What you’re looking at above is a photo leaked to Engadget of what is supposedly the HTC Vision, due to launch on T-Mobile later this year. This joins the blurry photo we’ve seen in the past, but new details suggest it has a 3.7 inch screen rather than a giant 4.3 inch display like on the Sprint EVO 4G or Motorola Droid X. Supposedly this device will launch on T-Mobile USA first before hitting other operators, and it’s going to be called the “G1 Blaze”.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and predict that this is the first HSPA+ mobile phone in the world, and it’s going to have Qualcomm’s latest version of the Snapdragon processor which may or may not be clocked at 1.3 GHz. My reasoning for all of this? It’s part gut check, part logic based on the news we heard from T-Mobile Europe saying T-Mobile USA will get an HTC device, capable of HSPA+, in September. When leaks of the same product start happening more and more often, it’s usually a sign that it’s due to launch soon.
Now what benefits does HSPA+ promise? Theoretical network performance of 21 Mbps, real world is half that, but still, 10.5 Mbps in your phone is nothing to laugh at, especially since that’s roughly how fast Clearwire’s WiMAX service is, and how fast Verizon’s LTE network is supposed to be when it launches later this year.
There is an incredible lack of Android devices with QWERTY keyboards on the market right now, so we’ll be keeping an eye on this one. Sure the first Motorola Droid is nice, but it’s slow by today’s 1 GHz standards. It’s supposed to get a successor, aptly named the Droid 2, in August, with Android 2.2 to boot. Then there’s the weird Motorla BackFlip or FlipBack, or whatever that hideous chunk of plastic is called.
So yea, we need your help HTC. Give us Android + QWERTY.