HTC Droid Incredible 4G LTE for Verizon hands-on at CTIA 2012 (update: video)

This handset didn't surprise anyone when it was officially announced at CTIA Wireless 2012, but we're still happy to spend time with the HTC Droid Incredible 4G LTE for Verizon Wireless regardless. After catching enough glimpses of the smartphone over the past few months, we already had a good idea of what to expect: Big Red's latest LTE device will have Ice Cream Sandwich dressed in Sense 4, a 4-inch Super LCD qHD panel, a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 (Krait), 1,700mAh user-removable battery, microSD support and an 8MP BSI camera with a 28mm f/2.2 lens.

If you're familiar with either the OG HTC Droid Incredible or its sequel, you'll instantly recognize the trusty hump on the back of the third iteration -- Verizon and HTC haven't strayed too far from the design formula here. Aside from the Sense 4 firmware hiding inside the phone, the Incredible 4G LTE has little in common with its cousins, the One X and One S. Frankly, we're still left pondering if the carrier will come out with a version of its own, since we've seen the other three national powers get a high-profile device from the Taiwanese manufacturer.

We had a very similar feeling when holding the new Incredible, one easily related to how we felt with its predecessors. It's quite light, and it actually feels thinner than it really is. All in all, the phone is very comfortable to hold, and from our few minutes of using it, it seemed to be rather smooth. Naturally, as we expected, Verizon reps warned us that it's running on preliminary firmware at the moment, so we don't take a lot of stock in its performance, good or bad. All in all, it's exactly how we thought it would be -- a refreshed version of the Incredible 2, with a much better processor and a few other notable bumps in specs. Head below to check out a few images of Verizon's newest darling.

Update: Our hands-on video is now live after the break.

Myriam Joire contributed to this report.