Kellen

It’s not often that you get to merge personal passions into a professional life, but that’s what Kellen did when he launched Droid Life in 2009. After working years of unsatisfying jobs in the medical and property management fields, he took a risk to try and create an online community while playing with the coolest gadgets on the planet each day, a risk that has turned out to be incredibly rewarding. Outside of Droid Life, Kellen is your typical Portlander who drinks way too much good beer, complains often about the Trail Blazers, and can be found out on the streets for a run, rain or shine.

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  • All i know is that the iphone5 looks great and I am thinking of switching to it from sprint

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  • I have had my thunderbolt less than a week and my battery is almost dead within 5 hours and that is with minimum usage and turning everything off before locking the screen. It is hot a lot too….not happy….my 2 year old blackberry had a better battery performance even when I was on it all day!

  • I’ll overclock my Thunderbolt when I start running scientific applications on it. Are there any Android apps (non-games) that would noticeably benefit from overclocking?

  • Hit 2900 + on an Atrix with motoblur

    Thunderbolt maxed to 1.8 and custom Rom barely hits 3000. lol

    Nothing to get excited about and yes Quadrant scores are overrated.

    2.4 should be fun.

  • The only time my battery drains quickly is if I use the free MiFi Hot Spot feature and its not plugged in, otherwise my battery life is pretty darn good.

  • Anyone wondering about thunderbolt battery, make sure you’re not double-syncing things through sense (facebook, twitter, etc.) Sense’s syncing is CONSTANT, meaning it is a constant pull/push of data. disable that and sync just through the default application.

    Also, disable GPS when you’re not using navigation, it’s not needed for anything else, this phone does just fine pulling GPS over the radio anyway.

    My tbolt can last me about a full day and half with moderate to heavy use. More stuff you have going, more stuff that runs down battery.

    In other news, PLEASE RELEASE UNBOLTED0.2!

  • Anyone wondering about thunderbolt battery, make sure you’re not double-syncing things through sense (facebook, twitter, etc.) Sense’s syncing is CONSTANT, meaning it is a constant pull/push of data. disable that and sync just through the default application.

    Also, disable GPS when you’re not using navigation, it’s not needed for anything else, this phone does just fine pulling GPS over the radio anyway.

    My tbolt can last me about a full day and half with moderate to heavy use. More stuff you have going, more stuff that runs down battery.

    In other news, PLEASE RELEASE UNBOLTED0.2!

    • Good call. You can’t rely on the defaults to make you through the day. After reading your post, I dug a bit deeper into the phone and found that my emails were defaulted to Update ever 15 mins for 3 accounts! If thats not a battery drain then idk what is. haha

  • Great scores but uh…battery life with it overclocked?? I’m sure after they ran the quadrant test they had to plug the phone into the charger πŸ™‚

  • interesting, stuff like this almost makes you forget about dual-core cpu…
    nice to know that 8×55 still haves room to compete

  • I’m interested in quadrant doing dual core tests, there seems no reason why a 1.5 clocked dual core xoom would have a lower score than a 1.8 clocked single core thunderbolt, or i think the thunder was single core ? i cant remember

  • And like that, the game has now changed…again! In another few months and there will be even greater limits reached. Its amazing the power that we can now carry in our pockets. C’mon Bionic!

    • that is if the bionic doesn’t have an encrypted bootloader…if so that bionic cpu speed is stayin where it’s at.

  • Dude I need to learn how to this ASAP. my Tbolt can last all day on a single charge, I use juicedefender, bobclockD3 & other good apps. So my phone be chillen πŸ™‚

  • Oh and for these battery life comments. Mine is off the charger all day (15+ hrs) and I still have 20%+ when I go to bed. Actually use the phone before you post distasteful comments.

  • For those screaming fake I can assure you these are not… I have no reason to create fake Quadrant scores, and those who know me know I would never do so anyways…

    Yes I down-clocked back to 1.5 where it seems to be running pretty smooth with no issues… 1.8 was for fun and to test…

    I ran at 1.8 for about 20 minutes before my battery starting heating up to much… but hey its fun just see that it can do it πŸ™‚

  • Lol. Say goodbye to “terrible battery life”, say hello to “worst battery life in the history of cell phones”

    • It ran stable.. it just heated up to quick… but I didn’t see any other issues running that high… but my battery never would have lasted

  • Watching everyone on here fight about their phone clock speed and quadrant scores is pretty pathetic. No one can just appreciate the information for what it is, everything turns into a personal fight about what electronics they have. I HAVE A DROID X AND EVERYONE WHO DOESN’T HAVE ONE IS A MORON!!

  • Meh… again with all the piss and vinegar around here. I come here looking for some exciting news about my new Thunderbolt and find all these cynical comments about bad battery life. You know what I love the screen on my Thunderbolt and keep the brightness at 100% so it kills my battery faster but I find a way to get through the day and charge it when I can. If that’s not for you then I’m sure they make a nice flip phone with 3 day battery life that will work out great…

    Rant over…

    Keep up the great work Droid-Life

    • Hahaha. Exactly. From the comments flying around, you’d think the Tbolt and Quadrant got together and brutally tag-teamed someone’s mother and burned their house down. It’s just a relative benchmark measurement on a NEWLY OVERCLOCKED TBOLT. If you’ve read any further into it, you missed the point of the MEASLY 3 SENTENCES that comprise the above article.

  • Kellex…and everyone else – Google “define benchmark”. It is horrible that the author of this site and its readers use the term benchmark wrong 100% of the time. Quadrant score is correct.

    • Just so you know, the definition of a word is defined by the people who use it, and the context in which it is used. As defined by quadrant , and the loyal android fans, it is indeed a quadrant benchmark score. If that massacre of grammar bothers you so much, get a life.

      • Grammar? It’s the definition of the word. More like knowing what you’re talking about.

        Words are defined by a dictionary, right? Slang isn’t.

        Do you know words mean? Do you need an explanation of every concept?

        • The benchmark ad defined by quadrant is every SCORE listed on the screen but yours. That’s the benchmark to compare your score to.

        • Lol. Whatever you say genius! No, words aren’t defined by a dictionary, smart one. Words are defined by people. After enough people use it, we add it to this magical book so guys like yourself can waste everyone’s time by trying to quote it. A dictionary is not a static book. It is evolving everyday, as we find new uses for words in different contexts. One last note, slang is also defined by that same book. It is only slang until it is used enough, then it is considered a word like any other. If crying and moaning about other peoples use of wording is what you consider a good time, then you must be a real winner! Probably an English major too, huh?

        • OMG, LOL, and muffin top just got added to the dictionary. So yes, unfortunately you are wrong this time.

  • Do any of the people complaining about battery life actually own one of these devices? Or have they ever owned any smartphone? Mine has been great with battery life…better than my OG Droid was. Maybe it’s because I’ve rooted it and I know how to keep the thing alive? Seriously, stop all the whining.

      • Yeah I did have one was pretty bad but then again for you coming from the og. Anything is going t have great battery life haha

    • I have the extended battery on my thunderbolt and I get 16 hours of heavy use no problem. I live in Chicago and am always on 4G, bluetooth, gps, 5 email accounts, facebook, twitter and the battery keeps on ticking. Coming from X, before that inc. (Which was worst then both tb and x)

    • What are your tips?
      I haven’t rooted mine yet but I’m going to and I want to hear how you make it last longer.

      • Open each app, starting with the Blockbuster bloatware, and disable auto updating. Only thing I auto update is email once an hour. Battery lasts all day.

        • How do I disable auto updating for Blockbuster, for example? I can’t find it on my phone

    • I do own a thunderbolt, and my battery life is max 6 hours, I live in Boston so full 4g all the times, min I get is 2 bars of 4g anywhere I go. I admit I am not doing some things I could to help the battery life, but it is still pretty poor. Prior to this phone I had a Droid X, before that was a OG Droid

      • Mine last all day an i am just outside of Boston about 15mins .. i don’t know what to tell you man .. mines rooted .. i had a OG droid before this an i never had battery problems .. i don’t know, back to more fun thing roms , kernels and boobeee’s πŸ™‚

    • I love the battery life of my Thunderbolt, I last the whole day (15+ hours) with time to spare. Last night I went 14.5 hours and the battery was still at 43%.

          • I opened each app I don’t use, starting with the Blockbuster bloatware, and disabled auto updating. Battery lasts all day.

          • If only everyone would realize that. auto updating all those apps will kill any phone. plus, the phone is new so I am sure everyone is playing with theirs like crazy causing more drain. I honestly have yet to see a smartphone come out on the market without those certain people coming out to complain about battery life. These things don’t have alternators on them. The more you use them the more the battery drains. stop updating apps you don’t use, dont use a task killer, and dont leave the huge 4.3 screen on full brightness on all day long and the battery will last just as long if not longer then all the other phones out there.

    • My battery life was not that great for the first 2 days. Then, like people suggested, it got better. MUCH better! Sure, I’ve taken to throwing on wifi while I’m at school/home, but I put in some heavy use on 4G yesterday, streaming flash video over 4G while on the T, and the thing STILL didn’t die on me by the time I got home (woke up at 8am, home at 9pm). I get about the same as/slightly better than my Droid1

  • Forgive my ignorance, I am new to a lot of this.. With a quick response.. What is Benchmarking and what does it do?

  • Quadrant is a good benchmark with everything at stock settings but look at the g2 scores there just as high quadrant. Because quadrant is cpu heavy look at how many test their are for cpu compared to the rest of the test. The blue is cpu on that graph look how large it is. Put that down to 1ghz and it will shrink. Geez people its a decent benchmark for what android has avaible but please think before u post.

  • Quadrant is a good benchmark with everything at stock settings but look at the g2 scores there just as high quadrant. Because quadrant is cpu heavy look at how many test their are for cpu compared to the rest of the test. The blue is cpu on that graph look how large it is. Put that down to 1ghz and it will shrink. Geez people its a decent benchmark for what android has avaible but please think before u post.

  • I’m not impressed. I remember my Desire HD with ARHD 2.1 pushed 2750 in Quadrant at 1 GHz. Quadrant is old and shouldn’t be used as a benchmark anymore.

      • Why would i be mad? My Desire HD nearly hits 3000 on 1GHz, and with a 1,8 GHz OC kernel i can easily break 3000.

      • stfu. umadbro is so played out. why dont you say something constructive instead of dropping a meaningless trendy remark?

      • stfu. umadbro is so played out. why dont you say something constructive instead of dropping a meaningless trendy remark?

      • Still trolling??? Maybe u should read a diff article dude, obv tbolt news gets your panties ruffled

    • Which is why I used Quadrant Advanced. The blue color represents the CPU. This proves that it is not inflated by stupid I/O writes. Its pure processing, and its very impressive. Dont be jelly πŸ™‚

    • Which is why I used Quadrant Advanced. The blue color represents the CPU. This proves that it is not inflated by stupid I/O writes. Its pure processing, and its very impressive. Dont be jelly πŸ™‚

  • I have to be honest, I just came from an overclocked OG Droid and I couldn’t be happier with the performance of the TB. I love the fact that my phone no longer melts in my hands. I’m not sure anybody NEEDS to overclock the TB anyway. That being said, I will probably give it a try, because you can always go back to stock speed.

    • this is inspiring me to go, i was in the same boat you were in but i love my droid, afraid to leave it for something.

    • tell that to everyone waiting to root a dual core processor! Not me im fine with my TB. With its speeds stock i was amazed

  • I’m pretty new to android, so this entire article is basically in a different language to me. Could someone please explain what any of this means?

    • It is real simple, an Android is like a Mustang, once you buy one you spend the next 10 years tricking it out. An iphone is like a BMW, nice car but you aint changing nothing.

      • iPhone ain’t no different than the android you can do as much with the iPhone as of an android but the only difference is that the iPhone don’t have to be OC just to run smooth and not lag..

          • FYI I have plenty of widget on my homescreen, I have no reason to pull battery out ( whoodie Doo ) and no reason to expand memory cuz 9 out of 10 you not gonna use up that much memory so if I wanted a 32gb I would have got it. What you ppls fail to realize is that a jailbroken iPhone can do as much as a Rooted Droid.. Plus u talking to a dude that own an iPhone & a Droid X

          • oh shit you guys can pull your battery out. What?????? I am trading my iPhone in as soon as Best Buy opens.

        • There is actually quite a bit the iphone can not do that the android based phones can. The deal breaker for me is the voice to text input into any field. As well as the voice commands.

          And just fyi – my tbolt runs a more complex operating system smoother then the iphone’s iOS. Actually, the iOS is basically just my app drawer.

          • would you care to explain to all of us noobs what aspect of the Android OS is more complex than iOS. This should be great, seeing as how with your comment it is clear you are a very high level developer.

    • Its just a test that checks the processor and CPU speed the higher the benchmark the better but I don’t believe this I think its outdated and these numbers don’t mean anything

  • I’m pretty new to android, so this entire article is basically in a different language to me. Could someone please explain what any of this means?

    • The kernel is like a software governor of sorts for your processor (among other things). The quadrant score “sort of” tests how well your processor is performing.

    • If you root your phone (break through the layers of restrictions put on your phone, gaining access to functions at the root directory level), you get access to the most basic functions, including the processor speed. These folks have used the recently published kernal (source code) to take control of the processor speed, and crank it up to crazy levels.

    • Imagine yourself in a normal state of mind. Now, image yourself after ten shots of espresso. This is like giving the Thunderbolt ten shots of espresso. πŸ™‚

  • at this point my analogy would be like taking a ferrari and modding it up with nitro tanks, for city use

  • oMg a quadrant? Say it isn’t so!?! We all know how these numbers can be altered.

    Begin. πŸ™‚

    • This is not altered. I am @TheRealBeesley who tested. Its legit, and its lovely πŸ™‚

        • Why are you dishing out constant hate?! We get it… you don’t like the Thunderbolt… move on man!

          Bitter much?

        • If everyone is using this inaccurate quadrant wouldnt that make it inaccurate for everyone, making it fair? besides theres to many variables that can alter your score on any phone so how do you know exactly what is accurate or not. Some phones come from the factory faster then others so i guess that would make Verizon not accurate too!?

    • I know right? well at least mines still kicking at 1.2 ghz giving me all day battery life… ya have to love the OG!

    • I feel the same, if this phone starts rocking some awesome Roms im outtie. Its been fun about its time for a new phone lol

      • Wait a month and you will have plenty of phones to chose from with bigger battery better build quality and the al might 4g then make your decision

        • Do you have anything better to do than troll the thunderbolt posts about how much you hate it? We get it, you don’t like it. Moving on…

        • Plenty of phones does not mean all those phones will have the source released making ROMing, easy, fast, and efficient. The community has been able to do more with this phone in a week or so than they’ve been able to do with the Fascinate since it’s been out. Newer phones and higher spec’d phones are not everything. This is a beastly phone, with fast 4G, and it’s source out there for the dev community to make it great.

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