If you go into EPST (##778#) and enter MSL (000000), you can change the modem setting under Rev.A to use just HRPD instead of eHRPD. That way, you're anchored through the old 3G data network instead of the common anchor point for EVDO and LTE that appears to be having problems right now.
I've been having sporadic EVDO (eHRPD) connectivity all day with dips to 1x. Unfortunate, but things like this will gradually get better in time.
-Brian
synaesthetic - Thursday, April 28, 2011 - link
Really depends on where you live, and plus you also get what you pay for. T-Mobile is considerably cheaper than Verizon.For slightly less service (assuming I do not buy an LTE device), Verizon charges me $30 more than T-Mobile does. From $65 to $95 for almost exactly the same service (though I lose 50 minutes of anytime minutes on Verizon).
Considering the uncertain future of T-Mobile US, I am considering Verizon as an option, but to me the device--and more specifically, the ROM--is the most important thing as long as my network speeds are decent enough.
For the record, my T-Mobile HSPA+ in downtown Berkeley is excellent, usually 6-7Mbps down and 2-3Mbps up. Absolutely sufficient for my purposes. At home, yeah, in the 'burbs my data speed kind of bites... but I have wifi and much faster wired broadband, why would I bother with using my data plan at home? :D