Sprint’s gadget plans: Nexus S 4G, EVO 3D phone, EVO View tablet

Sprint may be gearing up to take the upcoming CTIA wireless trade show by storm: The company is supposedly planning to launch a 4G version of the Nexus S, a 3D version of the EVO  4G, and a tablet dubbed the EVO View, Engadget reports.

Sprint has scheduled a massive two-and-a-half hour presentation at CTIA. That’s a sign that the company is going to launch some major new products. Most company presentations at trade shows run between 45 and 90 minutes. The CTIA conference takes place March 22 to March 24 in Orlando, Fla.

The Nexus S 4G will be an updated version of the phone for Sprint’s WiMAX 4G network (the phone originally launched in December on T-Mobile’s network). The EVO 3D will be a 3D update of the popular EVO 4G smartphone (expect to see plenty of 3D phones this year), while the EVO View is likely a renamed HTC Flyer tablet.

If accurate, this is a solid, but not groundbreaking, lineup for Sprint at CTIA. The carrier didn’t have much to show at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, aside from the diminutive EVO Shift 4G. Meanwhile, Verizon Wireless ruled CES with its 4G LTE lineup, which included some of the hottest devices at the show, like Motorola’s Xoom tablet.

At this point, Sprint’s 4G network is beginning to look slow and obsolete even compared to T-Mobile’s HSPA+ 4G network, which was originally just an improved version of its 3G network. T-Mobile’s 4G network was recently shown to be slightly faster than Sprint’s, and the company has said that its 4G speed will be doubled to 42 megabits per second by the end of 2011. Sprint was the first company to deploy its 4G network, but now it looks like it may be paying the price for jumping into the 4G pool so soon.