A leaked end-of-life list out of Sprint that showed-up yesterday told the tale of a carrier trimming-down its tablet offerings. According to the document Sprint is preparing to cut things off with the RIM BlackBerry PlayBook and the HTC EVO View 4G. News of the EVO View 4G’s departure was especially odd, as it’s the only one currently being offered on the carrier that supports its data services. A new leak arriving today start to explain things a little, revealing Sprint’s plans to soon get a new tablet.

Sprint will supposedly start selling the seven-inch ZTE Optik tablet on February 5. Available only through placing an order at first, the tablet would make the move to Sprint’s retail stores a little over a month later, on March 11.

Some of the Optik’s specs sounds like it would make a suitable replacement for the EVO View 4G. It should feature a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, one gigabyte of RAM, 16GB flash storage, a five-megapixel rear camera, and a two-megapixel front-facer. Though the resolution of the seven-inch display hasn’t been revealed, we’re hopefully in HD territory here, though likely just barely. If Sprint’s considering this an upgrade from the EVO View 4G, it’s probably largely focusing on the beefier processor. The Optik should arrive running Honeycomb 3.2.

We’re hoping this is just a misprint, but the leak claims that the Optik, with all its tablet-sized power demands, has only a 1,350 mAh battery; that just sounds cuckoo bananas, so hopefully we’ll see a more realistic figure before the tablet launches.

Maybe the most attractive thing about the Optik is its price. You’ll be able to pick up the tablet form Sprint next month for just $100 on-contract, or $350 free-and clear. We haven’t heard anything about the tablet’s radio, but that subsidized price means it should at least have EV-DO 3G; your guess is as good as ours regarding WiMAX, but we have heard rumors suggesting Sprint’s done releasing new WiMAX products.

Source: SprintFeed