Droid Charge vs. LG Revolution vs. HTC Thunderbolt

[s.hasan546]

Ok let me start this by stating this phone WILL NOT replace my iphone. My iphone will always be my personal phone.

However, im looking for a phone to replace my work line.

Im mainly looking now since verizon is switching to tiered data and i want to get locked into 4G unlimited now since i would use wifi tether a lot.

So which phone would you guys recommend? Neither of these phones are my ideal work/2nd phone.

Charge- I hate samsung touch wiz. If root is available than it's not as big on an issue

Revolution- i heard the screen sucks? and that LG's UI is a cheaper/worse version of touch wiz.

Thunderbolt- Battery life is horrible supposedly + very thick phone.

 

[Hueyfreeman]

I think the charge is your best bet. In all the flagship phones for verizons 4g lte are all gimped one way or another. The Thunderbolt is really just an EVO 4G. Only good android Phone that has been released in the USA in the last six months is the Htc sensation.

 

[SR71]

Ok let me start this by stating this phone WILL NOT replace my iphone. My iphone will always be my personal phone.

However, im looking for a phone to replace my work line.

Im mainly looking now since verizon is switching to tiered data and i want to get locked into 4G unlimited now since i would use wifi tether a lot.

So which phone would you guys recommend? Neither of these phones are my ideal work/2nd phone.

Charge- I hate samsung touch wiz. If root is available than it's not as big on an issue

Revolution- i heard the screen sucks? and that LG's UI is a cheaper/worse version of touch wiz.

Thunderbolt- Battery life is horrible supposedly + very thick phone.

I came to the iPhone 4 from a Thunderbolt last week. The Thunderbolt was friggin' amazing and 4G LTE is fast as hell, but battery life was AWFUL! I wake up at 6 am for school and unplug my bolt at 6:40 am, I get on my bus at 6:50 am and arrive at school by 7:10 am. By the time I get to school, the Bolt's battery (just idling) is at 85-90%. By noon time it's dead. This is without doing anything with ONE push email account. Nothing else running in the backgorund.

Great phone, ridiculously terrible battery life.

 

[Tilpots]

OP, not a fan of any of these devices but if your goal is to tether, see which one passes the fastest connection to your device. I'm in the "4G isn't that big of a deal on the phone" camp, but tethering is a different story. Why not just get a 4G MiFi?

 

[Maschil]

dROID X... but honestly it depends what you like. I personally liked the idea of having a phone/smaller tablet... plus the 16gb internal... and its good for powerpoints, word documents, excel charts..... they also have a droid X2 out, but the Droid X is still good, you also have the droid incredible..., i haven't had experience with the ones you have mentioned but just check out the droid x on youtube, and see if its what your looking for, screen size, battery life....will probably make a big difference in your choices.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

well I know LG and samgsung make it pretty easy to unlock their boot loaders so you could always get CM on them. That or just use another launcher.

Also wifi tether on Verizon does have a cap on it. You have to pay for it and it is a separate deal.

Of those I would go with the LG one honestly.

 

[topherg]

Wait for the droid bionic. 4G LTE and a dualcore processor.

 

[SeaChange]

Wait for the droid bionic. 4G LTE and a dualcore processor.

This, but remember he wants to lock in unlimited data. Not sure when the Bionic is going to be released...

 

[topherg]

This, but remember he wants to lock in unlimited data. Not sure when the Bionic is going to be released...

I hear rumors of a 4th of July release..

 

[s.hasan546]

OP, not a fan of any of these devices but if your goal is to tether, see which one passes the fastest connection to your device. I'm in the "4G isn't that big of a deal on the phone" camp, but tethering is a different story. Why not just get a 4G MiFi?

main reason not to get a 4g mifi is price. it's $50/5 gb plan and the battery life on those mifi's are just as bad as most cell phones. Ive tried them. Also a mifi is another device i have to carry. While i already have to carry 2 phones (work/personal), so i wanted the work phone to be able to tether.

Also i want to get locked into unlimited 4g plan now b.c 4g unlimited and 3g unlimited is two different plans, so those people with 3g phones now won't be able to keep the unlimited plan if they upgrade to a 4g phone.

well I know LG and samgsung make it pretty easy to unlock their boot loaders so you could always get CM on them. That or just use another launcher.

Also wifi tether on Verizon does have a cap on it. You have to pay for it and it is a separate deal.

Of those I would go with the LG one honestly.

rooted wifi tether = free

I hear rumors of a 4th of July release..

hmm i guess ill wait till july 6th than...

 

[840quadra]

Also i want to get locked into unlimited 4g plan now b.c 4g unlimited and 3g unlimited is two different plans, so those people with 3g phones now won't be able to keep the unlimited plan if they upgrade to a 4g phone.

Is this documented within a contract someplace? I am curious as 2 of my relatives who had unlimited AT&T from early iPhone (non 3G) days, were permitted to keep their unlimited plans on their 3G, and later iPhone 4 devices.

It would seem silly for carriers to drop people from their Unlimited plans for an upgrade, Though cell companies are known to be both crooked and silly at times!

 

[s.hasan546]

Is this documented within a contract someplace? I am curious as 2 of my relatives who had unlimited AT&T from early iPhone (non 3G) days, were permitted to keep their unlimited plans on their 3G, and later iPhone 4 devices.

It would seem silly for carriers to drop people from their Unlimited plans for an upgrade, Though cell companies are known to be both crooked and silly at times!

no it is not but thats how it worked with the $15 150 mb plan verizon had. People who had that plan and upgraded to a 4g LTE phone couldn't keep that older plan b.c verizon says your grandfathered in but that plan isn't "comptabile" with your new phone.

 

[Nautilus007]

None

Battery life on these devices is horrible. Android is unstable right now for some reason, go ahead and grab yourself a new windows phone or iphone 4

 

[topherg]

no it is not but thats how it worked with the $15 150 mb plan verizon had. People who had that plan and upgraded to a 4g LTE phone couldn't keep that older plan b.c verizon says your grandfathered in but that plan isn't "comptabile" with your new phone.

If this is true I need to get on a 4G LTE phone because I want unlimited 4G data! I checked on vzw.com and there is no 4g or 3G data plans it's just listed as "data plan"

 

[s.hasan546]

Battery life on these devices is horrible. Android is unstable right now for some reason, go ahead and grab yourself a new windows phone or iphone 4

if your going to respond please read the OP. I have stated i already have an iphone 4 for my personal phone and need a new phone for my WORK line. And that i want a 4G phone to lock in the 4g unlimited plan. Since there is no 4g windows phone both your suggestions are useless.

If this is true I need to get on a 4G LTE phone because I want unlimited 4G data! I checked on vzw.com and there is no 4g or 3G data plans it's just listed as "data plan"

I know it doesn't differentiate it there but in our point of sale system it does. I own a verizon store btw. So when i change a person's data plan the 3g plans and 4g plans are different.

Also i had customer who had the $15 150 mb data plan, when they upgraded to a 4G plan they couldn't keep the old plan b.c it was not "compatible" with the 4g phones.

BTW, tomorrow when im at work ill take screenshots of the different 3g and 4g data plans on verizon's pos system.

 

[topherg]

I know it doesn't differentiate it there but in our point of sale system it does. I own a verizon store btw. So when i change a person's data plan the 3g plans and 4g plans are different.

Also i had customer who had the $15 150 mb data plan, when they upgraded to a 4G plan they couldn't keep the old plan b.c it was not "compatible" with the 4g phones.

BTW, tomorrow when im at work ill take screenshots of the different 3g and 4g data plans on verizon's pos system.

Thanks for the heads up!! I've been going nuts trying to find more info on "data gate" looks like I'll be hitting up craigslist for a 4G vzw phone tomorrow!!

 

[fr4c]

Since you own an VZW store, shouldn't you have more insight into these phones than we do? You have access to all 3 devices so try them out and see which one you like.

The Thunderbolt has been out for a while, so the dev community is pretty active (as with all HTC phones) and I believe the 2.3 update is coming out soon. Only downside to the TB is definitely the battery, unless you get the extended battery and make it even bigger.

Charge would get my pick, SAMOLED screen is damn amazing and I heard the battery is much improved over the TB's 1400mah battery. Root + voodoo + peanut butta jellytime + gummycharged ROM is what you should look into.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

rooted wifi tether = free
..

believe me I know you can do it.
You can also expect Verizon to crack down hard in the future once the tiered plans start.
Since you are volating the TOS they can kill your service, charge you the ETF and charge you for every single kb you used and all of it legal.

Reason for the ETF is you broke your contract and as they end it and then they charge you per kb as again none of what you used was part of the service.

It is one thing to tether with the free wifi every now and then but when I see people saying unlimited and wanting to use it red flags go up and some major issue of abuse crop up.

 

[s.hasan546]

Since you own an VZW store, shouldn't you have more insight into these phones than we do? You have access to all 3 devices so try them out and see which one you like.

we don't have live demos for all the 4G phones and i can't (well i can but i won't) use the phones i have in stock because than the new owners will get angry the phone is not "brand new"

 

[kdog005]

It bares mentioning that the Revolution is the only Verizon Android device with Netflix capabilities out of the box...

This tends to be a big selling point

Since you own an VZW store, shouldn't you have more insight into these phones than we do? You have access to all 3 devices so try them out and see which one you like.

LTE phones can NOT be powered on until activated or the original activation process for the customer can take hours to complete properly. Given that he owns a store, that makes him a retailer, not a corporate store, meaning he mostly will have dummy phones on display, not live models.

 

[s.hasan546]

believe me I know you can do it.
You can also expect Verizon to crack down hard in the future once the tiered plans start.
Since you are volating the TOS they can kill your service, charge you the ETF and charge you for every single kb you used and all of it legal.

Reason for the ETF is you broke your contract and as they end it and then they charge you per kb as again none of what you used was part of the service.

It is one thing to tether with the free wifi every now and then but when I see people saying unlimited and wanting to use it red flags go up and some major issue of abuse crop up.

I can expect verizon to try to do that, but it won't work . i have my own verizon store and tethering is very hard for verizon to detect. I know internal verizon support workers and it's almost impossible to detect with all these new apps. The only thing they can say is they suspect you of tethering; etc. BTW I tether and use my verizon iphone up to 6-7 gb/month for the past year.

also even if they did catch you why would they charge you an ETF and cancel your contract? that would mean verizon would lose a customer and they do not want to do that lol. The corporate policy of verizon right now is if they catch you tethering, they are suppose to warn you and retro actively add the $20 tethering plan for w.e months they caught you tethering. Normally only for the past month. They will not just cancel your contract and bill you per kb.