Sprint today announced the HTC Arrive, formerly known as the HTC 7 Pro, the first Windows Phone 7 device for Sprint and, as far as we know, the first CDMA Windows Phone 7 device in the world.
We've played with various versions and cousins of the Arrive on its five-month road to market, most recently at Mobile World Congress. It's a sliding phone with a QWERTY keyboard that brings back the famous HTC tilting screen. Folded open completely, the screen tilts up like a tiny laptop. Below the screen is an unusually roomy five-row keyboard, with a sizable space bar, a properly positioned shift key, and a full row of numbers. (See below for our hands-on slideshow from when the phone first launched.)
Specs are very similar to other Windows Phone 7 devices, which makes sense; they're all built on the same basic "chassis." So you have a 1-GHz first-generation Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, a 3.6-inch, 800-by-480 screen, a 5-megapixel camera, and 16GB of non-removable memory. You also get access to the more than 4,000 Windows Phone 7 apps.
The Arrive will come with the new update to Windows Phone 7 pre-installed, adding copy and paste among other features, Sprint spokesman Mark Elliott said. Sprint and HTC also added some software to the phone. Sprint's contributions include Sprint Zone, an account management app; Sprint TV and Movies, which streams some TV channels at no extra charge; NASCAR Sprint Cup Mobile, and Sprint Football Live. HTC adds its HTC Hub weather and widgets app.
The HTC Arrive will go on sale March 20 for $199.99 with a new two-year contract, Elliott said. Eager buyers will be able to pre-order starting today by going into a Sprint store and getting a $50 gift card, which will reserve one of the first phones for them.