HTC EVO 4G LTE, which was due to hit the stores from May 18, after a full one week delay, is finally coming to its awaiting customer from Thursday, May 24.

The latest HTC phone, which is coming on Sprint as a variant of the HTC One X, got into troubled waters, when Cupertino-based tech giant Apple Inc. filed a patent infringement against HTC and relatively the imports of the devices got delayed indefinitely by U.S. Customs officials. The phone, however, was already up for pre-order on the carrier's website since the beginning of this month, with a price tag of $199.99 on a two year contract.

In a recent announcement on the company blog, Sprint stated: Customers who preordered HTC EVO 4G LTE...Your wait is almost over! Sprint expects to begin shipping HTC EVO 4G LTE for arrival on or around Thursday, May 24 to customers who pre-ordered the device online from Sprint. We will provide details on the full national launch as soon as possible.

HTC EVO 4G LTE is anticipated to be a heavyweight LTE powered handset. Sprint's version of the HTC EVO 4G LTE will also feature all the USPs which the smartphone is known for, like a microSD card slot and a good 2,000 mAh battery.

With the release of the latest EVO phone, other smartphones on the Sprint list are going to face tough competition. Yes, the direct hint is towards, Galaxy Nexus, which also got released lately on Sprint at a price of $199.99 on a 2-year contract. When announced, the carrier promised to its customer the power of 4G LTE capability and also the Google Wallet feature (Google's mobile payment service missing in Verizon Galaxy Nexus).

Consequently, only after three days of its release on Sprint, Galaxy Nexus was completely sold out through pre-orders and went out of stock and the operator had to hurriedly acquire more stock to meet the consumers' growing demand with each passing day.

So, does the HTC EVO 4G LTE have enough firepower to outsell Galaxy Nexus sales figures on Sprint? Well, here is a brief analysis of all the specs of both the power-puffed smartphones. Take a look and decide which out of the two is worth your wallet and suitable for your next phone upgrade.

Sprint HTC EVO 4G LTE Vs Sprint Galaxy Nexus -- Specs Comparison

Processor

HTC EVO 4G LTE will not come powered by its quad-core 1.5 GHz Tegra 3 processor. However, the handset would be loaded with the same processor which is integrated in AT&T variant of One X for US -- the latest 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 MSM8960 processor accompanied by 1GB of RAM.

On the other side of the hedge Galaxy Nexus is powered by a 1.2GHz Cortex-A9 dual-core CPU and TI OMAP 4460 chipset. The Sprint version Galaxy Nexus will have a single 32GB variant of internal storage with 1 GB RAM and no microSD slot option for memory expansion.

EVO 4G LTE over here, scores high as the handset would be offering a 16GB built-in storage and also a microSD card slot for memory expansion up to 32GB.

Operating System

Well, it is a known fact by now that both the smartphones run on Android 4.0 ICS which features multi-tasking, rich notifications, resizable widgets and new lock screen actions. However, a plus point for Galaxy Nexus, the smartphone can be upgraded to Android 4.0.4, a slightly higher version.

However on a positive note for HTC EVO 4G LTE, it has much more to offer as the handset, along with the latest OS, is topped by HTC Sense UI version 4.0. Additionally, HTC offers 25GB of Dropbox storage free for 2 years, Beats Audio integration and enhanced video and photo capabilities.

Form Factor

Talking about the look and feel and measurements of these devices, HTC EVO 4G LTE has a candybar form factor and has a minor inferiority from the Galaxy Nexus screen as the pixel density for EVO 4G LTE is 312ppi as compared to Nexus's pixel density of 316ppi. However, at the same time, the HTC phone is backed by Corning Gorilla Glass protection.

On the other hand, Galaxy Nexus sports a premium curved slim design and measures around 135.5 x 67.94 x 9.47 mm in dimension and have a weight of 150 grams while, EVO 4G LTE figures dimensions of around 134.8 x 68.9 x 8.9 mm and weighs about 134 grams.

Also, Galaxy Nexus flaunts a Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 1,280 x 720 pixels. The 4.65-inch device includes an oleophobic coating as well as multi-touch functionality. Well, on the other end, HTC EVO 4G LTE features 4.7-inch Super IPS LCD2 touchscreen with 720p resolution.

Connectivity

On the connectivity front, HTC EVO 4G LTE features Wi-Fi with DLNA sharing and hotspot functionality, Bluetooth version 4.0, NFC, assisted GPS and microUSB version 2.0 with MHL support. However, there is no FM Radio support in HTC EVO. On the other hand, Galaxy Nexus features a Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n with DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot as well as NFC for contactless mobile payments. Galaxy Nexus supports Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP wireless technology.

While both HTC EVO 4G LTE and Galaxy Nexus are backed by the 4G LTE capability, right now Sprint customers will have to wait for the 4G usage and continue using these smartphones on simple 3G connectivity. Sprint's 4G connectivity upgrade is still in the process to match up with both handsets' connection capabilities. Six cities are expected to go live with Sprint 4G LTE by the middle of the year, most likely around June.

These are Atlanta, Dallas, San Antonio, Houston, Kansas City and Baltimore. The carrier has said that it will be able to cover 123 million users with 4G service by the end of the year, increasing to 250 million by the end of 2013.

At the same time, within a week of Sprint Galaxy Nexus release, some owners of the new phone reportedly had 3G connectivity issues and had to forcibly switch to Wi-Fi connectivity to continue with their work. However, the network provider resolved this issue in few days only and released software update to fix the difficulties connecting to Sprint's network. On the other hand, we will have to wait and watch till the release of HTC EVO 4G LTE to know if the handset would run into any data connectivity issues.

Camera

Well, in this segment, Galaxy Nexus boasts of a 5 megapixel rear-facing camera which features autofocus, LED flash, touchfocus, geo-tagging and face detection. It lets the user record video of 1080p and also comes with a 1.3 megapixels front-facing camera.

In contrast, HTC phone has a big camera upgrade, with an 8 megapixel camera accompanied with LED flash support. It records 1080p videos at 30fps with stereo sound recording. It also scores high with its VGA 1.3-megapixel camera in the device that is capable of recording 720p videos.

Battery

EVO 4G LTE has an internal, 2000mAh non-removable battery, but it is better than One X's 1,800mAh battery and Sprint has claimed a 7.5 hours of talk time for the same. Turning to Galaxy Nexus, it comes with a Li-Ion 1750mAh standard battery which allows a stand by time of up to 290 hours on 2G and 270 hours on 3G networks. It offers a talk time of up to 17 hours 40 minutes on 2G and 8 hours 20 minutes on 3G networks. Additionally, in this section Galaxy Nexus get the advantage as it has a removable battery which can be replaced by the user if it's damaged.

It's decision time now. HTC EVO 4G LTE or Galaxy Nexus -- Which will be your first Sprint phone?