HTC Evo Shift 4G could get Jan. 9 release

Seeing that it's already received the FCC's blessing, the HTC Evo Shift 4G is hardly a secret, but in the days leading up to the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show more details are leaking out about the Andorid smartphone.

Android Central yesterday intercepted an upcoming Radio Shack newspaper ad that points to a Sunday, January 9, release date for the Evo Shift 4G. You don't need a calendar to know that such a date makes sense. It's the last day of CES, after all, which would give HTC and Sprint the time to formally announce the handset in Las Vegas. According to the ad, the listed price will be $149.99, which is about what we'd expect.

From the outside, the Evo Shift 4G looks not unlike Sprint's original Evo 4G, though it should add a sliding physical keyboard. We're still in the dark regarding the device's specs, but we expect it to include at least an 800MHz processor, 512MB RAM, and a 5-megapixel camera.