We were just hanging out like hooligans at a Verizon store down Arizona way today when we decided to inquire about a particular phone on the horizon: the Motorola Droid Bionic. This is a phone with 512MB of RAM, a dual-core processor, and wouldn’t you know it – 4G LTE speed. As it turns out, the folks at Verizon were more than willing to hand us over a bit of info on this phone, most of it we already knew, but let slip a rather important point of interest: the release date.

While they didn’t get TOO specific as they weren’t 100% sure, they did, these Verizon people, tell us that the phone would be released somewhere around mid-April. This is a phone that’s got a front and rear-facing camera, the read totaling up to 8 megapixels of fury, with a 4.3-inch qHD touchscreen display up front. And it’s connected to the network’s 4G LTE network, the one we’re all freaking out over with the ThunderBolt. Will this phone leave the ThunderBolt obsolete instantly?

Perhaps. But there are those who still prefer HTC over Motorola. Why? Heck, I don’t know. The fact that it’s got the built-in ability to silence calls by flipping on its face is enough to keep this dude on HTC. But who knows? I and we do LOVE the XOOM tablet, and the ATRIX 4G has that lovely webtop app that we know the Droid Bionic will also be getting, so perhaps there’s hope after all? Let’s look at the press pics together and think about our decisions we’ve made in life:

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HTC Thunderbolt review on SlashGear

Vince over at SlashGear got his hands on the long anticipated, and often delayed, HTC Thunderbolt by Verizon and considering it’s 4g hardware is “seasoned,” the impressions are positive. The design of the Thunderbolt standard for an HTC handset, large 4.3″ screen, metal chassis, industrial look. And while the display is a standard WVGA TFT touchscreen, the colors are impressively crisp and warm. And the design is actually narrower than most 4G phones, considering the extra space needed for it’s built in metal kickstand.

One thing users will notice though is the Thunderbolt’s heft at 6.23 oz. But it comes packed with a 1.3 megapixel front facing webcam and an 8 megapixel auto-focus rear facing camera with dual-LE flash. Under the hood, the Thunderbolt sticks with the tried and true 1 GHz Snapdragon single core processor, which is surprising considering the marketing focus on the Thunderbolt is one of speed and performance. And sadly, that’s where this 4G phone falls short as there are much faster options out there.
The Thunderbolt does make the most of that Snapdragon processor thanks to 768MB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage. It’s running a mature Android 2.2 (Froyo) out of the box, and we’re hoping that HTC will boost it up to 2.4 Gingerbread sooner, rather than later. But that usually takes some time as Sense is used as an overlay and it usually takes some time to accommodate the new flavor to the many features Sense users are accustomed to.
Where the Thunderbolt really shines is in it’s 4G/LTE performance, specifically in hotspot host mode. Users can share the Thunderbolt’s 3G/4G connection with up to eight WiFi devices tethered to it and enjoy a pleasant surfing experience. Vince connected his iPhone and MacBook pro through the Thunderbolt via WiFi and the Thunderbolt’s 4G connection hardly batted an eye with 18.73 Mbps downloads and 4.39 Mbps uploads.
When it comes to battery life, we’ve heard a lot of bad news about the Thunderbolt. It was rumored to be causing it’s launch delay. And at first blush, it seemed that relying solely on a 4G connection the Thunderbolt would only not last the day, but users would be lucky to get through Noon. But when combined with a WiFi signal, the battery life on the Thunderbolt becomes on par with other HTC devices on the Verizon LTE network.

• For more, check out SlashGear’s review here.

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