T-Mobile has been getting great press these last couple of weeks for its newest 4G phone the HTC Amaze 4G and that’s not surprising given it’s one of the best T-Mobile 4G phones launched this year.

Features

The Amaze comes with a 4.3-inch qHD display, 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 16GB internal memory and Android 2.3. and of course 4G network connectivity. It’s also one of the first phones to use the T-Mobile upgraded 4G HSPA+ 42Mbps network which the carrier is promoting as “faster than the average home web connection”.

Pros and Cons

On the upside, the Amaze has a great interface (HTC Sense 3.0) coupled with a very fast processor. The camera is superb, with only some minor issues in low-light scenes.

The main downside is the size – this is a big & heavy phone (weighing in at 6 ounces).

The Amaze may have a fast processor, be the first HTC phone to come with NFC, have great battery life, come with a FM radio with SRS surround sound and many other noteworthy features but the main selling point of this phone is the camera – an serious 8-megapixel unit with dedicated camera button, HD video capture at 1080p and “zero shutter lag”.

Serious photographers will appreciate not only the image quality – which is excellent – but the degree of manual control available on the camera settings. In manual mode you’ll find settings for white balance, sharpness, saturation, contrast, and exposure. Given that amount of control, the Amaze 4G is probably the closest a cameraphone has come to a more traditional digital camera.

The camera also features a number of smart shooting modes like BurstShot designed for capturing fast-moving action like sports, SmartShot – an automatic multiple exposure method for excellent contrast and colors, SweepShot for panoramas and ClearShot HDR for designed to get the best image possible even when shooting in low-light situations.

As you’d expect, the HTC Amaze also comes with some great in-phone apps to help you edit and manage your mobile photography.

Although the f2.2 aperture lens is large by cameraphone standards – allowing more light into the sensor, creating a clearer image – the ClearShot HDR function struggles somewhat to keep the digital noise down for images with very low-light. That said, sunset images work great and daylight images are nothing short of outstanding, easily beating many point and shoot digital cameras.

All in all the HTC Amaze 4G lives up to its ambitious name – especially if you’re looking for quite possibly one of the best cameraphones available today.

Best Price

The Amaze costs $259.99 on contract in T-Mobile stores. Best prices we’ve found online is Amazon at $199.99.