[envenonearo]

Got this phone on Monday, to replace my aging iPhone 3G/AT&T (along with 3 HTC Incredibles, for my wife and parents).

Have some impressions of the service and the phone itself.

Verizon: better call quality than AT&T, and better penetration into buildings. Also, after disconnection from walking into an elevator or into a shielded room, connection is re-acquired almost instantaneously, where AT&T would generally take 20-30 seconds, and sometimes 1-2 minutes. Even on 3G, the data speeds are significantly faster than AT&T's 3G, and MUCH more reliable. But more about that later.

Thunderbolt: gorgeous screen. Very nice size for the phone. Obviously the 4G speeds are incredible. I don't get less than 20Mbps/3MBps anywhere, and it makes the web a very smooth experience. In real life usage, most websites load in a second or two, which is a very big jump from the iPhone 3G. Don't know how much difference the actual OS/Processor make on the phone in real life usage, because my wife's HTC Incredible is also much faster than the iPhone 3G, and it doesn't use the LTE network. Using the apps is a very different experience from the iPhone - they launch pretty much instantaneously, and the entire UI seems vastly more responsive. Android itself is pretty unremarkable as far as I can see... and the locked-down version is pretty much as restrictive as the iPhone. With one MAJOR exception - the ability to customize the homescreen to display the calendar was something I SORELY missed in the iPhone. It was a major philosophical difference I had with Apple. Steve Jobs obviously thinks that the user is the consumer of apps. I, on the other hand, think that my next appointment is far more important of an item to display.

Now onto the bad. Well... the battery life... To be honest it's not as bad as the internet says. It's not 6 hours the way some websites have written. I have found that I get about 14 hours of regular use before the battery is down to 30%. I figure I can get 16 hours out of it if needed. Not as good as the iPhone, but then again, it's much more powerful.