HTC Thunderbolt

The wait is finally over for Verizon Wireless's first 4G LTE smartphone! Say hello to the HTC Thunderbolt, which will be taking advantage of the company's new 4G LTE network. From a head-on perspective, the HTC Thunderbolt is almost identical to the HTC Inspire 4G.the phone's screen is highly sensitive and offeres an impressive graphics spread.

However, the Thunderbolt strays from the Inspire by embedding a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera next to the handset speaker.To compliment the front-facing camera, the phone is equipped with an 8-megapixel primary camera on the back with 720p HD video recording capability and a dual LED flash.

 the phone is a memory machine compared to the Inspire 4G. Out of the box, we get a whopping 32GB MicroSD card and 8GB of internal storage, bringing the total to 40GB from the starting line!. The Thunderbolt also offers the standard architectural fanfare, including a 3.5mm audio jack, volume control rocker, open USB terminal, and Power/Lock switch.

The HTC Thunderbolt is equipped with a 1GHz Snapdragon MSM8655 chipset with the Adreno 205 GPU for improved graphics and video hardware acceleration, which is the same configuration found in the Inspire 4G. More common traits consist of the Thunderbolt's Android 2.2 OS with the latest iteration of HTC Sense. Thanks to Android 2.2 with Flash 10.1 support, browsing experience is enhanced with the ability to view flash content right from within the browser. Search allows to not only search the phone for anything, but the Internet as well, so it is more of a universal experience.

The Android Market was readily available to handle all of our gaming and application needs, belonging to a giant library of titles that seems to be increasing the quality of its content. 3D gaming was a snap for the HTC Thunderbolt, and the phone offered DLNA for wirelessly streaming to digital home devices. With 40GB of storage, the HTC Thunderbolt rocked for compiling giant movie libraries and storing ample music titles. Social networking was taken care of by the FriendStream widget, which acted as a live stream of status updates, and we could keep a Rolodex of our favorite contacts thanks to the Favorites widget.

In addition to Google, Verizon Wireless' new 4G LTE smartphone gaves Flickr, Skype, Facebook, AIM, and other IM programs that could only be used as part of a Verizon profile. Skype will offer video calling down the line, but we'll have to wait for it, and that's going to be one of the highlight features on the Thunderbolt.

Verizon's first 4G LTE phone is not too shabby at all. The phone joins one of the strongest data networks in the country and gives users 40GB of storage space out of the box. It has a front-facing camera, Android 2.2, HTC's beautiful Sense interface, and a kickstand to hang with the rest of the premiere multimedia smartphones. Yes, the phone is indeed a striking start for Verizon's LTE network, and will certainly be a hot seller this year.

The phone is one of the best smartphones on the market, and will definitely fit the needs of those who live within LTE territory. With download speeds of 5 - 12 Mbps and upload speeds of 2 – 5 Mbps, the HTC Thunderbolt is the first of the soldiers on its way to 100/50 Mbps speeds Verizon Wireless hopes to one day offer.