Yesterday, we checked out some rumors about upcoming smartphones for Sprint, including a model referred to as the HTC Jet. Supposedly the phone wouldn’t arrive until June, and very little detail about its capabilities was provided. We may be about to get the official story on the phone even sooner than expected, as Sprint has just sent-out invitations to a press event it’s holding with HTC, where the the companies intend to share their “latest collaboration”.

The only Jet specs mentioned by the rumor’s source include NFC capabilities and inclusion of a Qualcomm MSM8960 processor. That’s the chip behind the HTC One XL (the One X, as it will come to AT&T with LTE but without quad cores), and as it also has NFC, it could be a prime candidate for the announcement. When we weren’t expecting the phone until June, it seemed premature to speculate on hardware with so few details available, but with this press event now scheduled for April 4, we’d have to agree that the One X/XL is a pretty likely contender for what the companies will announce.

Sprint may be planning to launch its LTE service (in a very limited manner) mid-next-month, with reports of both the LG Viper and Samsung Galaxy Nexus going up for sale on April 15; with any luck, this HTC handset might join it shortly thereafter (or at least when AT&T’s exclusivity runs out).