The 4-inch, 800-by-480-pixel Super AMOLED display is gorgeous. It can get incredibly bright, but darker colors manage to maintain their depth and richness. Four haptic feedback-enabled functions keys sit beneath the display, which are suitably responsive. I had some difficulty typing on the onscreen QWERTY keyboard with accuracy. Thankfully, the Stratosphere slides open to reveal a large, five-row physical keyboard. The keys are slightly raised, and while the spacing took some getting used to, frequent messagers should be pleased.
The Stratosphere is a dual-band EV-DO Rev A (850/1900MHz) and 750MHz 4G LTE device with 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi. Verizon says to expect download speeds around 5 to 12Mbps, and upload speeds between 2 and 5Mbps on its 4G network. The Stratosphere hit those speeds without a hitch, pulling in numbers equal to the Motorola Droid Bionic ($299.99, 4.5 stars) in a series of head-to-head tests; both phones averaged around 5Mbps down and 3.5Mbps up. You can also use the Stratosphere as a mobile hotspot with the appropriate plan to provide a Wi-Fi connection for up to eight devices.
Voice quality is very good. Reception is average, and incoming calls sound rich and clear, with volume that can go very loud. On the other end, calls made with the phone are equally clear and feature excellent background noise cancellation. The speakerphone sounds good, though it's a little low for outdoor use. Calls sounded clear and natural through a Jawbone Era Bluetooth headset ($129, 4.5 stars) and voice dialing worked accurately.
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.