HTC EVO Shift 4G turns EVO 4G into bigger and better-looking brother

Assuming that what we're looking at above is really the HTC EVO Shift 4G and that it will indeed bear that name upon release (it's also known as the HTC Knight and HTC Speedy), then I suppose we should congratulate our EVO 4G on becoming a big brother.

The image (reportedly from an upcoming Sprint ad) makes it quite clear that the Sense-flavored Android device has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard with d-pad, while previous information suggests that a 3.7-inch display, rear camera with LED flash, and of course 4G connectivity are also on board. The phone appears to be dressed in one of those cases that surfaced last week, so it's probably better to imagine it without that bumper around the top half and extra layer of plastic around the bottom half.

A new 4G phone is always good news, as consumers love choice, but do you think the EVO Shift 4G looks worthy of being the one that turns the EVO name into a family of devices?

While an EVO family would certainly be great for this site, from what I've seen and heard of the EVO Shift 4G so far (800MHz CPU, Froyo, 512MB RAM), I'm hoping it will keep its Knight/Speedy names so I don't have to pay much attention to it.

I understand that there are people out there who want an HTC EVO with a keyboard, but I don't think this should be it. I also don't see any evidence of a "shift" here. If HTC is insistent on making this an EVO phone, then perhaps EVO Slide would be a better name, no? I wonder about market positioning too. Sprint is the expected carrier of this handset, so it will be interesting to see how the phone will be advertised alongside the Samsung Epic 4G, which is already often referred to as the EVO with a keyboard.

There are still a lot of questions surrounding the device, but it shouldn't be much longer before we have them answered because the EVO Shift 4G is rumored to be launching in early January at CES 2011. I'll be there for Pocketables, so I'll follow up with some info if this turns out to be anything that should be on G&E.

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