Sprint Unveils First 4G Phone: HTC Evo
|
|
CREDIT: Sprint
|
Sprint made a long-awaited announcement today, revealing the first 4G phone, on the Sprint network or any other network, will be the HTC Evo.
"Not only is this feature-rich device incredible on our Sprint 3G network, but Sprint 4G speeds will take mobile multimedia, including live video streaming, gaming and picture downloads, to a whole new level," said Sprint CEO Dan Hesse in a statement.
In keeping with earlier promises that a 4G phone would be ready by this summer, Sprint has said the HTC Evo will indeed be available sometime this summer. There is not a specific launch date right now.
Not only will the Evo run on the most impressive cell phone network in the country, with speeds up to 10 times faster than 3G , the Evo is quite impressive in its own right.
The HTC Evo is very similar in design to the HTC HD2 that has been released on other networks. The Evo improves on HD2 design, however, with touch buttons along the bottom of the device and the Android 2.1 operating system (the HD2 ran Microsoft's much maligned Windows Mobile 6.5). What's more, the Evo runs the Sense interface, a highly acclaimed skin for Android, to give the user a better experience.
In addition to the changes, the Evo still carries the 1GHz Snapdragon processor, currently one of the fastest in phones , a 4.3-inch capacitive touchscreen, 1 GB of memory (expandable by microSD card) and 512MB of RAM. There is even an 8 megapixel camera with flash embedded in the back of the device and a 1.3 megapixel camera on the front (for video calls).
Even more impressive is the ability for the Evo to share its internet signal with other devices. The EVO can act as a hub, transmitting and receiving signals to up to eight other devices, giving them access to the Internet through Evo's 4G connection.
The Evo will run on the WiMAX 4G network Sprint is already using in 27 areas along with more than a dozen other areas that will have 4G access by year's end. Sprint plans to announce the pricing and release date at a later date.
