HTC Thunderbolt vs. Apple iPhone 4

The last couple of months have been quite exciting for Verizon subscribers as there have been quite a few new phones for the CDMA network. One of the most anticipated is the iPhone 4 from Apple. Another noteworthy introduction is the HTC Thunderbolt. The primary difference between these two is speed: the iPhone 4 is a 3G phone, while the Thunderbolt is 4G compatible with its LTE 700 radio. This isn’t a big difference at the moment as LTE infrastructure is rather limited right now. But when the time comes, the Thunderbolt will be considerably faster than the iPhone 4 when browsing the internet and downloading files.

Apple’s own OS on the iPhone 4 is one of its main draws as there are more than enough apps for users to choose from. The Thunderbolt borrows Google’s Android, which undoubtedly is the main competitor of Apple’s iOS. Although it is arguably not as polished as the iOS yet, it is certainly getting there with Google’s rapid release cycle and the very enthusiastic community behind it.

It is easy to see the physical differences of the iPhone 4 and the Thunderbolt when placed side by side. The Thunderbolt is bigger and heavier than the iPhone 4. The Thunderbolt’s 4.3 inches screen is almost a full inch bigger than the 3.5 inch screen of the iPhone 4. Although the Thunderbolt screen has a lower resolution than the iPhone’s retina display, size certainly trumps resolution when it comes to viewing movies or online browsing on these small devices.

One area where the iPhone 4 is rarely beaten is memory. There are only two variants for the iPhone 4: a 16GB variant, and a 32GB. Based on internal memory, the Thunderbolt loses out as it only has 8GB of memory. But when you consider that the Thunderbolt ships with a 32GB microSD card, the scales are tipped towards the Thunderbolt.

Though the difference is nil in reality, it is worth mentioning that the Thunderbolt has a higher resolution camera than iPhone 4. Image quality is more or less equal, though. Unless you print it on a billboard, the iPhone 4 photos are equal to that of the Thunderbolt, if not better.

Summary:

1. The Thunderbolt is a 4G phone while the iPhone 4 is a 3G phone
2. The Thunderbolt runs Android while the iPhone 4 has the iOS
3. The Thunderbolt is a bigger phone than the iPhone 4
4. The Thunderbolt is equipped with more memory than the iPhone 4
5. The Thunderbolt has a higher resolution camera than the iPhone 4

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