Motorola today announced the Photon 4G, an international-use Android phone for Sprint, and the Triumph, for Sprint's prepaid subsidiary, Virgin Mobile. The latter boosts the number of smart-phone choices available from no-contract carriers. Both phones will be available this summer; prices have not yet been announced.

The Photon 4G is Sprint's first 4G smart phone that's capable of roaming internationally, though data speeds abroad will be limited to 3G. The Photon 4G, which has a 4.3-inch QHD display and is powered by a 1-GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor, runs the latest version of Android (2.3) with several Motorola-made tweaks, such as support for incremental password protection (to reassure corporate IT managers), as well as more robust calendar features. For example, calendar users can dial into a conference calls, even those requiring pass codes, by just tapping a single link.

Spring's Motorola Photon4G features a kickstand.

The phone's 8-megapixel rear-facing camera can record video in 720p format and play it back on an HDTV via the phone's micro HDMI connection or wirelessly on TVs that support the DLNA standard. The phone also has a front-facing VGA-resolution camera to facilitate video chats and self-portraits. Other Photon features include 16GB of internal memory, which can be upgraded to 48GB with a microSD card.

The Triumph Motorola for Virgin Mobile is a few technology notches below the Photon. It offers a 4.1-inch display and a 1-GHz single-core processor, and it runs on an older version of Android (2.2). But it will be the prepaid carrier's most sophisticated mobile device, with features that include a 5-megapixel camera capable of recording video at 720p, as well as a front-facing VGA camera.

Stay tuned for my first-look reviews of these phones in a few weeks.