HTC and Samsung on Monday unveiled two new smartphones that will be among the first to run on AT&T's 4G LTE network, the HTC Vivid and the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket.
Both devices will be available on November 6 with a two-year contract. The HTC Vivid will set you back $199.99 and the Skyrocket (left) will sell for $249.99.
The Skyrocket boasts a 4.5-inch super AMOLED Plus, 800-by-400 display. It will run a 1.5-GHz dual-core processor and Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread. The device features an 8-megapixel, rear-facing camera with LED flash and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera, 1080p HD video recording, and 16GB of on-board memory, expandable up to 32GB.
The HTC Vivid, meanwhile, also features a 4.5-inch display, but with a 540-by-960 resolution. It will run a 1.2-GHz dual-core processor. The Vivid features an 8-megapixel camera with f2.2 28mm wide angle lens for low-light photos, 1080p HD video recording at 60 frames per second, and 16GB of on-board memory, expandable up to 32GB.
AT&T officially launched its 4G LTE network in five markets last month—Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio. PCMag tested it out in Houston, Texas and found that AT&T's Houston network is even faster than Verizon's, though our tests were comparing a loaded Verizon network to a just-launched one from AT&T. "But the results still show that if AT&T takes good care of its LTE system, it's going to be downright screaming crazy fast," PCMag concluded.
AT&T will expand its 4G LTE footprint to Boston, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Indianapolis, and Athens, Georgia on the same day that the Vivid and the Skyrocket launch.
In terms of data plans, AT&T 4G LTE users can sign up for 200MB of data for $15 per month and $15 for an additional 200MB with DataPlus. The DataPro plan provides 2GB of data for $25 per month, with an additional 1GB for $10. If you want to use your phone as a hotspot, that will set you back $45 per month for 4GB of data.