HTC ThunderBolt review: The first 4G LTE phone in the US, launched on Verizon.
America's first LTE phone.
HTC ThunderBolt was the first 4G LTE smartphone on Verizon, marking the beginning of mainstream LTE in the US. The new radios devoured its modest 1,400 mAh battery — but it ushered in a new network generation.
01Display
56/10056/100 is one of the weaker display results among flagship phones of 2011 — 13 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
02Camera
54/10054/100 is one of the weaker camera results among flagship phones of 2011 — 9 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
03Performance
50/10050/100 is one of the weaker performance results among flagship phones of 2011 — 12 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
04Battery
44/10044/100 is one of the weaker battery results among flagship phones of 2011 — 16 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
05Build
60/10060/100 is one of the weaker build results among flagship phones of 2011 — 8 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
06Value
54/10054/100 trails the 56-point cohort average for flagship phones of 2011.
- First 4G LTE phone in the United States.
- Kickstand built in.
- HTC Sense polish.
- microSD + jack.
- LTE absolutely ate the 1,400 mAh battery.
- Heavy 183 g.
- WVGA screen.
- Verizon CDMA-locked.
How this review is built: every section score, spec row and comparison on this page comes from SpecEagle's tracked catalogue — scores weight measured specs against the 15-phone cohort of flagship devices released around the same time. We don't publish invented lab anecdotes. Spot an error? .