AT&T Officially Unveils The HTC Aria Smartphone [HTC Aria With Android 2.1 Now Official, Will Be Available June 20th For $129.99 On-Contract]

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AT&T has finally unveiled the long rumored AT&T Aria smartphone and just like that we can put another set of smartphone related rumors to rest. Lets dive in with the important details first — the price and availability date.

The HTC Aria will be available as of June 20th and will retail for $129.99. That said, I should point out that the $129.99 price tag comes along with a two year agreement and AFTER a $100 mail in rebate. Yup, that means you will need to shell out $229.99 and then wait for your $100 to come back in the form of an AT&T Promotion Card. And those that have not had the ‘pleasure’ of using one of those cards in the past, according to the details they are good “wherever major credit cards are accepted” however they cannot be used to pay your wireless bill or at ATM’s or gas pumps. Blah, blah, blah, lets move onto the specs.

The HTC Aria will feature a 3.2 inch (320 x 480) HVGA capacitive touchscreen display, 5 megapixel camera, 3G (HSPA) 7.2 Mbps, Wi-Fi, GPS, microSD card slot and is running Android 2.1 with HTC’s Sense UI which includes goodies such as Friend Stream as well as Facebook, Twitter and Flickr integration.

Additionally, the HTC Aria will be a Google phone, which means you can expect to find Gmail, Google Search, Google Maps, Google Navigation and YouTune as well as access to the Android Market. No word yet it it will have the same limits as the Backflip in that app installations will be restricted to Market apps only.

In terms of size and weight, the Aria is just over 4 inches long and weighs 4.05 ounces. You will also find a “soft-touch” back cover which is said to eliminate the sharp edges.

Interestingly enough, according to the press release, the HTC Aria will be the “first of several smartphones in our Android portfolio to run the 2.1 platform.” As for when those other handsets are expected to arrive — sometime during the second half of 2010. Though it was noted that the HTC Aria “will be one of the best Android smartphones available” so I am not sure what else we can look forward to seeing.