HTC Thunderbolt Making Its Debut in Mid-February

The  HTC ThunderBolt could be out in the midst of next month -- several weeks earlier than Verizon said previously.

This Android OS model is going to be one of this carrier's first 4G smartphones, and it will offer a  big display, Skype video conferencing, and other high-end features.

If the ThunderBolt  does debut well before Verizon indicated, it wouldn't be a big surprise, as operators often prefer to under promise and over deliver.

When this model was unveiled at CES, Verizon stated that it would be available at some point after March, but information leaking out the company indicates that the launch will be Feb. 14, the first day of the big Mobile World Congress tradeshow in Barcelona.

HTC ThunderBolt Overview

As one of the world's first rings with the 4G standard LTE, this HTC model is expected to provide data transfer speeds of 5 to 12 Mbps for downloads and 2 to 5 Mbps upload speeds under actual world conditions. For comparison, tests on this carrier's current 3G network give download speeds of 0.6 to 1.6 Mbps and upload speeds of 0.5 to 0.8 Mbps.

The cost for this smartphone has not yet been announced or leaked out.
Aside from this, though, the ThunderBolt isn't going to be a immense jump above high-end smartphones that were released last year. It is still going to be fully-packed with features, though.

It will offer a 4.3-inch WVGA screen in a tablet shape with a kickstand on the back.
This instrument from HTC is gong to run Google's Android OS 2.2 (Froyo) with HTC's Sense overlay on a 1 GHz processor. It won't have a significant amount of internal storage capacity, but will have a microSD card slot with a bundled 32 GB card.
Other features are going to include Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, a digital compass, GPS, a nearness sensor, as well as a G-sensor.

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