As my ZDNet colleague James pointed out, Verizon and HTC finally announced that the HTC Thunderbolt will be hitting Verizon this Thursday, 17 March. This is the first LTE smartphone available on Verizon and as a major HTC EVO 4G fan, rated it the #1 smartphone twice last year, I quickly went over to Wirefly and purchased mine for $199.99. The Thunderbolt runs at $249.99 from Verizon Wireless with a 2-year contract.
I purchased my Apple iPad 2 last weekend and have been debating about what to do with my Samsung Galaxy Tab and now with the HTC Thunderbolt on order I will sell the SGT and use the Thunderbolt as my Android device. I probably shouldn’t have ever sold my EVO 4G and did it more out of a need for some cash to get something else rather than not liking the device. The HTC Thunderbolt is very similar to the HTC EVO 4G with a 4.3 inch display, 8 megapixel camera, 1.3 megapixel front facing camera, and integrated kickstand (I LOVE this) and since I liked all of that I couldn’t pass up the upgraded model with LTE and latest version of HTC Sense.
I took a look at the LTE USB modem and was blown away by the speeds of LTE and thus the ability to have that on a smartphone is VERY attractive to me. The Thunderbolt release timing is perfect for me and solves my dilemna with the Samsung Galaxy Tab that will now go up on the auction block. Verizon is giving you the Mobile Hotspot service to try for free up until 15 May and then after that it will be $20 for 2GB. I honestly do not use this that much and with LTE you will likely eat through 2GB pretty quickly.
Are any other readers planning to pick up the HTC Thunderbolt?
