4G MOBILE PHONES

Verizon now has four 4G Mobile Phones available for its 4G network – the Motorola DROID Bionic, the Samsung DROID Charge, the HTC Thunderbolt and the LG Revolution. In this review we’ll compare them for battery life, usability, design look and feel.

Good & Bad Points common to all four:
If you’re upgrading from a 3G phone, each of these phones represents a major upgrade in the speed and responsiveness you’ll experience when using the mobile web or apps that use web connections for data transfer. While Verizon has a number of non-4G phones with great specs, like the Droid 3, the fact is without a 4G network connection anything that uses a net connection is going to feel treacle slow compared to the Thunderbolt, Revolution or Charge.

There’s also a common downside to every 4G phone right now and that’s battery life. All that extra speed tends be a drain on the battery. The solutions are to charge more frequently (maybe grab a car charger?), get in the habit of toggling the 4G network connection on your phone on and off to save power or – probably easiest and most sensible – make a small investment in an extended battery so that each charge lasts a lot longer.

With the negatives out of the way, let’s compare the HTC Thunderbolt, the LG Revolution, the Motorola Droid Bionic and the Samsung DROID Charge on the next page.

Launched: DROID Bionic for Verizon

It’s finally available today – the 4G phone everyone has been waiting to see since it was first announced in January.

The latest Verizon 4G phone is the powerhouse Motorola DROID Bionic – complete with 4.3 inch qHD (960×540) touchscreen display, 8 megapixel main camera with additional front-facing camera for video calls, 1080p HD video capture, a massive 1GB RAM and 16GB internal memory.

All that and a blisteringly fast 1GHz dual-core processor and the latest version of Android (2.3.4) powering things as well as full support for the fastest network there is, Verizon 4G LTE.

The DROID Bionic is guaranteed to be the hottest phone this upcoming holiday season and it’s already selling well on Amazon for $199 on a two-year contract, which is great deal when compared to the Verizon store price of $299 (also with a two-year contract)

HTC Thunderbolt 4G

As Verizon’s first 4G phone the Thunderbolt has proved itself to be a worthy best-seller and is a firm favorite of critics and phone buyers alike – and as if to prove it, it regularly outsells even the mighty (but only 3G) iPhone 4.

Good: Of all three, the Thunderbolt feels the most solid in the hand, and we love the kickstand for propping the phone up while watching movies. The User Interface is HTC’s Sense which is one of the best out there and includes a number of useful apps.

Bad: Now that a software update has fixed earlier random reboot problems, the one remaining downside is the battery which with a capacity of 1400mAh is smaller than both the DROID Charge and the LG Revolution.

LG Revolution

LG Revolution - Low Price 4G Phone

LG’s Revolution has had a difficult time grabbing the limelight from the higher profile Thunderbolt and DROID Charge but it’s still a solid phone. It also has the lowest official Verizon price of all three phones. That said, buying online through Amazon, etc. will bring the prices of all these phones to roughly the same.

Good: Solid design and build with a decent battery and 16GB memory that compares very well to the Thunderbolt’s 768MB.

Bad: While it may not be a downside for everyone it’s certainly a strange decision to have a Google Android phone using Microsoft’s Bing for its online services, rather than Google. And no, there’s no way to change it.

The LG phone also has the smallest camera of the three – 5 megapixels compared to the 8 megapixel cameras on the other two phones.

Samsung DROID Charge

Samsung DROID Charge - Fastest 4G Phone

The DROID Charge is the best-selling Verizon 4G phone right now. That’s probably down to a combination of a slick design and interface and being the fastest 4G phone in this review.

Good: In independent tests and our own informal surveys, the DROID Charge is the fastest connecting and downloading 4G phone. And since Verizon has the fastest 4G network that makes the Samsung DROID Charge the fastest phone for mobile web use. Compared to the Thunderbolt is noticeably faster and it’s much faster than the Revolution.

You’re also getting a huge 32GB microSD card with the phone and a gorgeous Super AMOLED 4.3 inch display that’s brighter and clearer than the other two phones reviewed and is arguably the best screen on any phone you can buy today.

Bad: The DROID Charge is the most expensive of the three phones and not everyone will like the all over black look, which could be described as either sleek or plain depending your point of view.

Review Summary
If you’re buying on a strict budget and don’t mind using Bing take a look at the LG Revolution. If you want to buy a decent, reliable fast 4G phone but don’t like the look of the DROID or don’t want to spend that much, you can’t go wrong with the Thunderbolt.

For the best speed and battery life and an excellent screen combined with a highly respectable 8 megapixel camera it has to be the Samsung DROID Charge.