Sprint’s upcoming killer smartphone
Wow! And that’s putting it mildly.
In a very short period of time we’ve gone from cell phones to feature phones – to early smartphones like Palm Treos, Nokias and BlackBerries – to iPhones, Pres and the first Androids and now, the first super Android smartphone.
In a huge show of force, Sprint has just introduced the first 3G/4G smartphone – the HTC Evo 4G – at this year’s spring CTIA gathering here in Las Vegas.
In a relatively short demonstration, Sprint gave an inkling of what this super phone can do – and I have to tell you the crowd of jaded journalists and weary analysts seemed very impressed.
And why not? This phone has some very, very impressive laptop-like specs, such as:
A fast, 1.0 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor
Huge, 4.3-inch (diagonal) color screen (largest one yet)
Android OS version 2.1 (which means all the latest Android/Google apps and accessories)
4G (where available) and 3G (where 4G isn’t) data connectivity.
Bluetooth and Wi-fi
Mobile hot-spot capabilities (with up to 8 connections at the same time)
8MP auto-focus camera on the back and a 1.3MP camera on the front.
8GB miniSD expansion card (32GB cards are now available)
HDMI connector to attach your Evo 4G to a big flat-screen monitor
What all this means is that this phone is fast – it runs on fast networks – has a pretty impressive camera and sports the largest screen of any smartphone, so far.
In the demonstrations, we got to see the phone streaming movie trailers over the 4G network and then playing them back on the huge overhead monitors in the hall. Very impressive video and sound to say the least. And remember, that was video streaming over a cellular data network. That’s something other companies will take awhile to match.
We didn’t get a lot of time to play with sample devices but I can tell you that the phone felt good in my hand. The screen looked very good for early units and video playback was very, very impressive. So was the speed of Web page downloads. Overall, I can’t wait to put an Evo 4G through the paces as soon as they’re made available.
Sprint hasn’t yet decided on a price for the 4G smartphone (or if they have they weren’t letting on at the event). But, a company spokesperson told me that even though the phone breaks a lot of new ground with all these super features it will definitely be “aggressively priced”. I’m hoping that means somewhere around $200 with the usual 2-year service contract commitment.
I’m guessing that might also depend on what Apple has up their sleeves concerning this year’s round of update for their iPhone devices.
As for availability, Sprint is saying it should be ready for sale by early summer. Since summer begins towards the end of June, I’m hoping that means the Evo 4G will become available sometime towards the beginning of that month in time for the “Dads and Grads” gift-giving season. You can pre-register for an Evo 4G now on Sprint’s Website.