Samsung Stratosphere

usability, performance, screen, design, sound

reliability, portability, battery, durability, apps

47% of the reviews on Amazon.com give this product a positive rating.

First Verizon LTE phone with full QWERTY ; Solid camera performance ; Great battery life

Camcorder maxes out at 480p resolution ; Slider mechanism doesn't feel smooth ; Feels like a rehashed Epic 4G

The Stratosphere is a decent budget device in Verizon's LTE lineup, as well as the only full QWERTY, but you'll have to live with aging components.

Fast 4G speeds. Gorgeous screen. Good call quality. Physical QWERTY keyboard.

Big and bulky. Older CPU. Poor battery life for 4G surfing and streaming.

Battery life is still not a strong point for 4G LTE devices. Streaming content over 4G, the Stratosphere lasted for just 2 hours and 47 minutes. That's not great, but it's about average for now. Talk time was better, at 6 hours and 14 minutes.

While I wouldn’t recommend the Samsung Stratosphere to smartphone buyers who want the latest and greatest, the ability to purchase it for as low as a penny, even for existing customers, makes it an attractive budget 4G LTE smartphone. It is certainly a...

The Samsung Stratosphere performs like a high-end device while introducing itself and costing like a mid-range one. It will be a favorite among QWERTY keyboard purists who haven’t quite made the transition to touchscreens full-time. It still boasts one...

Verizon 4G LTE is blazing fast ; TouchWiz is a pleasant Android experience ; Only game in town if you want 4G LTE with full keyboard

Keyboard could have better feedback ; Somewhat boring design ; Not top of the line hardware

The Samsung Stratosphere isn't the most exciting 4G LTE phone, as those wanting cutting-edge hardware, design and fabulous cameras will probably be happier with the Droid Razr, HTC Rezound or the Samsung Galaxy Nexus but the device will please those...

Beautiful Super AMOLED display; excellent physical keyboard; Android 2.3 Gingerbread; newer version of TouchWiz UI; good battery life for a 4G Android device; 4G LTE

Otherwise great processor performance was marred by a choppy web browsing experience; poor HD video capture quality

If you like having a physical keyboard and you're in 4G coverage, buy the Stratosphere. If you don't need a physical keyboard, perhaps look into one of Verizon's so-called "superphones".

The Samsung Stratosphere is shaping up to be a decent offering from Verizon. The price is good, and it will have the features I know many of you are interested in. We'll know more after it hits store shelves, and we get in a review unit for in-depth...