Must Read: Samsung Galaxy S4 review

Topic: 4G

Sprint HTC EVO 4G available 4 June for only $200, video chat supported

Summary: Sprint held their HTC EVO 4G launch event tonight in New York and revealed that the device will be available starting June 4th for only $200. Video chat will be provided by Qik and the 4G data is reasonably priced.

Matthew Miller

By for Smartphones and Cell Phones |

Back in March Sprint announced the highest speced Google Android device ever and tonight there was a launch event in New York where the rest of the details were released. The Sprint HTC EVO 4G will be available for the low subsidized cost of $199.99 after 2-year contract and mail-in rebate starting on 4 June. You will be able to sign up for a current Sprint Everything plan, but will be charged an extra $10 fee for the 4G data access. Another $29.99 fee will be charged if you want to enable the 8 device hotspot functionality. Given their reasonable $69.99 voice/data plan with unlimited calling to cell phones, unlimited Sprint Navigation, unlimited messaging, and unlimited data the $79.99 total monthly minimum plan is looking quite attractive compared to other carriers.

I recently gave up on my HTC HD2 primarily due to the operating system, but the Sprint HTC EVO 4G gives me a very similar form factor device with the Google Android operating system and 4G data that supports simultaneous voice and data. If Verizon would not have given me free WiFi hotspot capability on my Palm Pre Plus then I would drop it and get the EVO 4G in seconds. However, that $40/month functionality is too compelling at this time.

To give you a reminder about how amazing this phone is, check out these features from the press release:

HTC EVO 4G features the latest version of the increasingly popular Android platform, Android 2.1, offering more than 35,000 apps, as well as a mind-blowing list of features, including:

  • Simultaneous voice and data capability in 4G and Wi-Fi coverage areas, enabling Web surfing and more while the conversation continues.
  • Offering a new way to search with pictures instead of words, Google Goggles works with everything from books, DVDs and barcodes to landmarks, logos, artwork and wine labels.
  • Superfast 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, ensuring a smooth and quick movement within phone menus.
  • Two cameras; an 8.0 megapixel auto-focus camera with HD-capable video camcorder and a forward-facing 1.3 megapixel camera.
  • Built-in mobile hotspot functionality allowing up to eight Wi-Fi enabled devices to share the 3G or 4G experience on the go with a laptop, camera, music player, game unit, video player, or any other Wi-Fi enabled device.
  • Integrated HD video capture with the ability to capture and share live video via the Qik Web site, Facebook, YouTube or Twitter.
  • Ability to easily watch video with the device on an HDTV via an HDMI cable (sold separately).
  • Custom Web browser optimized for the 4.3 inch display and Sprint 4G speeds to deliver a full, no-compromise Internet experience.
  • A handy kickstand built into the back, making it easy to watch videos on-the-go.
  • Adobe Flash technology ensures that rich Internet content, such as embedded video and animation, are displayed the way they are meant to be seen.
  • Pinch-to-zoom and automatic text reflowing provide easy Web page views.

As you can see there are some firsts here on the EVO 4G, including video chat powered by Qik and 8 device WiFi hotspot support. The subsidized price of $200 is fantastic and I am sure this will be a fast seller on Sprint.

Topics: 4G, Android, Google, HTC, Mobile OS, Smartphones, Wi-Fi

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily email newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

Talkback

22 comments
Log in or register to join the discussion

  • Is this the first phone to offer the full Internet?

    Others have claimed that title but we've already shown them to be fruity liars. What an exciting time to live in where we, for the first time ever, get the full Internet in the palm of our hands!
    NonZealot
    Reply Vote

    • Not the first full Internet phone...

      @NonZealot I had a WM6 phone a couple years ago that had all these same internet abilities. It was by HTC also. Of course some of those abilities were through 3rd party software. But still, it did all the same stuff, just on 3G not 4G.
      Narg
      Reply Vote

    • RE: Sprint HTC EVO 4G available 4 June for only $200, video chat supported

      @NonZealot Ahh but that sir is FUD on your part. Other than the lack of flash - which I also block on my browser - the iPhone internet experience (which is what I'm assuming you are referring to with the "fruity liars" reference) is indeed a full internet experience. I have yet to find a site that I cannot view on my iPhone other than sites with bad redirects to a mobile site (like ZDNet for example)...
      athynz
      Reply Vote

      • Let me paraphrase your post

        <i>Other than the parts of the Internet that the iPhone can't display, it can display 100 percent of the Internet.</i><br><br>If the parts of the Internet that the iPhone is totally incapable of showing you are parts that you don't like, that's fine, but that doesn't mean that the iPhone offers you the full Internet. It doesn't. Not even close. Sorry to inform you that Jobs lied to you... again.<br><br>As for WM6, I did actually forget about Skyfire which actually does offer you the <b>full</b> Internet. So yes, WM6 probably was there first (yet another in a long line of things that were innovated first on the WM platform). Apple is lucky that MS came out with Windows Mobile because without it, Apple would never have had anything to (poorly) clone its iPhone from!!! <img border="0" src="http://www.cnet.com/i/mb/emoticons/happy.gif" alt="happy">
        NonZealot
        Reply Vote

  • hope they can get android to stop crashing

    the long waits for reboots are getting very tiresome...
    Johnny Vegas
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Sprint HTC EVO 4G available 4 June for only $200, video chat supported

      @Johnny Vegas...I believe you need another phone. I've been using the Hero since Sprint came out with it and have NEVER had a crash. I will admit though that it does take some time to reboot, but that hasn't been a problem with me since I doubt I've rebooted over six times since I've owned it!
      pcorbit
      Reply Vote

  • Sprint is Their Own Worst Enemy

    And just like that the EVO 4G became the EVIL 4Get. I'm a Sprint Premier subscriber with the $130 EveryData fam-plan and I most certainly will NOT be paying $10/mon extra for a 4G phone in a 3G area (Wash DC). Plus it's not even sporting Android 2.2. Tell you what Sprint, you credit us $10/mon for the 500 minutes we DON'T use every month, deliver the EVIL with Android 2.2, and accelerate the rollout to Wash DC ... nevermind, I'm in fantasy territory now.

    Other notable cons: its upload speed is stupidly limited to 1-Mbps, and its great simultaneous data/voice connectivity only operates on its almost-no-one-has-its-Wimax network.

    Best of luck, also, with your Q2 reporting on this Sprint, especially since you're introducing this the Friday before Apple stirs up a frenzy with its new iPhone. The EVIL 4Get will be yesterday's news so quick you'll be lucky to sell few hundred, and most of that will be to your own staff. You guys really don't know what the H you're doing, do you ?
    Eludium-Q36
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Sprint HTC EVO 4G available 4 June for only $200, video chat supported

      @gminetos@... some fixes for your post - $10 is to access the 4g service, 3g service remains the same available as it does now, you obviously will not enable 4g if you don't have it.
      I believe it may start out with 2.1, but obviously will be upgraded to 2.2 which NO ONE has yet
      upload LIMITED at 1 Mbps? yeah like we will suffer with that, you did say upload right?
      As far as competition with apple and when they are introducing this thing, this is going to be the biggest and best phone out there. With Android, possibilities are endless and this phone provides the best base for it to start from. Their is not a phone out there right now that can compete with it.

      .... now you can go back to playing with your outdated Iphone
      brad1000
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Sprint HTC EVO 4G available 4 June for only $200, video chat supported

        @brad1000 Plus no AT&T restrictions with EVO
        vperl
        Reply Vote

    • RE: Sprint HTC EVO 4G available 4 June for only $200, video chat supported

      @gminetos@... Sour grapes from a Apple fan boy.

      cry bigggie tears
      vperl
      Reply Vote

    • RE: Sprint HTC EVO 4G available 4 June for only $200, video chat supported

      @gminetos@...I wouldn't count on that last paragraph. There are already almost 50,000 persons signed up and closely following the introduction of the Evo and I'm thinking most of them are just like me and waiting for the exact first minute when they can buy this phone!
      pcorbit
      Reply Vote

  • extra $10 per month

    Sprint has not denied it, and the fine print does not say optional, the $10 fee is MANDATORY if you add this phone to ANY sprint plan. I live in a STATE with NO 4G coverage AT ALL, and no plans to add 4G either, but I am going to have to pay the $10 fee per month, regardless.

    Sprints reasoning for this is "there is no way to prevent you from travelling to an area with 4G, AND there is no way to prevent the Evo from accessing 4G IF you happen to enter a 4G area and have the 4G checkbox selected in the settings.
    aiellenon
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Sprint HTC EVO 4G available 4 June for only $200, video chat supported

      @aiellenon.....If your not on a 4G plan and you do access the service you'll simply get charged the additional 4G data access for whatever you use, like you do now if you use 3G without a data plan! That's how I'm betting it's going to work.
      pcorbit
      Reply Vote

    • Still a good deal

      @aiellenon While the $10 mandatory charge is a bit ridiculous, I expected some sort of upcharge just because this is their flagship 4G phone; I wouldn't have been surprised if they didn't even offer it outside of their 4G coverage areas. It's still cheaper than most competing plans if you have the $69.99 plan, which allows unlimited calls to and from any mobile number (not just Sprint's). For everything this phone offers, it's worth it. Not sure about the hotspot add-on, but even with that it's pretty competitive. When I got my Pre on Sprint, it was $99 for everything, which was a better deal than my iPhone on AT&T; now it's $69 for the same thing, so I'm not complaining if it's a bit more expensive for what is probably the best Android phone on the market.
      paferg
      Reply Vote

    • RE: Sprint HTC EVO 4G available 4 June for only $200, video chat supported

      @aiellenon And it's things like that charge that made me leave Sprint in the first place.
      athynz
      Reply Vote

  • "Speced"?

    Am I missing something in my Geek Lexicon here, should I know what "Speced" means??
    ReadWryt (error)
    Reply Vote

  • Mandatory 4g charge

    I am one of the people who are counting down the hours until I can get this phone. However, I will be ordering it and then making a complaint that I have to pay for 4g when I barely have 3g. An everything plan should be everything and if you are going to charge me, you better be adding 4g in my area.
    bandacoo
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Sprint HTC EVO 4G available 4 June for only $200, video chat supported

    If AT&T got that device I'd be on it in a heartbeat - I might, [i]might[/i] even give up my beloved iPhone for it... it would be a hard decision to make... but there is NO way I'd ever go back to Sprint even for that device... The mandatory fee for 4G even if one does not use it smacks of the "business internet fee" of $15/m I was being charged when my device was on a personal plan and my plan [i]included[/i] unlimited internet via the old SERO plan. Not to mention the daily dropped calls I had to deal with and the customer service script bots... no thanks. I'll wait for the 4th gen iPhone or the AT&T version of the EVO.
    athynz
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Sprint HTC EVO 4G available 4 June for only $200, video chat supported

    Sprint had to spoil the fun by charging $30 a MONTH extra for the mobile hotspot. Im still getting the EVO because I use the 4G WiMax service in Las Vegas, but not the mobile hotspot. Pity.<br>The irony was I was willing to pay $100 a month for a full package, but the sheer greed displayed here just turned me off. It isnt essential for me.<br>(By the way, Washington DC already has operational WiMax towers in preparation for the launch...)
    joepennant-23497355405567953084487711873273
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Sprint HTC EVO 4G available 4 June for only $200, video chat supported

    Sprint had to spoil the fun by charging $30 a MONTH extra for the mobile hotspot. Im still getting the EVO because I use the 4G WiMax service in Las Vegas, but not the mobile hotspot. Pity.<br>The irony was I was willing to pay $100 a month for a full package, but the sheer greed displayed here just turned me off. It isnt essential for me.<br>(By the way, Washington DC already has operational WiMax towers in preparation for the launch...)
    joepennant-23497355405567953084487711873273
    Reply Vote
CNET Join | Log In | Privacy | Cookies Close