HTC ThunderBolt

Out of the four major hitters for 4G LTE, the Thunderbolt caught my eye first. Why?
Well lets take a look at a couple of key points:

HTC
HTC Phones are usually open for developers. XDA is a strong community to back up tweaks and such for each phone. Update wise on HTC end they usually update their phones the fastest out of the other manufactures. With new Android versions coming out every 6-8 months its the best company to go with that's not a Google experience phone (i.e Nexus/Nexus S)

HTC Sense 2.0
Currently I have a Droid X and by default it runs MotoBlur and personally I don't like it that much. I have heard very good things about Sense and 2.0 looks really good. If there should be a skin on a phone HTC Sense should be it. It's quickly updated by HTC and bugs addressed pretty quickly.

1Ghz Snapdragon
Its one of the newer Snapdragons and should be snappy, think of the EVO speeds but on Verizon.

More specs courtesy of Engadget


HTC Thunderbolt
• Networks: LTE 700, CDMA EvDO revA
• Operating system: Android 2.2 + HTC Sense
• Display: 4.3" WVGA TFT capacitive touch screen
• Camera: 8MP with autofocus, LED Flash (2x LED), 1.3MP front facing camera
• Memory: 8GB emmc + 768 RAM Memory card, preinstalled 32 GB microSD
• WLAN: 802.11 b/g/n
• Bluetooth: 2.1 with EDR (3.0 when available)
• GPS: GPS/AGPS
• Battery: 1400 mAh
• Special features: Dual mics with noise cancellation, Surround sound, Compass sensor, G-Sensor, Proximity sensor, Light sensor, 3.5mm audio jack, MicroUSB, FM radio, LTE SIM slot , TI audio DSP
• Chipset: Qualcomm® MSM8655, 1GHz, Qualcomm MDM9600

Now most might ask why I would choose this over any of the Dual Core phones. Well first off if you want to call this the second coming of EVO then go ahead. Its basically a refined EVO. But with it being such a good phone spec wise you know your going to get what you want. I doubt you will see any lag or any type of slow down which is why you would go with a Dual Core to begin with. With Dual Core phones coming out you have to remember they will be the first generation Dual Cores. Android wasn't designed to take full advantage of both cores, so its not exactly worth it just yet. The Thunderbolt also has more RAM to help with it having a single core, so that helps there. It seems that with it having 4G it most definitely can stack up to be a great phone and hold you over for the next 2 years while waiting for Dual Core and Android to fully work together.

Personal Thoughts:
I would certainly think the Bionic would be better speed wise in the processor are but I can't help but think of Motorola's past with the Droid X. I currently own the Droid X and while the phone is great I don't like not being able to fully control my phone with the locked bootloader. I don't regret buying it it's a fantastic phone but I'm sitting on a upgrade and at first glance if I had to be forced to use that upgrade I would most definitely buy the Thunderbolt not only does it have the power and features but it will be backed by the community since it's a HTC product. If you can wait and keep your current phone till maybe next year 2012 then I would hold out on this years phones from what was shown at CES for Verizon. If not and you must upgrade I would Choose the Thunderbolt.

Conclusions
If you just can't wait to get that new shiny phone then by all means get it you will be set for the next two years. But at this point it's a little bit too early in the Smartphone game to really show who's really king, heck the phones aren't even out yet. So once they are out I will do a re-review but for now I would say go with the Incredible and wait on Dual Core phones till at least Q4 2011 Q1 2012.