Sprint formally announces HTC EVO View 4G
The spotlight may be permanently fixed on the HTC EVO 3D, but it wasn't the only new EVO on stage at Sprint's CTIA event. The HTC EVO View 4G tablet, which has been leaked just as frequently as the EVO 3D over the past few weeks, made its official debut today too.
It doesn't have all of the headlining features that the EVO 3D does (and it's easy to dismiss it as the "HTC Flyer for Sprint," which is what it is), but it's innovative in its own right for a number of reasons.
It's an EVO with a 7-inch WSVGA (1024 x 600) screen, first of all, not to mention Sprint's first 4G Android tablet. It's also got 32GB of internal memory plus a microSD card slot for an additional 32GB of storage space, a 1.5GHz Snapdragon CPU (not dual core), 1GB of RAM, an enormous 4000mAh battery, Bluetooth 3.0, and rear and front-facing cameras. It'll be released this summer with Gingerbread preloaded and will be upgraded to Honeycomb "as soon as it's ready" too. And let's not forget about its most unique feature, HTC Scribe.
HTC Scribe is both a technology and an optional pressure-sensitive digital pen (pictured above) that lets you write and draw on the screen for more precision than your finger. You can also use it for highlighting and annotating text and taking notes, even while recording audio thanks to a feature called Timemark. Previous demos I've seen of Scribe on the HTC Flyer have shown that there's palm rejection, meaning you can rest your hand on the screen while writing, so I would assume that it's part of the EVO View 4G as well.
The 7-inch tablet category seems to be something most people either embrace or shun in favor of a device with a 10-inch screen. I have the Samsung Galaxy Tab and Dell Streak 7 in my regular gadget rotation right now, and with plans to get the EVO View 4G as soon as it's available too, there's obviously no question about which group I belong to.
The EVO View may not revolutionize the 7-inch Android tablet market or be as wildly successful as the EVO 4G was/is and the EVO 3D will likely be, but that's okay by me. What's your take on it?
[Sprint]
