htc thunderbolt first look

The ThunderBolt, Verizon’s first 4G LTE phone. Blazing fast and we’re not even talking about the data speeds. We checked it out at CTIA and for Verizon users looking for a new phone today, this looks to be an excellent choice.

htc thunderbolt first look browser

Design wise the ThunderBolt is a bit thicker than other HTC phones like the G2, Inspire 4G and EVO 4G (and it felt like it was thicker than the new EVO 3D for that matter, but we couldn’t get the 2 side by side), but not too thick that it won’t fit into your pocket. The screen on the ThunderBolt was, like HTC’s other phone, incredibly sharp. Everything we saw on it looked clear and bright and together with the 1 GHZ processor made using the phone a smooth and enjoyable experience.

htc thunderbolt first look back

The ThunderBolt also packs a 8 megapixel back camera and 1.3 megapixel front camera, which in our quick look seemed to perform very well as well. And of course like pretty much all of HTC’s Android phones, the ThunderBolt packs the latest in HTC Sense on top of Android 2.2 (which will be upgraded to Android 2.3 at some point).

htc thunderbolt first look speed test

Yeah, its crazy fast– and this is in an area packed with Verizon 4G devices!

Oh, and the 4G? It’s ridiculously fast. In a packed area (this was at CTIA, a cell phone show, after all) the ThunderBolt still got beyond impressive 4G speeds, with pages loading near instantly and videos playing without any buffering or waiting. Unfortunately we couldn’t test out the battery given the short time we had with the phone.

The ThunderBolt is available now for $249.99 with a new 2 year contract from Verizon.