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Sprint Makes another Announcement: HTC EVO View 4G Tablet announced at CTIA 2011
If you aren’t already impressed with the HTC EVO 3D that Sprint just announced, they’ve got more. Sprint also announced a new Android tablet, the HTC EVO View 4G. Yes, note the 4G in the name, this tablet is enabled for WiMAX connectivity on the Sprint network.
Another Android Tablet? What’s different about the HTC EVO View 4G?
The EVO View 4G has a few distinctions from all the many Android tablets hitting the market, and the 4G capability is just one of them. This Sprint version of the HTC Flyer is one of the few capacitive multitouch display screens that can be used with an optional stylus for more precise input using HTC’s Scribe Technology. The digital pen is optimized for use with the Evernote app, and part of the Scribe Technology called Timemark synchronizes written notes with audio. This would allow notes taken at a meeting, for example, to synch with what was said.
The 7 inch screen has a 1024 x 600 HD video display, including pinch-to-zoom. The tablet features a rear-facing 5 MP camera and a front-facing 1.3 MP camera. A 4000 mAh battery will keep the screen running, while you also have whopping 32 GB of ROM and a gig of RAM. The microSD card slot allows an additional 32 GB of storage. And the whole package weighs in just under 15 ounces, but a rather thick 13.2 mm.
Conflicting specs on the HTC EVO View 4G Tablet
The processor is a bit of a mystery. Sprint’s fact sheet says it’s “a 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor”, but there are no current 1.5 GHz single core Snapdragons according to Qualcomm’s site. As far as I can tell, the HTC Flyer has a Qualcomm MSM8255, which is a 1.4 GHz processor. So either the 1.5 GHz is just wrong, or it was overclocked. The EVO View 4G would have an MSM8655 to support CDMA/EVDO if this were the right chipset.
Plus, all the advance spec leaks said this was a dual core MSM8260 running 1.2 or 1.3 GHz. You’d think Sprint would be mentioning this was a dual core tablet if it were, right? There is a dual core up to 1.5 MHz chip, and the MSM8660 would support CDMA/EVDO for Sprint.
There’s also no word on whether the EVO View 4G will ship with Android OS 3.0 (Honeycomb), which is the operating system optimized for tablets. The fact sheet says it will have the latest version of HTC Sense and doesn’t mention the OS at all beyond it being present. We’ll let you know when we have the answer to either of these two issues.
Update 3/22 16:23 PST: I heard from Sprint, and the chipset is indeed the Qualcomm MSM8655, which is a single core processor that must have been tweaked up a bit. That means all the rumors of this tablet having a dual core chip were wrong. Also, hands-on reviews at CTIA state the current device is running Gingerbread now, but should have Honeycomb by launch. Stay tuned.
More EVO, HTC’s EVO 3D has plenty in common with the EVO View 4G tablet
The EVO 4G Tablet has several of the features of the also released today EVO 3D smartphone. Both have a 3G/4G mobile hotspot capability, supporting up to eight devices via Wi-Fi. Both feature Google mobile services and the Android Market, to get more apps when you need them. Both allow chat with the Qik mobile app and are pre-loaded with Blockbuster on Demand for movies on the go. Both allow output via DLNA or HDMI to a compatable HDTV.
And both devices are expected to be released this summer. You can see the full press release over on our writeup of the HTC EVO 3D, as Sprint wrote one release to cover both products.
