After months of rumour, speculation and conjecture the first 4G smartphone has been announced, and it's from HTC.

American carrier Sprint announced on its web site yesterday that it will be launching the new HTC Evo during the summer and that it will run on its 4G network (and with WiMax) to offer ten times faster browsing speeds and download times than a 3G phone.

The device is powered by a 1Ghz Snapdragon processor and microSD card slot supporting 32GB. It features two cameras, an 8 mega pixel primary lens for photo-taking and a 1.3 mega pixel front-facing camera for video-calls.

Perhaps most impressively, the phone can act as its own mobile Wi-Fi hot spot, enabling up to eight other Wi-Fi enabled devices to access the internet through the phone.

Additionally, it has a 4.3 inch capacitive touchscreen with 800 x 400 resolution has 512MB of RAM and can record video to 1280 x 720 quality.

The device runs on an Android 2.1 platform enabling it to access over 30,000 and main Google apps like Gmail, YouTube, Google Voice, Google Maps and Google Talk.

The phone can play HD quality movies and has a kickstand to allow users to watch videos without having to hold the phone for hours on end. The phone can also be connected to an HD TV.

There is currently no US pricing or dates for the phone, however, suggesting it could be a while yet before anything arrives in the UK.

It will be interesting to see if Apple now makes any announcements in the near future over its much-speculated but little-confirmed iPhone 4G. But with the iPad's launch just weeks away, perhaps the firm has other matters on its mind.

24 Mar 2010