Virgin Mobile Gets Its First Taste Of WiMax With The $299 EVO V 4G

While Sprint customers wait with bated breath for their new LTE network to go live, the nation’s third largest wireless carrier has just announced that their no-contract subsidiary Virgin Mobile will soon launch their first 4G phone. Starting on May 31, customers will be able to pick up their very own Evo V 4G from Virgin Mobile’s website, with a wider release to come in June.

Despite the device’s name, the Ice Cream Sandwich-powered EVO V 4G isn’t actually a WiMax-friendly version of HTC’s chintastic One V (bummer, I know). In fact, if the specs are any indication — it features a 4.3-inch qHD display, 1GB of RAM, and a 5-megapixel camera capable of “3D HD imaging” — we’re actually looking at a slightly revamped version of the EVO 3D.

As such, you can also expect the device to come preloaded with an 8GB microSD card, an HDMI out port, and mobile hotspot functionality for up to five devices, though it seems to lack the stereoscopic display that earned its forebear some acclaim. Also gone is the older version of the Sense UI that the EVO 3D ran — the EVO V 4G instead sports the slightly new, slightly sleeker Sense 3.6 overlay, though I’m sure some people were hoping against hope for the full Sense 4.0 treatment.

Alright fine, it’s not the hottest handset on the market anymore, but this EVO 3D variant is still the nicest that Virgin has ever offered and the MVNO’s cheapo rate plans only make the deal even sweeter. Just don’t go in expecting too much, because even though Virgin’s “unlimited data” rate plans start off at $35/month, you’ll soon find that 4G connection running much slower once you tiptoe over the 2.5GB mark.