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Exclusive: Sprint's Q3 roadmap includes Epic 2, Samsung 'full touch 4G' device, BlackBerry Bold Touch, and more

Exclusive: Sprint's Q3 roadmap includes Epic 2, Samsung 'full touch 4G' device, BlackBerry Bold Touch, and more

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Sprint's investing a lot of time, money, and effort doing everything it can to stop AT&T's acquisition of T-Mobile at the moment, but that doesn't mean any attention's being diverted from the product roadmap -- today's launch of the Evo 3D is solid evidence of that. And we're hearing from a trusted source today that the carrier's third quarter (running from July through September) should be pretty busy, too.

The biggest news should be the announcement of the Samsung Epic 2. Though it's not technically a direct replacement, HTC's Evo 3D succeeds last year's Evo 4G in many ways -- the dual-core processor and qHD 3D-capable display are both pretty big boosts. Well, the Epic 2 doesn't sound like it's going to be quite the same level of improvement over the original Epic 4G: the new model is said to have a 4-inch display and 1.2GHz single-core Hummingbird processor (likely the same as Verizon's Droid Charge and AT&T's Infuse 4G) paired with an 8 megapixel camera. For comparison, the Epic 4G currently has a 5 megapixel camera and a 1GHz Hummingbird... and it's already got a 4-inch display. It's possible that Sprint decided that four inches was the practical limit for a landscape QWERTY-equipped handset.

If QWERTY isn't your thing, though, we're also hearing about a "full touch 4G" device from Samsung. No details on this one, but considering the persistent (and very believable) rumors that Sprint's gearing up to launch the S II as the Galaxy Within, I'd imagine that's exactly what this is. Once the novelty of 3D wears off, it'll be interesting to see this one do direct battle with the Evo 3D on store shelves.

Moving beyond the realm of high-end Android gear, Sprint is gearing up to launch the BlackBerry Bold Touch and Monaco; final retail branding for both is still up in the air, though, so expect these names to change. Both devices will be capable of GSM global roaming. Finally, Sprint's in the midst of moving away from iDEN for its push-to-talk services and toward CDMA, and to that end, there are a couple new Kyocera / Sanyo models in the works -- but the bigger news might be a new push-to-talk BlackBerry. Sprint's last Direct Connect BlackBerry was the Curve 8350i -- which is looking ancient at this point -- so I'd bet this is going to be big news among businesses that rely on PTT to get work done.

So, is it enough? Is this what you were hoping to hear out of Sprint for the next three months? If I were switching to Sprint right now, personally, I don't think there's anything here that would stop me from buying an Evo 3D -- but then again, Super AMOLED Plus displays are awfully gorgeous.