We saw so many devices this year at CES but there were a couple that stood out of course and the HTC Thunderbolt was one of them. After hearing several rumors on the device we actually got a true hands on in a private HTC meeting. Let’s talk a little about the device here in this post.

So at first hands on, immediately with the 4.3 inch screen (800×480) and kickstand, you can’t help but compare this device to the size of an EVO or HD7. The colors on the hardware with the grey and aluminum look also favor the HD7 a lot. When the device is in hand it has that solid heavy feel that most people love about HTC hardware.

Powered by a 1GHz Snapdragon we felt that the Thunderbolt fell short a little with all the newer high end devices coming with dual-core processors, but it was no slouch at all. The device was very snappy and we noticed no kind of lag what so ever. Having 768 MB of RAM probably is helping it speed along also. Let’s go over a couple of other features packed into the device. With storage you have 8GB internal with a SD Card slot and 32GB SC card included! 1400 mAh battery, 8MP rear camera with a 1.3MP front camera and 720P capable video recording from the rear. We also noticed that having the 1.3MP camera up front made a big difference in the quality of pictures you can take compared to the VGA resolution that most have these days.

Android 2.2.1 is on board with Sense and no mention of Gingerbread was made (even though we expect it to come). Skype video chat is integrated into the phone powered by the LTE performance from Verizon. There is more to mention but we will save that for later in a review. We did not get a for sure answer when we asked why this wasn’t a Droid branded phone, but either way it is a powerhouse top tier phone from Verizon that we can’t wait to use for a while.