The HTC Merge! Remember that thing? It was the focus of almost constant leaks back in 2010 (like this one, or this one , or this one) and then… nothing. It pretty much disappeared off the radar, with word that HTC had gone back to the drawing board to add LTE support.

Well, the HTC Merge is finally a real boy.

HTC just popped out a press release on the device, confirming that it’s an Android 2.2 phone with a slide out QWERTY keyboard, a 5 megapixel rear camera, a 3.8″ display, and that it’ll be HTC’s first Android-powered CDMA world phone. Alas, there’s no mention of LTE support — but they might just be holding that back for certain carriers (read: Verizon) to talk up when launch time comes sometime in “Spring 2011″.