X

Dell Aero Android SmartPhone Is Now Available

Without much fanfare,  Dell has opened up sales of the Dell Aero for AT&T.  It seems that the rumors about timing and specs were correct.  It is available for $99 on 2-year contract, and $299 without (although still locked to AT&T).

Here are the specs:

  • 624MHz Marvell CPU
  • Android platform 1.5 complete with Android Market and Dell user interface enhancements
  • 3.5-inch (640 x 360p) capacitive multi-touch display with pinch-to-zoom functionality and Gorilla Glass
  • Quad-Band GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)
  • Tri-Band UMTS/HSDPA (850/1900/2100 MHz)
  • Wi-Fi + Bluetooth
  • 5 MP camera with autofocus, flash, digital zoom up to 8x, dedicated camera key
  • 2 GB on board user accessible microSD with expandable memory available up to 32 GB
  • Full HTML Browser with Adobe Flash Lite
  • GPS/A-GPS navigation
  • POP, IMAP, Webmail and Microsoft Active Sync E-mail
  • The specs really are not too bad for a mid-level Android phone, although it comes loaded with Android Cupcake 1.5 (the dark ages).  Apparentely, Dell is confident in their UI customizations, stating:

    Dell developed a tremendous amount of customization and features on top of cupcake to deliver the experiences that matter most to customers. Popular features Dell incorporated on top of cupcake include Microsoft email with Active Sync, handwriting recognition, one-click upload of photos to social sites. We’ve also pre-loaded popular applications such as Facebook with integrated phonebook and calendar, added a connection manager, and implemented Search on the device or web.

    Additional benefits for the Dell Aero:

    · Dell Aero comes with an 8x zoom with on-device photo & video editing functionality

    · Asynchronous BT/Wi-Fi

    · Multiple widget support

    · Sync with Windows Media Player

    · Desktop Suite Syncing tool – includes syncing with iTunes (Non DRM)

    There is no word yet on whether AT&T is blocking side-loading of apps, but it seems like that is one of their favorite things to do…

    Frankly, I think it is a pretty attractive device.  I love the “Android buttons” being on the side of the device (in theory, I have not tried that out yet).  Even the UI enhancements look nice and like a breath of fresh air.  Dell claims that at 3.67 oz, it is one of the lightest Androids around.  Unfortunately, there aren’t many reviews or hands-on videos yet, so hard to know how it actually fares.  Assuming the software works nicely, I can see this becoming a lower-level enterprise device, as it has lots of productivity features built-in.

    Check out this video of the Dell Aero:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MW8dDT6KczQ 

    You can get more info and purchase it here.