The HTC Thunderbolt is looking to be the first LTE handset to land on Verizon Wireless and its arrival is right around the corner if the latest Best Buy Mobile buyers guide is any indication. According to the recently updated March sales flyer, the Thunderbolt may land at Best Buy for $299 with a two-year contract. If you want to go full retail, the Thunderbolt will set you back a cool $749. The lovely 4G handset graces the front cover and several pages within the monthly sales flyer. It was also spotted in a second flyer for a slightly less expensive $249.
Before you get too excited, the Thunderbolt’s appearance is not a guarantee it will debut in the next few weeks. We did, after all, see the Samsung Gem land in the Best Buy Mobile sales flyer last year and it did not arrive as expected. Adding fuel to the fire of this rumor is a leaked television advertisement that unveils the HTC handset in all its glory, a healthy dose of confirmation the aforementioned Gem lacked.
The Thunderbolt promises to be a solid smartphone for Verizon Wireless, but its $249/299 price may be a bit high for a handset that lacks a dual-core processor. Unlike its competitor the DROID BIONIC, the Thunderbolt features a single-core processor from Qualcomm. Other than its slightly disappointing 1 GHz CPU, the Thunderbolt shines with a 4.3-inch capacitive touchscreen display, an eight-megapixel rear-facing camera, a three-megapixel front-facing camera, dual microphones with noise cancellation and LTE connectivity.
Now all we have to do is get Verizon to come clean on its LTE data plans which remain a mystery. Speaking of LTE data plans, what do you think Verizon has up its sleeve? Will it do away with unlimited offerings and introduce tiered plans? If it does make changes, will these new plan trickle down to the 3G smartphones as well?
While we wait to find out, you can check out our hands-on review of the Thunderbolt.