The Sprint HTC EVO 4G LTE Android 4.3 Jelly Bean update is coming, but with a delay: it will start rolling out in mid-February.

The smartphone was supposed to get a software upgrade to the latest flavor of Jelly Bean by the end of 2013, or so HTC announced back in October. It now seems that the rollout had to be delayed, and it will take a couple of months longer to get the Android 4.3 build.

Back in early October, HTC President Jason Mackenzie announced via Twitter that the HTC EVO 4G LTE will get Android 4.3 and Sense 5 by the end of the year. With 2013 now over and no update to make good on that promise, Mackenzie has now revealed that Sprint will start testing the update in mid-January, with a rollout set for mid-February.

Mackenzie revealed the new ETA in a Twitter reply to a HTC EVO 4G owner inquiring about the update. Keep in mind, however, that the update rollout may see even further delays if the build doesn't pass Sprint's testing process in mid-January. In that case, the carrier would have to sent the update back to HTC, which would lead to another month of testing after HTC mends it, and so on.

As a reminder, the HTC EVO 4G LTE launched in mid-2012, shipping with the older Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) OS on board. The handset received an update to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean at the end of 2012 and was supposed to jump straight to Android 4.3 by the end of 2013.

In terms of specifications, the HTC EVO 4G LTE sports a 4.7-inch HD Super LCD display with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels, a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor clocked at 1.5GHz, and 16GB of internal storage capacity. Other specs include an 8-megapixel rear camera, a micro SD card slot for additional memory of up to 32GB, NFC, and 4G LTE, as the name suggests.

Android 4.3 Jelly Bean is no longer the latest version of Google's popular OS, but it does bring some notable improvements and new features to the table. As for Android 4.4 KitKat, the HTC EVO 4G LTE may never get it.