Smartphone manufacturers are raring to get onboard with Verizon's 4G LTE network, if the Consumer Electronics Show last week was any indication. Four new handsets from HTC, Samsung, LG, and Motorola are set to debut by the middle of this year and will be fully enabled for the 4G network.
The four upcoming phones—the HTC Thunderbolt, LG Revolution, Motorola Bionic, and an unnamed Samsung phone—all share some solid features: they have front and back cameras, run Android 2.2, will come with Skype preinstalled for video chatting on their 4.3 inch screens, and can function as mobile hotspots. Many features, like video out and storage options, will likely guide customers to one or the other.
The HTC Thunderbolt has no HDMI out port, though it is DLNA-capable and can stream video wirelessly to compatible devices. It appears to have no internal storage but includes a 32GB microSD card. And like its doppelganger, the EVO 4G, it has a kickstand on the back.
The Motorola Bionic, the successor to the popular Droid line, is unique among the phones we saw for its dual-core 1GHz processor, which should make it a standout for multitasking. It was also the only phone that made a point about its high screen resolution, referred to as "quarter HD" at 540x980 pixels. The Bionic has both DLNA and HDMI out, with 16GB internal storage and a microSD slot for additional space. Both the Bionic handsets Verizon showed us and the models Motorola had set up in their booth appeared to be running an incomplete version of Android 2.2, which was a little unusual.
Like the Bionic, the LG Revolution supports both DLNA and HDMI out and has 16GB internal storage, expandable through its microSD slot. It's also the only phone with Bluetooth 3.0, a feature that should help it manage power consumption while connected to Bluetooth devices.
The Samsung 4G model we were introduced to had no given name, though a Verizon rep told Ars it had its moniker pulled at the last minute (we snapped a picture of its model number in the settings screen—SCH-I510). The Phone With No Name will have a Super AMOLED screen like the Samsung Fascinate released last summer, as well as an HDMI port. Neither Verizon nor Samsung have been very forthcoming about more details of the phone—there are no storage metrics or specific resolution, though we know it's the only phone without DLNA support.
The phones that had their OS fully installed (all except the Bionic) were quick and opened programs and menus without a hitch. We quickly tried the 5 megapixel cameras on the Revolution and the Bionic, and neither were too impressive; the other two phones have 8-megapixel cameras, so cell phone photo enthusiasts may have better luck there.
Unfortunately, there's still a lot of information missing from the phones' profiles before we can make conclusive descisions about them, including whether they'll be able to update to future versions of Android. This is an issue manufacturers have struggled with, some more than others, and even promised updates are very slow in coming. Reps have likewise made themselves scarce on the topic of prices.
There are also no official release dates for any of the phones, though Verizon's goal is "to launch them sometime in the first half of this year," Verizon's Albert Aydin told Ars. All the new phones seem like they would be formidable opponents for the iPhone 4, which is stuck on Verizon's CDMA network. But if Apple's history of iPhone releases is any indication and manufacturers hold true to their midyear launch dates, an updated iPhone 5, not 4, may be the one they're up against.
