Samsung Stratosphere Hits Verizon's 4G LTE Network Today

The Samsung Stratosphere, the first smartphone with a physical QWERTY keyboard on Verizon's 4G LTE network, launched today at the Big Red.

Available at all the carrier's stores and online, the Stratosphere retails for $150 after a $50 mail-in rebate and a new two-year contract, including a data plan. Samsung and Verizon officially announced the high-speed smartphone on Monday, confirming rumors that the handset would be on the docket for the CTIA tradeshow.

The latest addition to Verizon's 4G LTE family, the Stratosphere runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread and packs a 1GHz Cortex A8 Hummingbird processor. Sporting a 4-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen display, the Samsung handset features a 1.3MP front-facing camera, as well as a 5MP rear-facing camera. The newly-announced smartphone also supports Bluetooth 3.0 and Wi-Fi connectivity.

Equipped for the business market, the Samsung Stratosphere comes with a few of Microsoft's Exchange ActiveSync features such as direct push, email, calendar, contact sync, Global Address List and storage card and device encryption. The smartphone also supports Sybase Afaria mobile device management, in addition to B2B-enabled connectivity services from Cisco, including AnyConnect 2.1 SSL VPN.

We got a little hands-on time with the Stratosphere at CTIA earlier this week, so check back soon for a preview of what this 4G LTE handset is really like.