The HTC Thunderbolt 4G rocks on the Verizon network. Unlike many other Android devices which find their home on Big Red, the Thunderbolt is one of the few phones that can rock on the 3G as well as 4G LTE bands.
Make no mistake about the Thunderbolt, this is a phone that is meant to keep you entertained as well as productive and even though HTC is known for churning out phone after phone, the Thunderbolt, while it may resemble under spec’d devices, is a beast.
Pricing
HTC Thunderbolt 4G
- New customers get it for only $.01
- Existing customer upgrades are $119
- Lightening Fast 4G Speed
Starting at Only $0.01
HTC Thunderbolt 4G
- Amazing clock speed tests
- big price drop
- tons of features on the Verizon Network
Starting at Only $0.00
Specifications of the HTC Thunderbolt 4G:
- General:
- Super fast Verizon 4G LTE network
- Ships with Android 2.2 (Froyo) Operating System upgradeable to 2.3 Gingerbread OS
- 1GHz Snapdragon processor
- 8 GB internal memory, 32 GB preloaded microSD memory card with support for optional 32 GB
- HTC Sense UI is being labeled as the best User Interface of 2011
- Display:
- 4.3 inch Super LCD display
- 480 x 800 pixel resolution
- Capacitive multi touch capabilities
- Onscreen QWERTY keyboard
- Proximity and light sensors
- DLNA capable enables sharing videos and movies wirelessly with a compatible HDTV or other DLNA device
- Touch sensitive controls
- Camera:
- Rear facing 8 megapixel camera
- Dual LED Flash
- Auto focus, face detection, and geo-tagging
- 720p HD video capture
- Front facing 1.3 megapixel for video chatting
- Micro USB 2.0 port
- Communications and Internet:
- HTML browser support as well as full Flash support
- Pre-loaded Google Mobile services
- Onboard GPS for navigation
- Wireless-N WiFi and 4G Mobile Hotspot capable
- User friendly Bluetooth connectivity
- Enhanced social networking via HTC Sense
Design & Features
Starting with the processor, HTC has included a 1GHz Snapdragon single core processor. Along with the processor, users get 768MB of RAM. There is 8GB of internal memory and of course, you have the option to expand the total memory to 40GB thanks to a microSD or microSDHC slot that supports cards up to 32GB.
Moving onto the screen, you are greeted with a 
4.3-inch display, one that carries 480 x 800 pixels, Gorilla Glass equipped and multi-touch supported. 4.3 inches seems to be the standard for high end phones these days so it seems like HTC did good; however, we wish they had stuck a qHD panel on this baby.
The Thunderbolt sports both front and rear facing cameras. The rear facing camera is an 8 megapixel censor with dual LED flash. The front facing camera is 1.3 megapixels and is suitable for video calling. The rear camera shoots 720p video content as well and suppers face detection, auto focus, geo tagging and white balance adjustments.
Connectivity features include DLNA, tethering (additional data plan required), Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, microUSB 2.0 port, Bluetooth 2.1 and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
Last but not least, sensors and networking include accelerometer, compass, A-GPS, CDMA and LTE 4G.
The HTC Thunderbolt ships with Android Froyo 2.2 on board although HTC and Verizon are promising a September release for the much coveted Gingerbread update. Seeing HTC has a track record of keeping their word, we trust that the update will be landing within the coming weeks.
Performance
The Thunderbolt does live up to its name. It is a beast in performance and we felt no lacking when it came to surfing Flash webpages, writing emails, watching HD videos or streaming YouTube videos or music from our Spotify app. The 768MB of RAM is more than ample and we were never left in the cold when it came to system lagging.
The camera performed well as well. HTC has been known to have decent to great cameras on the phones and the Thunderbolt is no exception. The rear facing 8-megapixel shooter did extremely well in well-lit environments. Night or low light photography was a bit underwhelming; however, shooting 720p video at night was above expectations. The front facing 1.3-megapixel shooter is decent for video calling. Those who we called via Fring noticed that the video quality was decent. Taking self-portraits was good as well, not the best but it is passable for an avatar or Facebook photo.
Call quality was decent to great depending on signal strength. Overall, in areas where we had fair to excellent cell reception, we did not notice any problems with voice reception.
No doubt you are wondering how our download speeds were. On 3G we managed just over 1Mbps, however, on 4G LTE, those numbers shot up to an average of 13Mbps with spikes over 20Mbps. Granted these speeds will not last as more and more people get LTE phones on Verizon’s network, but at least for the next year or so, you should be able to enjoy well over 10Mbps of download speeds from your Thunderbolt.
Battery life could be better. In our tests, we managed about 6 hours of talk time. Surfing the web on 4G yielded about 5.5 hours. It could be better but by no means horrible. We will warn you that it might be a good idea to carry an extra battery or a charger if you should be out for an extended period of time.
Conclusion:
The Thunderbolt is a phone that we could see becoming our everyday phone. Granted, it’s battery life is not excellent, but neither is it terrible and as for 4G, those speeds beat most residential high-speed connections. This is a phone that should not disappoint you.
