EXCLUSIVE: Real photos of the HTC EVO Shift 4G

That elusive handset, the HTC EVO Shift 4G, which is expected to be something like a slightly watered-down version of the first WiMAX phone for Sprint, the EVO 4G, has been making random appearances in our news for the last couple of months now. And while the phone is believed to be coming out sometime in January, we've got to tell you, folks, we have no idea if this is really going to happen.

Still, at least we can be certain that the EVO Shift 4G is very real, as we've been exclusively treated to the latest batch of uncut, real-world photos of the phone, thanks to one of our trusted tipsters.

What we see on the photos actually confirms what we've seen before - the HTC EVO Shift 4G will look like a smaller EVO 4G, and will have the added convenience of a side-sliding QWERTY keyboard. We've been informed that the handset will have a processor clocked at 800MHz, instead of 1GHz, which makes it look like an eventual Sprint version of the T-Mobile G2, or the yet unofficial HTC Merge for Verizon.

Anyway, we'll leave you alone with the images now. This Android handset does look quite promising for the size-cautious user, so we hope that Sprint will just go ahead and unveil it in the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned!

Thanks tipster!

Check out all Upcoming Sprint phones and their release dates.

*Update* The HTC EVO Shift 4G is now official - click here for more information and pictures.