Ben Hsu

A few days ago, we talked about how AT&T had announced the Samsung Captivate Glide, a powerful Android phone with a full slide-out QWERTY keyboard. However, if you were a Verizon user, you might have felt left out. Fear no more, as also a few days ago, Verizon launched the Samsung Stratosphere, an awesome device with 4G LTE, a physical QWERTY keyboard, and even a Super AMOLED Display. If you’re a heavy texter or just want a good smartphone on Verizon that isn’t all touchscreen, this looks to be for you. Just check out these specs:

• 4.0 inch Super AMOLED screen– So everything– pictures, games, texts, apps, videos– look sharp and clear. I have the Epic 4G Touch which sports a Super AMOLED Plus display (a slightly more powerful version of this), and I have to say, it is awesome.
• 1 GHz single-core processor– While it’s not as fast as some of Verizon’s more recent 4G phones like the Droid Bionic, Droid RAZR and Galaxy Nexus (which all have faster dual-core processors), it should be more than enough for checking Facebook, multitasking and playing games like Angry Birds.
• QWERTY keyboard– The 5-row physical keyboard is one of the main features of this device (there is even a full row of numbers!). Texting, updating Facebook, finishing up that English essay (oh come on, you haven’t done this before?), and searching the web will be even easier on the Stratosphere (and if you don’t want to use that slide out keyboard you can always use the built-in Swype virtual one).
• 4G LTE– Like Verizon’s other recent Android phones, this bad boy runs Verizon’s blazing fast 4G LTE network– so everything from opening websites to streaming HD videos is insanely fast. Now before you go watch all those videos, remember Verizon does have a tiered data-plan system (which starts at $30 a month for 2 GB of data a month– enough for a lot of Facebook updating, browsing the web and YouTube watching but not enough to download HD movies over 4G. For that we recommend using WiFi as if you go over that limit, you will have to pay A LOT more).
• Android 2.3 Gingerbread– So you can run pretty much all the latest Android apps and games. This also has Samsung’s custom TouchWiz UI, which adds even more to Android like Media Hub (Samsung’s version of iTunes for downloading movies and TV shows), better homescreen widgets and tweaks like pinch-to-zoom for switching between your homescreens.
• 1.3 megapixel front-camera and a 5.0 megapixel back-camera– So your video chats and photos look nice and clear.
• 4 GB internal memory and 4 GB pre-installed microSD card– This isn’t much memory, but it will be able to hold a few thousand songs, some videos, and some apps. If you do need more memory, you can also buy a larger microSD card.