Today, Dell is launching its first smartphone in the US. The Aero is available for $100 on a 2-year contract with AT&T or $300 with no contract. The phone is designed to be lightweight and, while Dell says it was “designed to deliver a powerful, flexible, and entertaining experience in a stylish and compact design,” it seems as though the real focus was on “stylish” and “compact.”
“The Dell Aero is built with a focus on style and performance to help people find new ways to connect with friends and express themselves socially supported by the nation's fastest mobile broadband network.” – Ron Garriques, president, Dell Communication Solutions
Compared to most other phones out there, the Aero is definitely lighter and more compact. Instead of running the latest version of Android, or at least something approaching the latest, it’s running a version of Android that came out around April 2009: Android 1.5. There is no word as to whether it will support an upgrade to 2.2 or newer, but I’m doubtful.
It’s especially a pity since there are genuinely some things here to like: 5MP camera with 8x zoom, up to 32GB microSD memory. Even the 624Mhz processor, while not as snazzy as a 1GHz Snapdragon, is nothing to be ashamed of in a $100 phone. — Gizmodo
The Aero will ship with a customized version of Android which will include: handwriting recognition, Microsoft Exchange e-mail capabilities, the Quick Office mobile productivity application, a search manager, and the Facebook application.
This skinned version of Android is probably why the phone is shipping with an obsolete version and why upgrades may be a long time coming. Skinned versions of Android are the norm (think HTC Sense), but significantly delay upgrades because they have to be re-tooled every time.
On the plus side, it’s good to see an Android phone at a lower price. For the average mobile user, Android 1.5 may work out just fine. For those of us trying to coast along the bleeding edge, 1.5 would be mostly useless. The problem of OS fragmentation is a real one and 1.5 is worlds apart from 2.2 or the upcoming Android 3.0. Finding apps for the Aero may become difficult.
via Gizmodo, Reuters,