The HTC Inspire 4G Android smartphone released on AT&T’s 4G mobile broadband network hit the mass-market in early 2011. With a big 4.3 inch screen and 1.0 GHz processor, it was immediately touted by HTC and AT&T as one of the most powerful and well-rounded smartphones in the 4G marketplace. And that was certainly true back when it was released.
But with so many second generation 4G handsets released in the last few months, many first-generation 4G phones have seen a decrease in popularity, and also in sales. However, the Inspire 4G handset has remained a popular phone, even though smartphones in the 4G arena with broader feature sets and more powerful processors have arrived, albeit at much higher retails. The Inspire sells for $29 for a two-year activation, and at that price, remains one of the lowest priced 4G handsets available.
When the HTC Inspire 4G was released, it’s large 4.3 inch screen certainly made an impact. Currently, however, 4.0 and 4.3 inch screens are the norm. That is why AT&T’s aggressive pricing for the HTC Inspire 4G is drawing such customer support. A 4G Android handset shopper does not have to lay out three figures to get a large display. The screen on the HTC Inspire 4G has a coating of scratch resistant Corning Gorilla Glass, and the display is presented in 480 x 800 pixel resolution, a proximity sensor and a light sensor are built into the screen, and multitouch touchscreen navigation is employed.
The software set for the HTC Inspire 4G is as follows. Out-of-the-box, Google’s Android 2.2 Froyo operating system is on board, however, the Inspire 4G recently benefited from an over the air upgrade to Android’s 2.3 operating system version, Gingerbread. The single core processor is a Snapdragon MSM 8255 1.0 GHz model with 768 MB of RAM memory supporting it.
And unlike most 4G handsets of late, the HTC Inspire 4G offers only one rear facing camera, foregoing a front facing video chat camera. The rear facing camcorder delivers 8 megapixel resolution with dual LED flash, face detection, special effects, geo-tagging and autofocus, and delivers video recording capability in 720P HD.
Upgradable to 32 GB of memory, the Inspire 4G offers a microSD slot, microUSB port, DLNA wireless video out, Bluetooth stereo and Wi-Fi wireless connectivity. Google delivers popular preloaded apps with Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Picasa and YouTube, and Adobe Flash media player support is also on board. Find out more about this HTC smartphone that has stood the test of time to remain viable in a competitive market with our HTC Inspire 4G Review.
