Motorola announces Photon 4G on Sprint, Triumph on Virgin Mobile

Motorola hasn’t shipped its first true 4G phone yet, but it has already announced a second one: The Photon 4G.

Motorola is technically shipping a 4G phone, the Atrix, although that uses an older technology that until recently most carriers called 3.5G. Its only other true 4G phone, the Droid Bionic on Verizon, has been delayed for months. Today the company finally announced its first WiMax-based smartphone for Sprint, the Photon 4G, at a New York press event. The company also announced the Triumph, its first smartphone for Virgin Mobile.

While it stands to be one of the most powerful phone on Sprint when it arrives this summer, the Photon 4G comes more than a year after HTC released its super popular WiMax-based Evo 4G. In fact, HTC is already gearing up to launch that phone’s successor, the Evo 3D, later this month. Samsung also beat out Motorola with the launch of its Epic 4G on Sprint last August.

But perhaps Motorola’s 4G phones will be worth the wait. The Photon shares most of the Droid Bionic’s specifications– including a 4.3-inch screen, dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 camera, and 8 megapixel rear camera. Motorola also saw fit to include 1 gigabyte of RAM in the Photon, twice as much as what the Bionic holds (although that may change when the Bionic is officially released). It will come with Android 2.3 installed, and as with most 4.3-inch monster phones, the Photon will be equipped with a kickstand.

Motorola is touting increased enterprise security with the Photon, thanks to its purchase of the mobile security startup 3LM earlier this year, as well as business-focused tools in its Blur software. The phone is also capable of working on GSM networks internationally, which coupled with the above enterprise features makes it a good Android phone for road warriors.

As for the Triumph on Virgin Mobile (pictured left), it’s certainly less sexy than the Photon or Motorola’s other flagship smartphones, but it seems to be a solid phone for a prepaid carrier. The Triumph sports a 4.1-inch screen (.6 inches bigger than the iPhone 4!), 2 gigabytes of storage and will be powered by Android 2.2 “Froyo” when it lands this summer.