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The vital wireless phone companies have started structure out the subsequent era of mobile phone systems, called 4G, or fourth-generation, networks. These networks have been written to suggest most faster interpretation speeds than the stream speediest networks, which have been called 3G.

Sprint is heading this race. Its 4G network already is accessible in 32 cities, as good as the association skeleton to supplement during slightest fourteen some-more by year finish WSJ’s Personal Technology columnist Walt Mossberg tests Sprint’s HTC EVO 4G — the initial phone in the U.S. which functions upon the new, faster 4G network. He says whilst the phone is noticeably faster upon the 4G network, it does have the downsides.

Now, Sprint is scheming to recover the initial 4G-capable phone in the U.S. upon Jun 4. I’ve been contrast it for about the week in dual cities: Baltimore, where Sprint has entirely rolled out 4G, as good as Washington, D.C., where it is in the routine of we do so.

This latest phone, which additionally functions upon Sprint’s 3G network, is called the EVO 4G. It runs Google‘s Android handling complement as good as is built by HTC, formed in Taiwan. It will price $200 after the $100 mail-in rebate, with the two-year contract. Monthly fees will begin during $80 for sum interpretation as good as content messages, 450 speak minutes, as good as giveaway calls to any mobile phone upon any network. That’s the $10 travel from Sprint’s allied devise for 3G phones.

My verdict: The HTC EVO 4G, when used upon Sprint’s 4G network, offers the tip unchanging downstream interpretation speeds we have ever seen upon the mobile network. It additionally has the series of alternative clever features: the front-facing camera for video chatting, as good as the capability to offer as the Wi-Fi hotspot (for an additional price of $30 the month) which can concurrently bond up to 8 laptops or alternative inclination to the Internet.

However, the interpretation speeds we got in my tests weren’t spectacular, or anywhere tighten to the standard limit Sprint claims, even in Baltimore, where the company’s 4G network is mature. And, when regulating 4G, the EVO’s battery runs down alarmingly fast. In my tests, it didn’t final by the full day with 4G incited on. The carrier, in fact, is meditative of advising users to spin off the 4G network entrance when they do not consider they need it, to save battery life. This undercuts the sum thought of faster mobile speeds.

HTC

Sprint’s HTC EVO 4G cellphone

In addition, the 4G value isn’t nonetheless accessible in most cities. And the phone is heavy. Also, identical to alternative Android phones, it has singular storage for third-party apps—just 358 megabytes of sum mental recall genius of 9 gigabytes.

The phone itself is physically identical to T-Mobile’s HD2, the 3G phone additionally built by HTC. Like the HD2, it has the incomparable shade than upon alternative intelligent phones—4.3 inches totalled diagonally contra the some-more standard 3.5 or 3.7 inches. That creates the EVO, identical to the HD2, bulkier as good as heavier than most competitors.

However, in further to the larger speed due to 4G, the EVO has multiform alternative facilities the HD2 lacks. Notably, it has which front-facing camera, the capability to bond to the big-screen TV regulating the complicated connector pier called HDMI, as good as the built-in kickstand to keep it honest for video viewing. In addition, since it runs Android as good as not the creaky Windows Mobile program used by the HD2, the EVO offers the most cleanser interface as good as most some-more accessible apps.

But the large understanding about the EVO is which it can hoop 4G, as good as we focused my tests upon this.

Sprint claims which normal users will see downstream interpretation speeds of in between 3 as good as 6 megabits per second upon the EVO when 4G is in use. In my tests, in the heart of Baltimore’s renouned Inner Harbor district, we averaged 3.4 mbps downstream over 4G, as good as only underneath 1 mbps upstream (the upstream speed is capped by Sprint during 1 mbps.) That downstream speed was stand in the EVO’s speed when regulating 3G, as good as the upstream speed was about triple.

In D.C., where the Sprint 4G network is still being finished as good as tuned, downstream streams sundry widely, from underneath 1 mbps to the tall of around 4 mbps.

The EVO was most faster than an iPhone regulating AT&T‘s network, which in Baltimore never got to even 1 mbps downstream as good as in D.C. averaged about 1.8 mbps. Verizon‘s latest Droid Incredible, an additional HTC Android phone, did good in both cities, averaging about 2 mbps downstream, though which was still slower than the EVO.

Sprint explains we never saw anything tighten to the tip claimed speed by indicating out which both mobile accepting as good as exam methods can change greatly, as good as which my representation was small.

I tested alternative facilities successfully. we used the EVO to yield Internet connectivity to the Lenovo ThinkPad as good as an Apple MacBook laptop simultaneously, as good as both achieved speedily. we additionally could perspective photos as good as videos upon my TV by joining the EVO with the special cable. But we couldn’t exam the video-chatting underline since the required program wasn’t ready yet.

If we have been inspired for some-more mobile interpretation speed, as good as live in the stream 4G Sprint city, the EVO might be only what we need, as prolonged as you’re rebuilt for reduced battery life.

—See the video with Walt Mossberg upon Sprint’s latest 4G phone during WSJ.com/PersonalTech. Find all of Walt’s columns as good as videos during walt.allthingsd.com. Email him during mossberg@wsj.com.