Telstra announces pre-order of its first 4G phone

Brenton Currie
Friday, 20 January 2012 13:22

Your IT - Mobility

Telstra has announced that it is accepting pre-orders of its first LTE mobile phone.

 

The HTC Velocity 4G will be released on the 24th January to it's Telstra Stores, and they will accept pre-orders up to midnight 20th January.

The specs are impressive. Duel 1.5ghz processor, 4.5 inch screen and  duel camera (8 mega pixels back camera and 1.3 mega pixels front). Built with the Sense UI, it appears to be Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) but neither HTC or Telstra confirms this.

Pricing seems comparable with 3g plans, with an extra 1gb data added.

Telstra default pricing plan (credit Telstra Website)

The Velocity appears to be similar to the US HTC Vivid from AT&T. That phone has Gingerbread (Android 2.3) so it will be interesting if Telstra releases the Velocity with Ice Cream Sandwich or Gingerbread (At this stage Gingerbread seems likely).

One thing Telstra is flossing over is battery life. The specifications listed rate talk and standby time with 3G only. With phones like the Samsung Galaxy S II 4G being released with extra large batteries to handle 4g compared to the iPhone 4s or the 3G Samsung Galaxy S II, it will be interesting to see how much a power hit users will experience in using the 4G radio on the Velocity.