HTC’s new smartphone, the EVO™ 4G is the first ever smartphone manufactured and optimized for the new 4G Internet service. This phone, offered by Sprint/Nextel, promised faster speeds than any phone optimized for 3G services; up to 10 times faster, in fact. With these speeds, this smartphone is theoretically just as fast and capable as any basic DSL router speeds.
The magic of this phone is that it is not only capable of getting these 4G speeds, but it is also capable of running on a 3G band as well when no 4G service is available. With the 4G service speeds, an Internet connection will download at a typical 3 to 6 Mbit/s, which is much faster than 3G speeds. 3G speeds only download at an average of 600Kbit/s to 1.4 Mbit/s. Upload speeds are always considerably slower.
The phone itself is considered a powerhouse, as most HTC smartphones are, using all of the best pieces and parts. For example, it uses Qualcomm’s 1GH Snapdragon processor, which is one of the best processors available for smartphones. It also has a 4.3-inch capacitive touchscreen display, capable of multitouch gesturing and it runs the newest Android operating system, 2.1 with HTC’s own Sense UI running on top.
This capability allows for the user to access over 30,000 applications from the Android App Market. It also has a 1500 mAh battery, GPS, stereo Bluetooth wireless, 3.5 inch headset jack and is Wi-Fi enabled for catching the Wi-Fi hotspots around town.
The HTC Evo also has dual cameras. One, the primary camera, is an 8 megapixel and located on the back of the smartphone. The second camera is a 1.3 megapixel camera and is located on the front of the phone. As for the memory, it has a microSD slot capable of expanding up to 32GB.
Other features built in include social networking integration, email messaging, full IM messaging, business messaging, HD picture output and HDMI output, live video, Sprint applications such as Sprint TV, Google Mobile services including YouTube and more.
With such a large display, watching your favorite shows and surfing the Internet becomes an awesome experience. Not only does the HTC Evo offer a full range of codecs for video, but it also comes with a sort of “kickstand” so you can watch whatever you want without the need to hold onto it. In addition, the HTC Evo handles multitasking by using a new feature called “Leap Essentials.” It works by pinching the home screen and then showing up to seven different thumbnails of pages you have open. Friend Stream is another included new feature. It is a widget in which you can multitask your social networking.
Overall, the HTC EVO 4G is a great smartphone and probably one of the better ones coming to the market. It is due out in the summer of 2010 and offered only by Sprint.
Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. We’ve heard about how great this phone is going to be. If they (Sprint) doesnt hurry up and announce the pricing and when its coming out I am about ready to jump ship from them. Enough already and give us the 4-1-1 on the rest of the phone (Release date, Best Buy preselling, plan info and cost).
Yeah, make sure its out by summer, I cannot wait a second longer !
The rumor mill says mid-June. No word on pricing yet. However, you can sign up here to get email updates about the release of the phone:
http://now.sprint.com/evo/?ECID=vanity:evo
18 mos ago Sprint announced the Palm Pre. It was a classic marketing fiasco i.e could not get the phone until JULY. They blew all the favorable hype the Pre had generated.
Hope the “4G” is not going to follow the same path.
Fact is their cust Svc & plans are very good. Coverage is also far better than ATT etc. Only Verizon has better coverage BUT much higher rates.