The first phone, headed for T-Mobile, is said to be HTC’s first dual-core Android smartphone, code-named “Pyramid.”
According to Android and Me, the phone features a 4.3-inch display, an upgrade to a quarter HD (qHD) 960 by 540 display resolution, versus the more common 800 by 480. The smartphone also has a 1.2GHz Snapdragon processor, which makes it “dramatically faster,” according to the site, than HTC’s current phones with 1GHz single-core chips.
In December, LG introduced the world’s first dual-core smartphone, the Optimus 2X, starting a trend of boosted speed that the market is likely to see a lot more of this year.
The OS is rumored to be Android 2.3, and per two tipsters reportedly leaking details to the site, the Pyramid will support 3G and HSPA+ (Evolved High-Speed Packet Access) technology and be ready for sale in May.
“Qualcomm demoed their dual-core MSM8x60 development platform during CES and hinted at an early Q2 availability, so a May 2011 product release is totally plausible,” the site states.
While the Mobile World Congress event kicking off Feb. 14 in Barcelona would be a great place to introduce an international version of the phone, HTC might hold off, if the phone is instead U.S.-bound, until March’s CTIA show.
Over at Gizmo Crunch and other sites, an as-yet-unreleased Best Buy flyer was reportedly spotted, suggesting that the HTC ThunderBolt 4G’s arrival on the Verizon Wireless network is imminent.
Verizon and HTC officially introduced the phone Jan. 6 from the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show, but its availability has so far been a mystery.
The flyer, according to the site, urges customers to “Pre-order your ThunderBolt by HTC at Best Buy with a $50 deposit.”
There was no mention of a start date for the offer, suggesting that it will be available as soon as the flyer is released, and that a rumored Valentine’s Day launch date for the ThunderBolt might be spot on.
The rest of the flyer details reportedly only brag about Verizon’s 4G network-saying that users will be able to download a song in less than 4 seconds and 20 photos in just a minute, as well as stream television shows from a computer.
Exclusive to Verizon, the ThunderBolt features a 4.3-inch WVGA TFT (thin-film transistor) capacitive touch-screen, HTC’s Sense user interface, a 1GHz Qualcomm processor, a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera for video calling, and an 8-megapixel camera on the back. WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1 and assisted GPS are all on board, along with 8GB of memory a 768 RAM memory card and a pre-installed 32GB microSD card. It can run on Verizon’s 4G network, and Video Skype with or without WiFi.
A report at the Android Community adds that the advertisement shows Best Buy’s presale date to be this Sunday-when Best Buy will also begin a “Future Proof” program. Geared toward customers who may be holding off on a purchase, unsure of whether to pull the trigger or wait for the next best thing, it allows customers to exchange a phone purchased at the store for credit toward another phone, while keeping the same plan.