Sprint's HTC Evo Shift 4G Coming January 9th!

Not too long ago I posted about a leak regarding Sprint's next big phone headed out this month. Well the new HTC Evo Shift 4G will officially be available January 9th for $149.99. Though many are thinking of it as a sucussor to the Evo, I'd say it's more of a sibling; similiar to the Droid 2, Droid X, and Droid Incredible on Verizon. It shows Sprint's decision to launch an Evo line of phones; a smart move in my opinion. I'm loving HTC's phones right now and Sprint's line up was definitely in need of more variety and another  NON-SAMSUNG full qwerty Android device. I am not really feeling Samsung right now for a number of reasons (possibly an entire separate post), so a qwerty device from HTC is definitely welcome.

Not quite the "Evo with a Keyboard" I hoped it to be, the Shift ( as I am dubbing it) is still a really good phone!  It basically takes the Evo, adds a keyboard and a newer snappier processor but reduces the screen and rear camera and removes the front facing camera.  It's actually a lot closer to the the T-Mobile G2 (also made by HTC).

Looking at the Specs might draw a better picture:

HTC Evo Shift 4G	HTC Evo 4G (OG Evo)
800MHz Scorpion (Qualcomm MSM 7230) Processor	1GHz Snapdragon (Qualcomm QSD8650) Processor
3.6 inch LCD screen	4.3 inch LCD screen
4G	4G
512MB RAM	512MB RAM
1GB internal memory	1GB internal memory
Android 2.2	Android 2.2
5MP rear camera	8MP rear camera
X	1.3MP front facing camera
Physical QWERTY keyboard	X

*Forgot to add OG Evo has HDMI out. I don't believe the Shift does

At the end of the day the new Evo Shift 4G will definietely be one of the best phones on Sprint and right at the top of the Android class across carriers.  Priced well at $150 too.  Given my preference for HTC mainly because of their far superior software support and modifications, I'd definitely say it's between the Evo's for Sprint's top smartphone spot.  HTC provides a more reliable stock route to Gingerbread ( Android 2.3), and has proven to respond to software bugs and glitches much more reliably than the Samsung alternatives. 

Check out the video:

Source: WireFly