Verizon ThunderBolt by HTC

I recently had the opportunity to review the ThunderBolt HTC phone from Verizon.  We are up for new phones in our family, but I don't want to make such a hefty investment until I am absolutely sure exactly which phone I want and with which options.  There are so many out there all with different features it's just too hard to choose from based on a few minutes in a Verizon store. 

The phone includes the Standard Lithium Ion Battery, Wall/USB charger and a 32GB microSD card. I love the new charger. There is just the one cord that you can either use to hook the phone to your computer, or plug it into the wall adapter for charging. Finally they include the computer plug! I also like that the microSD card is installed in the back under the battery. My current phone has it on the side and if my phone gets jostled wrong it resets my background image which is stored on the microSD card.  Having it in the back under the battery seems so much more secure. Plus with having the computer cord there isn't a need to remove it to see your photos. Speaking of photos, this camera takes AWESOME pictures. There is an 8mp camera on the backside and 1.3mp on the front for taking self portraits.  Like most phones it has some really cool photo features like one color photos, or photo morphing. I give the camera 2 thumbs up! It also features HD video capture which also is wonderful. I used it at my daughter's preschool graduation and was very impressed with the pictures and videos I got. I was able to share right on Facebook right from the phone which was great for those that didn't make it to her graduation.  I think I could go on and on about all the great features of the phone. I used it for my personal email account, downloaded games right from the Android marketplace, used the calendar feature to track appointments, check the weather at any given moment, and of course for Facebook features and surfing the web.  Man all that on a phone!  I was even able to test out the 4G capabilities. Very impressive, I was surfing the marketplace for games and downloading multiple aps all at the same time! There wasn't any sort of lag or anything.  Don't have 4G in your home yet?  You can always get the LG 4G USB Modem VL600 for your home to speed up not only your phone, but your home computer too! I had the opportunity to test it out too and it is amazingly fast!

The only thing I would say is a downfall of the phone is the battery life. I did use it quite a bit surfing, playing games, and photo/video taking so that is part of why it ran down so fast on me.  I was able to adjust the screen brightness as well as how often it updated mail and internet stuff which did help.  You just have to realize if you use the phone for the extra amenities it will drain faster, that's a given.  When I didn't use all of the extras a lot the battery did last a lot longer.  The only other thing I would definitely suggest is a screen protector, the screen by itself takes on finger prints very easily.

Disclosure:  Thanks to PR Firm/sponsor I was provided with this product(s) for the purpose of my personal review. This blog post is not a paid post and the honest opinions stated are my own.