News from HTC has been mostly gloom and doom as of late, after some poor 2011 results and gloomy Q1 2012 predictions. But today the struggling manufacturer finally gets a bit of good PR: it’ll be the first to launch an Android phone with an LTE connection in Europe. The Unwired reports that the HTC Velocity (better known to US Android enthusiasts as the Vivid) will launch on Vodafone Germany soon, making a milestone for the currently small LTE options on mainland Europe.
In case you haven’t kept a carbon copy of our HTC Vivid review in the back of your mind like a good Android fan, let’s refresh quickly. The Velocity skews towards the higher end of HTC’s line up, with a 4.5-inch 960×540 LCD display, 1.5Ghz dual-core processor and Gingerbread (sigh) with HTC’s Sense UI tacked on. We came away impressed with the phone thanks to its solid feel and conservative styling, but gave Samsung the nod when the Vivid went head-to-head with the Galaxy S II Skyrcocket, mostly because of the former’s dim screen, extra weight and shorter battery life.
Vodafone wasn’t forthcoming about an exact price or release date, but assures customers that the Velocity will be available in the next few weeks at the latest. Also, it comes in the spiffy white that all the cool manufacturers seem to be adopting these days. HTC hasn’t said anything about wider availability, but you can expect the Velocity or something similar (perhaps shown off at Mobile World Congress) to start appearing on the few European carriers with LTE capability, or a planned rollout of the same.
We have the Galaxy Note already for months, is also LTE ready.