At this point, the HTC EVO Shift for Sprint is about as secret as… what would you call the exact opposite of a secret? How is it that there’s no proper antonym for secret? Whatever — make one up, and that’s how secret it was.

Still, it’s always fun to see things get their official unveiling, as the EVO Shift 4G has.

As the name implies, this thing has a whole lot in common with its older brother, the HTC EVO — at least at first glance. It’s essentially an HTC EVO with a keyboard, right? Not exactly.

Unfortunately, a handful of the specs have been downgraded during the trip to the land of the keyboarded. Lets take a look, shall we?

• 800Mhz CPU (Down from 1Ghz)
• 5 Megapixel Camera (Down from 8 Megapixel)
• 3.6 Inch Display (Down from 4.3 Inches)
• Android 2.2 (Same)
• No front facing camera
• Sprint 3G/4G support (Same)
• 802.11b/g/n WiFi and BlueTooth

So you gain a keyboard, but lose a few hundred Mhz off the CPU, shave some screen size, ditch a couple megapixels on the rear camera, and drop the front facing camera all together. Worth it? Drop a comment and let your voice be heard on the Internets.

Look for this one to drop on January 9th for $150 on a 2-year contract.