If you’re looking for a great deal on a Verizon LTE phone… keep looking. On the other hand, if you’re one of the handful of people whose heart is still set on the Motorola DROID BIONIC, then today is your lucky day. The phone has dropped in price to free on-contract. It’s been eight months since Moto’s first LTE device debuted on Verizon, though it’s been considerably longer since it was announced – the BIONIC had an unusually long gestation period.

For the uninitiated, the Motorola DROID BIONIC packs a dual-core 1GHz processor, 4.3-inch 960×540 display, a full gigabyte of RAM and an 8 megapixel rear camera. The storage is a still-decent 16GB, and it can be extended a further 32GB with a MicroSD card. The BIONIC was one of Verizon’s first LTE devices, and as far as specs go is still a pretty powerful one. Even so, the BIONIC became one of the most disappointing releases of last year.

We’d still recommend going with something else if you can possibly raise a little more dough. As Moto’s first LTE phone, the BIONIC had a lot of growing pains in both the software and hardware that still plague it today (at least on the official Gingerbread ROM). It’s set to get Ice Cream Sandwich at some point, but Motorola seems hesitant to send out updates to any of its American devices. If you’re on a budget but want a Verizon 4G LTE device, the newer DROID RAZR and DROID 4 are both $99, and the mid-rand LG Lucid will only run you $79.

[device id=1476] [via Droid-Life]