HTC Thunderbolt vs Motorola Droid 3 vs Droid Incredible 2: Which $99 Verizon Phone is the Best Upgrade?

Verizon customers looking to upgrade their phones have a few choices in the $99 range, and the HTC Thunderbolt, Droid 3 and Motorola Droid Incredible are three of the best. There is a good chance all three will get the Android 4.0 update in the next few months, and they all have large screens and good cameras.

The biggest differences are that the Thunderbolt is 4G and the Droid 3 has a sliding keyboard for super-fast texting. So, depending on what you plan to do with it, one of those would be a good choice. If you don't need a physical keyboard and want to save on battery life, the Droid Incredible 2 is a good bet. Until Jan. 26, Verizon is offering the Thunderbolt for free when you add a line to your account, also.

Thunderbolt has a bigger screen than the other two, but Droid 3 has the best screen resolution. Droid 3 also has a dual-core system where the others have a single CPU, and it has the best battery life. Additionally, Droid 3 features a 4-inch screen with qHD 960x540p resolution, 16 gigabytes of storage and mini-HDMI port.

Just remember that the keyboard slider adds some thickness and heft to Droid 3. The HTC Droid Incredible 2 includes a 4-inch screen, 768 MB of memory, and microSD card slot. If you've never had an HTC device before, what you are looking at on the homescreen is a custom software overlay on top of Android. You may or may not like it, so be sure to see how it looks on the Droid Incredible 2 and the Thunderbolt.

Finally, the Thunderbolt includes the larger screen, super-fast connection speed, microSD card slot and it even has a kickstand so you can prop it up and watch movies. That's how these $100 Verizon phones stack up, and we recommend the Droid 3 because of its superior battery and display. Plus, we don't mind having physical keys to type on.

Tell us in the comments what phone you are upgrading from on Verizon or if you're coming from another wireless carrier.