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Besides the keyboard, the other big news with the Droid 4 is the 4G LTE radio. And Motorola certainly didn't disappoint with this upgrade.
If you're looking for speed, this is indeed the Droid you are looking for. If you're fortunate enough to live in one of the metro areas covered by Verizon's 4G LTE network get ready to be amazed.
We tested 4G speeds using the Speedtest.net app, and were consistently surprised by the blazing results. We routinely got upload speeds in the 4-6Mbps range.
Download speeds varied widely with location and time of day, swinging from a low of 1.16 Mbps all the way up to a jaw-dropping 21.01 Mbps.
Apart from those extremes, results typically hovered in the mid-teens. For comparison, we also tested Verizon's 3G network, which posted much lower 2 Mbps down & .77 Mbps upload speeds.
Sharing that speedy connection with a laptop or other devices is simple and reliable, via the Mobile Hotspot app.
With little more than a few taps, we were up and running, sharing our LTE connection via Wi-Fi with multiple devices including Mac and PC laptops as well as other portable devices.
Predictably, performance degrades a bit with each device you pile on, but it's easy to limit the number of devices, or manually remove them.
Mobile hotspot service certainly isn't new, but the Droid 4 combined with Verizon's 4G LTE network makes it a very attractive option, even for heavier users who need more than occasional Wi-Fi access.
Just be careful not to run afoul of your data cap, which could be a very costly mistake at about $10 per GB in overage fees from Verizon.
