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Monday morning rumor mill time! This time, the Thunderbolt may have finally gotten cleared for retail as known Verizon affiliate Black_Man_X let loose the following in a tweet that has since been deleted: “Thunderbolts are go!!” This comes with another independent source who contacted GizmoFusion saying the same. That March 3rd or 4th date looks like it could still go down, but we’ll stay on the safe side and just say that we don’t expect to make it to the 15th without having seen this phone hit store shelves. [via Electronista] [Thanks to all who sent this in!]
[Update]: And now that new firmware to fix the device’s horrid battery life has been leaked thanks to the reliable folks at 911 Sniper. We’d say that things are finally looking up for the release of the Thunderbolt, but we won’t get excited until it’s actually sitting inside of a Verizon store available for purchase. [Droid-Life]
I’m so eager to ditch my dumbphone and get the Thunderbolt, but I’ll still want to wait for performance tests to see whether the Thunderbolt is really all that great, or whether I should wait until the Droid Bionic is released.
fingers crossed…. It would be sweet if they fixed the battery drain.age on 4G
@the Ramen Noodle Dude, seriously, why get this when much better phones are right around the corner on VZW?! I was so excited to ditch my Droid X for this phone when it was 1st announced. But, that excitement died when Motorola announced the Bionic. The ThunderD’oh! is dead to me.
I’m pretty concerned about the battery performance. I don’t expect it to be great, but if it can’t make it through 1 day with moderate performance, then we got a problem.
@CJ. I agree, but I don’t think I can wait. And at least Motorola was smart enough to go with the 1950mAh battery. What was HTC thinking using the 1400mAh?!?!?
@C.J. You do realize that most android phones are throttled by memory(ie RAM) and not CPU performance right now? The thunderbolt has 768mb RAM while the bionic has 512mb, meaning the Bionic will be throttled by it’s memory capacity(not to mention it’s bootloader). Now you may be thinking “But it has a dual core! More cores is better!” but the sad matter of the fact is that 2.3 does not fully support multi-core CPUs. 3.0 supports multi core architectures, and 2.4 will. It’s a shame to see so many people fall to the Tegra II hype/marketing.
Finally, a rumor about the release date of the thunderbolt!
LOL @ Incredibill
@Steve, 512mb DDR2 RAM > 768mb DDR RAM, just FYI for you, ASAP…. ttyl
@Frank I would say the amount of RAM is more important than its speed when applications are being kicked out of memory due to lack of space…FYI for you
@ Steve, The Bionic has 512DDR ram which is double data rate ram, so the Bionic will be running more like a gig of ram. I am a TB fan and will be getting one on launch day but the ram in the bionic will be faster.
@Frank I would say the amount of RAM is more important than its speed when applications are being kicked out of memory due to lack of space… Also I’m not sure how using irrelevant abbreviations strengthens your argument.
just send the phone to my house
Can I pay extra for overnight shipping? I’m sick of waiting!!!
F$@# it, I am getting one. All these announced specs on other phones are great in all, however, day to day performance is key, my droid incredible does a very good job, and the Thunderbolt will be even better. Until Adroid is optimized for dual core and what not, a dual core processor is not that important. I will not be playing stupid games on my phone, that’s why we have real video game systems(or pcs). The only area I wish it was better on is a higher quality screen, but it will do. Bring it on.
@ Steve, it doesn’t; it was to add humor. But I can respond without acronyms as well. DDR2 (besides that one) is going to lead to a better and faster experience, and 512 is plenty to keep your apps running all day especially when they can be accessed extremely fast and easily.
FYI to those takin stabs at Steve, the thunderbolt beat every 4G phone comin to verizon in both quadrant and speed scores. Do ur research, just b/c it’s dual core doesn’t mean it’ll beat a single core. For example, Nissan gt-r is a v6 and the challenger srt8 is HEMI v8. The gt-r is nearly 600 horsepower, if not more, while the challenger srt8 is 425 horsepower. Bigger doesn’t always mean better.
Ok, so Black_Man_X seems to be right a lot. He has been saying March since like October. But let me ask the group this. If he works for Verizon, how the hell can he sit there and Tweet all day and still hold down a job. This fool Tweets like 100 times a day!! I think Verizon pays him to do what he does. I think the info he releases is calcualted and Verizon knows exactly who he is and they expect him to release info to build hype and keep us at bay. What do you think?
BTW, does any one actually believe that a firmware update will fix the battery issue? It might tweak it a little, but I really don’t think it’s going to make a big difference. But hey, I have a charger at home, a charger in my car, and a charger in my office, so BRING IT ON!! It might not be a “wireless phone”, but it will be the coolest wired phone on the market!
You guys are arguing over milliseconds… and the possibility that it’ll make a difference. I just want to point that out… *milli* seconds
I don’t believe that tweet, I have a relative that works for verizon and she said that when they have a release date she will call me as soon as she knows. We talk everyday and she still hasn’t heard anything about a release date.
C MAC – yes new firmware can totally alter the battery. If there was a glitch where 1 app or several processes were running in the background non stop when they shouldn’t have been then that would destroy the battery.
Incorrect, Teej. The Bionic achieved 2200 Quadrant, an app unoptimized for multi-core. T-Bolt capped out under 2k.
Yes, the Bionic will be faster and better for games, but the T-Bolt will have better software and services out of the box and most likely better media capabilities (i.e. better code support than Tegras have currently, kickstand, better speakers, confirmed DLNA streaming, and related Sense services and apps).
The T-Bolt won’t be nearly as behind the Bionic in performance as will every other device. 256MB more DDR RAM makes up for faster but lower capacity DDR2 for multitaskers, implying a focus on productivity over raw performance for a select few purposes (games). The T-Bolt and Revolution are fully matured versions of technology that has proven effective and commands a lot of app support, so they will be up there just behind the first-gen dual-core beasts coming out this summer.
@Teej black_man_x is very reliable. I stopped following all the nonsensical dates and BS from tech news sites and blogs last year.
Funny that everyone seemed to miss is other tweet regarding a certain “3d” device.
Just got off the phone with my local Best Buy. The guy said their planned arrival date will be Friday, March 4th. If the above story is true that would match up with shipping the phones out early in the week for a late week release. Please god.
Isn’t the Thunderbolt just like the EVO with a different body?
Todd…NO!
Trust me guys, I’ve told her about every “rumored” release date and she’s gotten a kick out of all of them. Don’t get your hopes up for a release date this week b/c it’s highly unlikely. Don’t say Teej didn’t tell u so when march 4th comes and still no thunderbolt. And this phone will outlast the dual cores that are coming later…I can’t stress enough how much u guys should TRUST ME.
@ Teej, I agree. If it was coming out in 3 or 4 days, we should hear an announcement from Verizon today. All I hear is crickets!!! My money is on 3/10.
@C Mac the 10th is a much safer date, verizon still has to e-mail everyone who signed up for notifications about it and add a spot for it on their website like they did for the iPhone. I’ll talk to her and see what I can dig up.
Anyone else think it’s funny that ON February 21, some Best Buy employees were still saying the Tbolt was coming out on February 21? I’m guessing they were going off official statements and didn’t really know what day it was? As a result, I don’t really trust anything coming out of BestBuy, anymore. As for the whole delay scandal, as the Bionic is currently set to be released at least 6 months late (anyone remember Sanjay promising it in time for Christmas?), I don’t think the whole Tbolt thing is that bad…
I am very much considering a purchase of the thunderbolt, especially since the newer qualcomm processsors have the type of MSM DRM which will enable netflix playback. My contract for my droid incredible is up in April, and since I’m now on my 3rd incredible due to the rebooting issues and constant plague of system memory errors, I’m eager to get a new phone. The only problem I foresee is having the same damn problems I had with my htc droid incredible, which would make me weep.
Oh and I agree with you Steve.
I am a OG Droid owner. The TBolt will be outdated once you discover that more dual/quad core phone will be announced May/June. The iPhone 5 should be remarkable improvement over the iP4. So lots of options to consider, even considering the fact that the TBolt will release without Skype, Mobile Hotspot, and have battery issues. This is dissapointing to say the least!!!
Cree
I have been patiently waiting for this phone. I don’t know what to belive anymore….I’ll just wait to see what will happend. I won’t buy the Thunderbolt right away anyway, because I have to wait for a month before I can buy a phone so I can see the pros and cons….Good luck to everyone and hope you can get the TB as soon as possible..
I am going to keep using my string in between two cans until this phone comes out. That has better reception than my Ipos. LOL
Said to hell with it couldnt wait no more went to att got the moto atrix. Awesome phone seeing 3.9 mbps down 3.1 mbps upload not bad. Goodbye thunderbolt!
So I was talking to my corporate Verizon rep, who admittedly is not in the loop, but she says Thunderbolt was delayed again today due to another firmware issue. Look for it on March 24th. Incredible HD should be out on 3/17, Droid Bionic, look for it 5/5.