While Apple will almost certainly release a 4th generation iPhone this June or July, it won’t be an iPhone 4G because 4G LTE networks in the US won’t be up and running in significant enough quantities until 2011 or 2012 but Sprint is slowly rolling out a competing 4G WiMax network and has just announced a competing uber-phone to go with it — the Android 2.1 powered, Sense UI shellacked HTC EVO 4G.
Our buddy Phil Nickinson from Android Central is on the ground at CTIA 2010 and bringing us back the full Sprint EVO 4G video and hands on, but suffice it to say, once again HTC is just showing off. The specs are obscene. Total. Gadget. Porn.
First and foremost, the thing is a beast. A 4.3-inch LED touchscreen — same as the HD2 — and the same 1GHz Snapdragon processor. A gigabyte of ROM and 512 of RAM round out what’s under the hood.
Like taking pictures? There’s an 8-megapixel camera and dual flashes — for sheer candle power — to take care of that. Wanna record moving pictures in 720p? No sweat. Plus, there’s a basic 1.3MP camera on the front of the phone — pretty much a first for a U.S. carrier-sanctioned device. Now you just have to have apps that support it.
Of course, if you record in HD, you might as well have HD playback, right? And for that, there’s a mini-HDMI port, so you can go straight from the Evo 4G to an HD television. There’s a cute little kickstand, too, which makes the Evo 4G great for watching movies.
Now Steve Jobs is rumored to have said the iPhone G4 (not iPhone 4G!) will be an A+ upgrade, but what does that mean? Will the lack of 4G networking hurt them? We doubt it. Will less-than-EVO specs?
Apple has repeatedly said they believe software — not hardware — is their key advantage, so will they even try to match specs with HTC or are they hoping iPhone 4.0 (with its rumored multitasking) will be enough to stay ahead of even beefier handsets?
We know Apple has to bring it in 2010, but the bar for that bring might just have been raised again. Take a gander at the new king of iPhone competition (for this month at least) and let us know what you think!
No iPhone 4G this Year, but Android 4G is Almost Here! — The Competition is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.
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