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Motorola announces trio of Ming phones for China

Bringing its number of Chinese Android phones to 11, Motorola unveils 3 devices with a familiar design.

Scott Webster
Scott Webster has spent the better part of his adult life playing with cell phones and gadgets. When not looking for the latest Android news and rumors, he relaxes with his wife and son. Scott also is the senior editor for AndroidGuys. E-mail Scott.
Scott Webster
2 min read
Return of the Ming. Motorola

After months of leaks and ill-fated speculation, Motorola has announced three new Ming series Android phones destined for China. You may recall seeing these phones pop up as far back as April, rumored at one point to be 3D-capable. Though they'lll end up at different carriers, each device features a full touch screen with the signature Ming flip design and support for a stylus. Pricing hasn't been announced for the phones but we can expect to see them in the third quarter of this year.

First up is the MT810, which offers a 3.2-inch display, 720p HD video playback, and a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash. Running the China Mobile OPhone 2.0 flavor of Android, the phone also boasts 512MB ROM, 256MB RAM, and support for the CMMB mobile television format. Users will want to use a memory card if they plan to record any television shows because there's not enought iternal memory.

The A1680 looks most like its predecessor and features a 3.1-inch AMOLED display, and 5-megapixel camera. Sadly, China Unicom's latest offering will be running the antiquated Android 1.6 platform when it arrives. Motorola claims the phone will have an "affordable price tag," which suggests that they probably don't plan on supporting it with too many updates.

Finally, there's China Telecom's Android 2.1-powered XT806. Built with support for both CDMA/EV-DO and GSM, the handset boasts a 3.2-inch screen and a 5-megapixel camera capable of 720p HD video capture and playback. Borrowing a little from the other two models, the XT806 supports GPS and FM radio, and features it 512MB RAM and ROM.

With the release of these three phones, Motorola has now rolled out 11 devices in less than a year. According to its press release, more than half of all Android smartphones sold in China over the first six months of 2010 were from Motorola. Now in its sixth iteration, the Ming series has sold more than 5 million devices since its initial debut. I can't help but imagine that Android will help double or triple those numbers in short order.