14 DAY TRIAL // Even though none of the local carriers support LTE (Long Term Evolution) technology, it seems that HTC Thunderbolt is up for pre-orders in India.
Online retailer Letsbuy has put the Thunderbolt on pre-orders for Rs. 35,000 (about $780), without stating the actual availability date of the smartphone. The price might seem unusually high for a phone that cannot be used at its full capabilities.
Indian customers who wish to reserve the Thunderbolt must pay a booking fee of Rs.1000 (about $22). According to Letsbuy, those pre-ordering the Thunderbolt will receive the device in 4-7 days after the initial launch.
HTC Thunderbolt was recently launched in the U.S. as Verizon's first 4G network compatible smartphone available on the market.
Although launching a 4G device in a region that lacks the infrastructure for the standard seems rather odd, at least the Thunderbolt's battery autonomy will be improved as the device will work only on 3G networks.
It appears that Indian customers were so excited about the retailer's announcement that the retailer was forced to stop taking pre-orders.
Those who wish to purchase the device will probably have to wait a little longer until the retailer decides meet the high demand and remove the “Sold Out” tag from the phone's order page.
The Froyo-enabled HTC Thunderbolt comes with a large 4.3-inch TFT capacitive touchscreen that supports 16 million colors and 480 x 800 pixels resolution.
Thunderbolt is powered by single 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8655 Snapdragon processor complemented by an Adreno 205 GPU and boasts a rear 8-megapixel camera with autofocus, dual LED flash and camcorder (720p), as well as a front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera for video-calls.
Furthermore, the Thunderbolt is equipped with support for Google Mobile Services, including Gmail, YouTube and Android Market, which offers users access to thousands of free apps.
It is worth mentioning that the phone's actual price may change depending on the retail price suggested by the manufacturer at launch.
