HTC EVO Shift 4G Getting Gingerbread on June 17th

It looks like in addition to rolling out a patch for the original HTC EVO 4G, Sprint will also be updating the handset’s little brother, the HTC EVO Shift 4G, to Gingerbread on June 17th via an OTA software update. In addition to Gingerbread, Swype will also be part of the experience, as will some bug fixes to allow streaming media to better play on the EVO Shift 4G, according to a leaked maintenance release memo from Sprint obtained by Android Police.

The OTA update would be pushed out, it seems, starting June 20th, but users can begin to manually initiate the software update on June 17th on their devices.

The HTC EVO Shift 4G has a smaller screen than the HTC EVO 4G, but instead makes up for it with a sliding keyboard. Though the device lacks the front-facing camera for video chat, it comes with many of the high-end functionality of the original HTC EVO 4G, including speedy 1 GHz processor and 4G WiMax support on Sprint’s Now Network.