LG Thrive to be AT&T first prepaid smartphone

No one likes signing their life away to cell phone contracts, but fortunately, most service providers offer some kind of prepaid solution, and theyre slowly starting to diversify their phone offerings to include smartphones.

Case in point, today AT&T introduced the LG Thrive, the first smartphone to be available on its GoPhone prepaid service. The Android 2.2 device will start shipping on April 17 and will cost $179.99 and require a GoPhone smartphone data package, which comes in three flavors: $25 for 500MB; $15 for 100MB; or $5 for 10MB.

The Thrive features a 3.2-inch, 320x480 touch screen, a 600MHz processor, and a 3.2-megapixel camera. The smartphone also has Wi-Fi, stereo Bluetooth, and 3G support and ships with 160MB of internal memory and a 2GB microSD card.

In addition to the Thrive, AT&T will offer a postpaid version of the Thrive, called the LG Phoenix, for $49.99 with a two-year contract. The Phoenix will also be available on April 17 and adds mobile hot-spot capabilities and data tethering support.