HTC Thunderbolt 4G Pictures Come Out Early?

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Kellex over at Droid-Life is posting what are allegedly the first pictures of the HTC Thunderbolt, aka the Incredible HD, aka the Mecha, aka the first 4G LTE phone on Verizon that’s expected to be unveiled next week at CES. According to Droid-Life, it’s very similar to the Desire HD / EVO 4G and will be called the “Thunderbolt”.

Droid-Life seems conflicted on if the phone will carry the Droid branding. They say it’s possible that the phone will come default with Bing as the search engine – which would make it not a Droid-branded phone. But they also say that it could be called the “Droid Thunderbolt”. This will likely be a selling point for many people.

It looks very similar to the Desire HD / EVO 4G, right down to the kickstand on the back, which always seemed a bit pointless to me. Kellex also reports that the phone won’t be coming with a dual-core processor, so I assume it will have the same Qualcomm QSD8650 processor that’s found in the Desire HD. A fine processor, sure, but will it hold up to the rumored dual-core phones with Tegra 2 tech that we expect to see this year?

Obviously, LTE 4G compatibility is the big draw here. You’ve got to believe that HTC is are the big winners in that regard. They’ve quietly become the premier handset manufacturer on the planet with some of the most demanded phones worldwide. And, as their promo graphic states, they’ve come out with the “first 4G” phone on three major carriers, the HTC EVO 4G on Sprint, the T-Mobile G2 on T-Mobile, and, if these rumors are to be believed, the HTC Thunderbolt on Verizon. That’s quite the accolade for the company that was little known just 18 months ago.