AT&T's second Android device will be the Dell Aero. CNET gets a hands-on look at Dell's new phone at CTIA 2010; well, sort of.
Bonnie Cha
Bonnie Cha was a former chief correspondent for CNET Crave, covering every kind of tech toy imaginable (with a special obsession for robots and Star Wars-related stuff). When she's not scoping out stories, you can find her checking out live music or surfing in the chilly waters of Northern California.
The Dell Aero will be AT&T's second Google Android device, after the Motorola Backflip, and is the first smartphone Dell has released in the U.S. Neither Dell nor AT&T would release pricing and availability information at CTIA 2010. Also, unfortunately, AT&T ordered Dell not to let us power on the Aero, so we could only grab photos of the smartphone's exterior.
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Dell Mini 3
The Dell Aero is based on the Dell Mini 3 phone. The Mini 3 is available in Brazil and we were able to spend some brief time with it at Mobile World Congress 2010.
While we were impressed at the Mini 3's compact size, we thought its custom interface and lack of navigation controls made the device unintuitive to use.
The Dell Aero will also have a custom interface that will lay on top of the Android operating system. We hope that it will be easier to use than the interface we saw on the Mini 3.
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Slim profile
The Dell Aero/Mini 3 is compact, slim, and lightweight. It's probably the smallest, lightest Android device we've seen yet.
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Another side view
We don't know how much internal memory is on the Aero, but it has a microSD card slot.
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Back view
The phone's plastic body makes it incredibly light but also a bit slick.
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Camera
The Aero has a 5-megapixel camera, which is a step up from the Dell Mini 3's 3.2-megapixel camera.
