HTC Aria

HTC Aria arrives on AT&T June 20th for $129

AT&T customers will get their first taste of an Android 2.1 device when the HTC Aria goes on sale later this month. This mid-range Android phone features almost identical insides of recent HTC phones like the Legend and Slide mixed with the design of their Windows-powered HD Mini.

The Aria is powered by the 600 MHz Qualcomm MSM7227 (which holds up well in GPU benchmarks), includes a 3.2 inch HVGA capacitive display, and features a 5 megapixel camera. HTC’s Sense UI is layered on top of Android 2.1 and we expect the phone will be updated to Android 2.2 later this year.

Customers can purchase the Aria on June 20th for $129.99 with 2-yr contract (after $100 mail in rebate). The phone requires a data plan of which AT&T now provides two options – $15 for 200 MB or $25 for 2 GB.

This marks only the 2nd Android phone for AT&T (first was the Backflip), but the carrier plans to expand its Android portfolio to include other Android smartphones during the second half of 2010.

Highlights of the HTC Aria include:

• Qualcomm MSM7227 processor at 600MHz
• Android 2.1 with HTC Sense UI
• 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen at 320×480
• 512MB ROM/256 MB RAM
• 5 megapixel camera
• 2 GB microSD card included
• Size: (H X W X D): 4.6 x 2.3 x 0.47 in
• Weight: 4.6 ounces
• Battery: 1200 mAh (Talk time rated at up to 6 hours, standby up to 15.5 days)
• Quadband EDGE (850/900/1800/1900), dual band HSPA 7.2 (850/1900)
• Digital compass, aGPS, WiFi, FM radio

HTC Android 2.2

HTC starts rolling out Android 2.2 update for the HTC Aria

In an effort to keep their Android handsets up to date, HTC has started pushing out Android 2.2 to the HTC Aria. While this may sound like good news, those of you with an AT&T branded HTC Aria will most likely be disappointed to hear that this update is currently only available in Southeast Asia. We’re not entirely sure why U.S. customers have been left in the cold, but there have been rumors floating around that AT&T’s Android update testing process takes quite a bit longer than it should.

Android 2.2 should give the HTC Aria a pretty significant performance boost and enable features like live wallpapers, data tethering, and apps to SD. Hopefully AT&T and HTC will be able to sort things out pretty quickly and bring Android 2.2 to U.S. Aria users as quickly as possible. It would be nice if the update came to U.S. shores before the end of the year, but a more realistic timeframe would probably be mid to late January. Place your bets! When do you think the AT&T HTC Aria will be getting a fresh serving of Froyo?