Australia's first 4G smartphone is packed with plenty of superlatives. The fastest and smoothest smartphone yet to be seen on the Australian market, the HTC Velocity 4G promises to leave other smartphone speeds in the dust.
The Velocity boasts a large 4.5-inch touchscreen with an eight-megapixel camera that will take beautiful pictures in daylight and surprisingly good quality pictures in low light. The Velocity's shiny black bezel and rounded edges add to the impression of a professional, attractive phone, and the added weight to it may be comforting rather than inhibiting.But the real appeal of the Velocity is, of course, its 4G network. The first smartphone that works on this network promises download speeds of up to 40MBs and upload speeds of up to 10MBs. The fast-paced smartphone can make your ADSL2+ connection look slow, but the speeds come with certain conditions.
First of all, the fact that hardly anyone is on the 4G network as of yet is decidedly making a difference; the more people join, the less you'll be finding yourself downloading something at the rate of 40MBs per second. More importantly, though, the 4G network's coverage is not great. The 4G speeds are only available on 40% of Telstra's network, which centre typically in the 5km radius of a city's CBD or in airports. After that, the phone will be operating on 3G networks; still somewhat faster than other smartphones, but not really enough to be a deciding factor in buying the Velocity 4G over another phone.
The HTC Velocity 4G's unreliable network and Telstra-only network may be a dealbreaker for some. But for those who operate in and around a city centre frequently, it's a handsome phone ushering in a new era in smartphone speed.
PROS
• Australia's first LTE smartphone: up to five times faster online than other smartphones
• Stream video content quickly and smoothly, and then try out the video chat
• Powerful 8 megapixel camera
CONS
• Not yet widely available
• Battery life not as good as first suggested
• 4G speeds and service depends on coverage area