HTC EVO View 4G to hit Sprint with Honeycomb pre-loaded

Sprint will release its version of the HTC Flyer, the HTC EVO View 4G announced at CTIA 2011 last month, running Android 3.0 Honeycomb out of the box, unlike the initial GSM units. While HTC showed the Flyer running a heavily modified version of Gingerbread at the slate's debut in February, and said that early units would run the smartphone OS until a Honeycomb update could be released, a minor mention on Sprint's "coming soon" page seemingly confirms it will get the tablet-centric OS from the off.

That Honeycomb update will basically be possible as soon as Google allows HTC access to the source code. Previous rumors had suggested that Google was locking down the possibility of upgrading devices from Android 2.x to 3.x, as part of its anti-fragmentation drive, but HTC says this will not impact the GSM Flyer.

When we can expect the Honeycomb update remains a mystery, though with the first GSM Flyer units tipped to ship in Q2 and the HTC EVO View 4G due over the summer, it looks like around the middle of the year is likely. More on the HTC EVO View 4G in our hands-on.

[via Android Community]