Dell Mini 3i Coming to the USA

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It will take a while until we get used to Dell smartphones. The computer maker has decided to return to the mobile business after miserably failing to conquer it a couple of years ago. Its newest creation, the Dell Mini 3i, is an Android phone initially made for the Chinese market. The good news? Dell will bring the phone to U.S. customers in the following months.

Apparently Dell was pretty impressed by the recent Android activity in the USA. Motorola has announced its first Android phone, the CLIQ; Verizon Wireless and Google have announced a partnership meant to bring Android phones to Verizon wireless and manufacturers like HTC, Samsung and LG already have new handsets capable of handling Google’s OS and scheduled to hit the U.S. market in the near future. So why would Dell miss out on the entire buzz around Google and Android?

The Dell Mini 3i has been designed with the Chinese market in mind. It features a 3.5-inch touchscreen with 640 x 360 resolution, a 3.2-megapixel camera, Bluetooth, mini USB connectivity, microSD card slot, a 950mAh and Android OS running in the background. The U.S. version will probably go through some hardware upgrades but we have no idea at this point what Dell is planning to modify. We can assume that the U.S. version will bring both 3G and Wi-Fi support since the Chinese version lacked Wi-Fi and used an Open Mobile System, which is China Mobile’s Android OS version combined its TD-SCDMA network.

Beside hardware upgrades, Dell will have to make sure it ships the right Android version with the Mini 3i. It’s being reported that the current OS comes with modified or missing Android libraries which would make programming a lot harder.

The Mini 3i should be officially announced in the near future and we’ll have plenty of time to analyze its performance once Dell starts to sell it to North American consumers. But a few logical questions do come to my mind! Will we also see a Windows Mobile 6.5 Dell phone or is Dell going to make only Android smartphones? What about Android/Chrome OS netbooks, laptops and desktops Dell? Are we going to see any of that coming next year?