Pre-orders for Sprint’s new EVO 4G LTE have been open for a few days now, but Sprint has finally gotten around to announcing when we’ll actually be able to get our hands on one. Starting on May 18, you’ll be able to shell out $199 through your sales channel of choice in exchange for the carrier’s new flagship Android phone.
The release date hasn’t been the most carefully guarded secret these past few days — third-party retailers like Wirefly have been strongly hinting at a May 18 launch when they kicked off their pre-orders — but it’s always nice to hear it straight from the source.
If you’re a Sprint customer pondering your next upgrade, don’t forget that the Ice Cream Sandwich-powered EVO 4G LTE sports (among other things) a 4.7-inch Super LCD 2 display running at 720p, a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, 1GB of RAM, and an 8-megapixel rear camera bolstered by HTC’s ImageSense tech.
As is the case with the rest of HTC’s One series, the Taiwanese company’s less-cumbersome Sense 4.0 UI sits atop the stock Android interface. At it’s core, the EVO 4G LTE is the same device as the HTC One X that AT&T just recently began selling, albeit with a few thoughtful additions — namely, a discrete camera button and that nifty crimson kickstand that Sprint seems so fond of.
For what it’s worth, I got the chance to go hands-on with the new EVO last month and came away enjoying the device much more than I’d anticipated. Even though there’s nary a bar of Sprint LTE signal to be found, there’s no shortage of solid LTE devices for Sprint customers to take the plunge on — between the EVO 4G LTE and the Galaxy Nexus, Sprint has a hell of a hardware lineup prepared for when that new network goes live later this year.
