One of the most anticipated phones of 2010 has to be the iPhone 4. Taking over the iPhone 3GS, the iPhone 4 has been doing very well, living up to expectations. In fact, it has been doing so well that many other phones have been released using the same concepts in attempt to steal some limelight from the iPhone 4. One such phone is the HTC Thunderbolt which has yet to be released. Does the HTC Thunderbolt come close to the iPhone 4? Could this be the phone that finally defeats the iPhone 4 and be named the “iPhone Killer”? Let us first discuss and compare the specifications of both phones.

Display screen

First of all, we should compare the display screens. The HTC Thunderbolt comes with a 4.3 inch LCD display while the iPhone 4 only has a 3.5 inch LCD screen. The HTC Thunderbolt uses the Super LCD which gives more beautiful displays. This coupled with the bigger screen has made many people turn their eyes towards the HTC Thunderbolt. However, the iPhone 4 is sharper display measuring 600×940 pixels compared HTC Thunderbolt’s 480×800 pixels display. Hence, in terms of display screens, it falls down to user preference; do you want a bigger screen or a clearer picture.

Operating system and Memory

Next, we compare the insides of both phones. The brain of the phone, the operating system, plays a major role for comparison here. The iPhone 4 uses the iPhone OS4.2 while the HTC Thunderbolt uses the Android 2.2. Both of them run at 1 GHz, single core. However, HTC Thunderbolt has 768MB of RAM while the iPhone 4 only has 512MB of RAM. By taking these into consideration, it can be said that the HTC Thunderbolt will run faster than the iPhone 4.

Storage space

The iPhone 4 comes in either 16GB or 32GB storage space while the HTC Thunderbolt comes with only 8MB on-board storage. In this sense, iPhone 4 clearly betters the HTC Thunderbolt. However, HTC Thunderbolt has a microSD slot that allows memory cards up to 32GB to be used. So, the total storage space for the HTC Thunderbolt now sums up to 40GB, which is even higher than iPhone 4’s 32GB storage space. Furthermore, the iPhone4 does not come with any memory expansion slot. If you buy the 16GB iPhone 4 and find that you do not have enough space, there is nothing you can do. Another point for the HTC Thunderbolt.

Camera

Another factor to look into consideration is the camera. The iPhone 4 has a 5-megapixel camera while the HTC Thunderbolt has an 8-megapixel camera. Both phones are capable of 720p HD recording and have front-facing cameras for video chat (640 x 480 pixels for the iPhone 4 and 1.3-megapixels for the HTC Thunderbolt). HTC Thunderbolt has a dual LED flash while the iPhone 4 uses a single LED flash.  Both have geo-tagging but HTC Thunderbolt has face detection while the iPhone 4 has touch focus. Autofocus is possible in both phones. In short, both phones have excellent cameras with similar features but the HTC Thunderbolt has an edge as it has a higher resolution for still images.

HTC or Apple?

In conclusion, it seems that the HTC Thunderbolt is better than the iPhone 4. The iPhone 4 does have its own benefits but I feel that the HTC Thunderbolt has more advantages over the iPhone 4 in terms of both hardware and software. However, the HTC Thunderbolt has not been released yet but rumours say that it will only be released in March. Will it really be good as it sounds right now? Only time will tell. If iPhone wants to remain the best, it has to do something before it is too late.