HTC Thunderbolt – An Overview ( Specs, Release Date, Price )

HTC Thunderbolt was first presented at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this year and considering the competition it has to face in the 4G market, let’s see if it measures up to Verizon’s claim about it – “the phone that people have been dreaming about”. This obviously puts the spotlight on HTC’s Thunderbolt, so let’s see if there is indeed anything worth dreaming about when playing around with the Thunderbolt.

HTC Thunderbolt – An Overview ( Specs, Release Date, Price )

We’ll kick start this overview with some specs to update anyone on what this device is all about. So here are the HTC Thunderbolt specs at a glance:
• 1 GHz Snapdragon CPU
• 4G LTE – speeds between 5 to 12 Mbps download and 2 to 5 Mbps upload where 4G is available
• 4.3 inch WVGA Display (480 x 800 pixels)
• Mobile Hotspot capability – share your connection with up to 8 Wi-Fi enabled devices
• Android 2.2 OS
• 32GB micro SD card included
• HTC Sense UI 2.0
• Kickstand for media viewing
• Dolby and SRS surround sound system
• 720p HD video recording
• 8 megapixel rear camera and 1.3 megapixel front facing camera
• 768 MB of RAM
When looking at the HTC Thunderbolts specs it’s clear to see that it should power you through menus with ease and thanks to the 4.3 inch WVGA display you shouldn’t have any issue viewing 720p HD movies or clips. My big gripe with the HTC Thunderbolt is that it looks a lot like it’s European cousin the HTC Desire HD or like the HTC Inspire 4G, which are basically the same phones and for some users this might be a deal breaker right there.

Specs wise, the HTC Thunderbolt does come with a pretty fast Snapdragon 1 GHz processor and thanks to Android 2.2 Froyo it flies through the menus with no lag. The 32 GB micro SD card included in the package should convince a rather large number of potential users to grab this device as it will give you more than sufficient space to store your movies and pictures.
Although there is always the issue of paying a premium price for a device which might not be able to hold its ground against newer Android phone like the Motorola Droid Bionic or the Motorola Atrix 4G, yet despite its single-core processor, the device has no issues in quickly loading up the apps or browsing through web pages. And the 4.3 inch display does help out a lot.
The rear camera for the HTC Thunderbolt is an 8 megapixel camera and pictures with it do look good in light conditions as well as in partly clouded conditions, although they do look a touch cold. Colors don’t really have that saturation to them which some people might enjoy, yet despite that they do look very crisp. The same goes for the video recording, but I feel that the real concern with the HTC Thunderbolt is it’s 4G connectivity and in that aspect there are quite a lot of tests out there which showed that upload speed isn’t all that great.

As a conclusion, the HTC Thunderbolt is going to get here rather quickly, the issue is – is it worth the money they are charging extra or would you still go for a HTC Inspire 4G.
The HTC Thunderbolt release date  is the 17th of March ( more on the HTC Thunderbolt release date drama in the updates section ). Is it worth it? Well, I might have some doubts on that with the Inspire 4G being very close in specs and cheaper.