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HTC Thunderbolt, Verizon's first LTE phone launches this week

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On March 15, 2011, 11:00 AM

The first smartphone to operate on Verizon Wireless's LTE network is set for a launch this Thursday. Online cell phone retailer Wirefly announced that it will start shipping HTC's Thunderbolt on March 17, with pre-orders actually starting in a few hours. The device was first expected to land around mid-February, but for unknown reasons the Thunderbolt's launch was delayed by over a month. Some rumors suggest that battery life had something to do with it.

The phone sports a large 4.3-inch touchscreen, an 8MP camera with HD video capture on the back plus a front-facing camera, Android 2.2 with HTC's Sense software, and a 1GHz processor. It also includes a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot feature, DLNA wireless media streaming, a kickstand for media viewing, FM radio, and 8GB of internal memory alongside the included 32GB microSD card -- that's 40GB out of the box. For some reason the Thunderbolt will not have Skype video chat available at launch, but thanks to LTE connectivity it will have the ability to handle simultaneous voice and data.


Pre-orders will start at 3 a.m. EST (midnight Pacific) and while price was not mentioned it is expected to sell for $250 with a two-year contract. Other LTE smartphones coming to Verizon later this year include the LG Revolution, the Droid Bionic 4G and the Samsung 4G LTE. All have 4.3-inch screens and run Google's Android.

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5 comments

User Comments: 5

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  1. March 15, 2011 11:17 AM
    lawfer, TechSpot Paladin, said:

    Amazing phone, mediocre battery. Like, really HTC, what were you thinking?

    Reply
  2. March 15, 2011 11:36 AM
    thewind said:

    This is just the HTC EVO from sprint with a couple extras... No big deal. I have the Evo and do like it very much though. Great phones!

    Reply
  3. March 15, 2011 12:41 PM
    BlindObject said:

    I think my Droid 2 Global is still a superior phone. 1.2ghz+keyboard+root=Awesome.

    Reply
  4. March 15, 2011 3:19 PM
    PanicX
    PanicX, TechSpot Ambassador, said:

    Going to wait for the early adopters to weed out the LTE network issues. As soon as the coast is clear, I'll be hopping aboard that train.

    Reply
  5. March 15, 2011 9:18 PM
    thatguyandrew92 said:

    If this is just an updated EVO, which it seems to be, then the battery life will probably be awful. Which is ashame since besides that, the EVO is awesome.

    Reply

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