What phone to get: Iphone 4s, Bionic, Razr, Thunderbolt or Charge?

[you2]

From all reviews (don't own it (yet) so can't comment first hand) the rezound is doing a much better job in the battery life dept.
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So yea TB was not that hot; but rezound is much better.

I would stay away from HTC devices, their battery life is horrible. People think they get better battery life from ROMS, but it is a myth.

Are you in a 4g market? I have a 4g device and I can't live without it now. 4g feels like being on wifi all the time. However, if you are not in a 4g market, my comment is useless. The thunderbolt is pretty nice, but the battery is bad from experience. The bionic I know nothing about and won't pretend to.

 

[you2]

Why would you pick skyrocket over razr or rezound ? (just curious not debating). Btw the nexus thing is kind of inconvenient but it is not amazon fault it was delayed

Only with a new line, though. And conveniently before the Nexus arrives...

If AT&T had Verizon's 4gb double data LTE offer, a 1c Skyrocket would be a no-brainer. But as it is, it depends on your current state of things.

 

[stag3]

if i were to pick a new phone right now it would be a rezound.

i currently use a rooted TB with the rezound battery. with setcpu, i can go ~2 days on a charge. i dont use my phone like you guys tho, mainly browsing here and there, and email/calls.

 

[alent1234]

After playing with my friend's 4s, I would take my TB anyday over it. That is even if the 4s was free and I was still paying for the TB. The 4s sucks. There may be other phones out there to look at over the TB though, but I am very happy with mine. If you need an Iphone, I would wait until something better comes along. The 4s is a joke. I was terribly disappointed. Her battery life was way worse than my TB and I had to turn off all sorts of services just so she could get any kind of life out of it. It felt really cheap and far from smooth, and I know plenty of people who have broken them from dropping them once. Not my type of thing. I was looking forward to it also, since I will be due a new phone relatively soon myself.

i traded a HTC Inspire for a 4S. the TB is the same as the Inspire except it has LTE. after a month with my 4S the HTC seems like a piece of junk

 

[BigDaddyD]

i traded a HTC Inspire for a 4S. the TB is the same as the Inspire except it has LTE. after a month with my 4S the HTC seems like a piece of junk

I am glad you like it. I wouldn't want one for free.

 

[sgrinavi]

ok ive done some rethinking and pricing. there is no reason for me to spend 500 to 600 on a phone when i just want a good phone so super fancy isnt going to make a huge deal to me. im currently using a blackberry curve so anything will be a huge upgrade for me!
So here is what is in my budget:
HTC Thunderbolt OR
Droid Bionic

I've used both and between those two I would take the Bionic, but I wouldn't consider either one a bad phone.

If you do decide on an iPhone 4 you can get a used one in the $250 range if you look around.

You would be wrong. My friend was getting 6-8 hours on her brand new, out of the box 4s. I was getting 2-2.5x that on my default setting TB new out of the box.

My work phone is a 4s, I get a couple days between charges, I have yet to see an LTE phone that could make a whole day. Don't get me wrong, I prefer Android, but I have to say that there are merits to the iP's

 

[s44]

Why would you pick skyrocket over razr or rezound ?

Well I'm already on Verizon (out of contract for months waiting for the Nexus), so I can't use the new line pricing. Also: imminent G Nex means massive buyer's remorse on any other Verizon phone, whereas I suspect no AT&T Nexus will have LTE for a while.

Plus, of course, unlocked bootloader (and no S-OFF shenanigans), TW > Sense or Blur, and a better screen than the RAZR. And I think even the Snapdragon is faster than the OMAP.

 

[poofyhairguy]

And I think even the Snapdragon is faster than the OMAP.

Um, no. Maybe it wins some benches because it is clocked higher, but clock-for-clock Snapdragon is the worst SoC on the market.

 

[Phynaz]

Galaxy Nexus. It comes out in just a few days, and beats all of those.

I'm shocked that people still advise others to buy a product that isn't even out yet.

 

[you2]

Me too. The galaxy nexus might rock; or it might have tons of issues....

I'm shocked that people still advise others to buy a product that isn't even out yet.

 

[BigDaddyD]

I've used both and between those two I would take the Bionic, but I wouldn't consider either one a bad phone.

If you do decide on an iPhone 4 you can get a used one in the $250 range if you look around.




My work phone is a 4s, I get a couple days between charges, I have yet to see an LTE phone that could make a whole day. Don't get me wrong, I prefer Android, but I have to say that there are merits to the iP's

I don't understand what you mean. My TB makes it longer than a whole day. Either you have had a bad phone or you are doing it wrong. It is simply not the phone. Are you in a 4g area? If you are using a 4g phone and are not in a 4g area, do not expect any phone's battery to last, unless you take it out of 4g mode. All phones will eat the battery searching for 4g. Like I said, the 4s was lasting around 8hours tops on default settings and needed to be reconfigured as well. Last I checked, that is way short of a full day. Did your 4s get a couple of days between charges on default settings? If so, maybe my friend got a bum phone. Since we made the changes her battery life has been fine.

 

[sgrinavi]

I don't understand what you mean. My TB makes it longer than a whole day. Either you have had a bad phone or you are doing it wrong. It is simply not the phone. Are you in a 4g area? If you are using a 4g phone and are not in a 4g area, do not expect any phone's battery to last, unless you take it out of 4g mode. All phones will eat the battery searching for 4g. Like I said, the 4s was lasting around 8hours tops on default settings and needed to be reconfigured as well. Last I checked, that is way short of a full day. Did your 4s get a couple of days between charges on default settings? If so, maybe my friend got a bum phone. Since we made the changes her battery life has been fine.

I currently have a Rezound and I have yet to get a full day out it without a charge.

-My wifi set to turn off and on when I am in a wifi area
-I am in a 4G area
-I am not a heavy user - it's rare when I crack 1 GB/month of data & 300 minutes of talk time.
-I keep my GPS off
-I haven't even tried my BT
-Screen shuts off after 30 seconds or so.

What is it that we (me and the others couple thousand people that complain about LTE device battery life) are doing wrong?

BTW, this is not my first LTE rodeo - I tried the TB & the Bionic as well all with the same result.

As for my 4s, no, I turned off the BT and the automatic time zone settings right out of the box.

 

[BigDaddyD]

I currently have a Rezound and I have yet to get a full day out it without a charge.

-My wifi set to turn off and on when I am in a wifi area
-I am in a 4G area
-I am not a heavy user - it's rare when I crack 1 GB/month of data & 300 minutes of talk time.
-I keep my GPS off
-I haven't even tried my BT
-Screen shuts off after 30 seconds or so.

What is it that we (me and the others couple thousand people that complain about LTE device battery life) are doing wrong?

BTW, this is not my first LTE rodeo - I tried the TB & the Bionic as well all with the same result.

As for my 4s, no, I turned off the BT and the automatic time zone settings right out of the box.

Sounds right to me, that's pretty much how I set mine, although you didn't mention your screen other than shutting off (which is one of the biggest battery drains.) How bright is your screen set at? Granted you shouldn't be getting terrible battery life at that rate, but I don't have your phone either. I hear you though, if you have done all of that and are still getting terrible battery performance, than there is nothing you can do.

All I know is that when I got my TB, you had your guys complaining about 4-6 hours of life, and I was getting over a day easily. I just didn't get it. The only time I had some seriously problem was when 4g dropped out in my area. When it was restored, everything was all good again. I set it pretty much exactly like you but also drop the screen brightness down most of the way. Basically had to do the same stuff on my friends 4s to get similar battery life. Are those even 4g? I don't even know. I haven't been following them too much.

 

[sgrinavi]

Sounds right to me, that's pretty much how I set mine, although you didn't mention your screen other than shutting off (which is one of the biggest battery drains.) How bright is your screen set at? Granted you shouldn't be getting terrible battery life at that rate, but I don't have your phone either. I hear you though, if you have done all of that and are still getting terrible battery performance, than there is nothing you can do.

All I know is that when I got my TB, you had your guys complaining about 4-6 hours of life, and I was getting over a day easily. I just didn't get it. The only time I had some seriously problem was when 4g dropped out in my area. When it was restored, everything was all good again. I set it pretty much exactly like you but also drop the screen brightness down most of the way. Basically had to do the same stuff on my friends 4s to get similar battery life. Are those even 4g? I don't even know. I haven't been following them too much.

The iP4s is 3G -

I am well within the 4G area and don't ever really leave it. I did not adjust the out of the box screen brightness, I will look at it.

So today - I took my iP4s & my Rezound off the charger at 4:30 this AM - the rezound is at 30%, the iP is at 80% - I've used the iP to make a few calls and check email (every time it dings at me). I made a single call with the Rezound and sent a few text messages - checked email a couple times.

Its not horrible, but it could be better.

 

[darth maul]

I get great battery life with my Rezound, no LTE here yet, but I drop my screen brightness to 21% or so. When at home that is plenty bright. Then I have a Beautiful Widget to take it to 100% when outside. I never use GPS on a routine day. But I can see how some might complain, with the TB and RZND in LTE areas. I hope I get LTE here in the next year or so, and if I get bad battery life maybe get one of the third party batteries that has a small bump in more power or get the hump back whale of extended batteries and be happy knowing I got the better of 2-3 phones on the market (comparing the Rezound, RAZR, and Bionic).

And no the 4s does not have a big screen nor does it have 4g lte. Which those are the two biggest battery hogs right there.

 

[Super56K]

I've had some pretty great battery life with my iphone 4s. Today's stats show 2 hours 18 min of use, 11 hour 21 min standby, at 71% battery remaining. I have wifi to use at work and home so that helps it quite a bit and I set it to auto-brightness.

 

[QueBert]

I've had some pretty great battery life with my iphone 4s. Today's stats show 2 hours 18 min of use, 11 hour 21 min standby, at 71% battery remaining. I have wifi to use at work and home so that helps it quite a bit and I set it to auto-brightness.

My EVO shows about 1 hour and 8 minutes of use, 6 hours of standby and I'm at 41% I have 3g/4g/wifi/BT disabled.

 

[sgrinavi]

I have to say my Rezound battery life has been better since tweaking screen brightness. I am now getting the full day with plenty to spare. Thanks for the tip.

Sounds right to me, that's pretty much how I set mine, although you didn't mention your screen other than shutting off (which is one of the biggest battery drains.) How bright is your screen set at? Granted you shouldn't be getting terrible battery life at that rate, but I don't have your phone either. I hear you though, if you have done all of that and are still getting terrible battery performance, than there is nothing you can do.

All I know is that when I got my TB, you had your guys complaining about 4-6 hours of life, and I was getting over a day easily. I just didn't get it. The only time I had some seriously problem was when 4g dropped out in my area. When it was restored, everything was all good again. I set it pretty much exactly like you but also drop the screen brightness down most of the way. Basically had to do the same stuff on my friends 4s to get similar battery life. Are those even 4g? I don't even know. I haven't been following them too much.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

My EVO shows about 1 hour and 8 minutes of use, 6 hours of standby and I'm at 41% I have 3g/4g/wifi/BT disabled.

My Thunderbolt with extended battery is currently at 2 hours 13 minutes of use, 5 hours and 38 minutes of standby and I have 91% battery left. Wifi, 3G, and 4G always on. BT used occasionally (used it to transfer about 8 pictures today), otherwise off.

CM7 did wonders for the T-Bolt. With the Extended Battery I actually stream Pandora over 4G all night (I dont take the time to turn it off and on, just pull the headphones out), during my 12 hour shift. My phone comes off the AC adapter 3 hours before work and is off charge at least an hour after work. On average I do 16 hours on battery per night. At 16 hours, with 12 hours being Pandora over 4G, I still come home to 45% battery remaining. It's absolutely awesome.