TechCrunch first broke the news about Dell releasing a smartphone exclusively for the Chinese market eight days ago. Some pieces of information on the so-called Mini 3i leaked a few days after, and today the Android device finally saw the light of day during a China Mobile event in Beijing (China Mobile is the world’s biggest phone carrier and distributes the phone in that country).
The Mini 3i features a 3.5-inch touchscreen with 360×640 resolution (iPhone: 3.5-inch screen with 320×480 resolution, Palm Pre: 3.1-inch screen with 320×480 resolution), a 3.2MP camera, Bluetooth, a 950mAh battery, a mini USB port and a microSD card slot. There is no physical keyboard and no Wifi.
The phone supports 2G only, but runs on the so-called Open Mobile System, China Mobile’s proprietary infrastructure that combines Android with TD-SCDMA (China’s home-grown 3G standard).
These early pictures of the mini3i are courtesy of major Chinese news portal 163.com (Dell China or China Mobile still aren’t mentioning the phone on their websites). We will bring you more pictures and detailed specs as soon as we get them (more pics through the link below).
Via 163.com [CN] (Google machine translation)
Update:
We now have better pictures from 163.com (see below). The Mini 3i looks like a mix between a Pre and an iPhone to me.
Notice the camera flashlight on the back.
Good looking phone.
Agreed!
Hopefully, Dell will take it global. The more Android choices, the better.
I doubt that would happen
I hope Dell doesn’t bring over their computer trend of making an attractive product but the batteries and charges go out left and right to the mobile world.
It looks like an exact copy of iPhone. Why can’t people just stop aping Apple? Now, let’s wait to see how this Android smartphone compete with iphones.
I think it’s spelled “iPhone”.
Ophone.
looks iPhoney
Keep an eye on this new multi-media search engine launching soon.Heard about it and it looks promising.
It will be connected to all mobile networks worldwide(source of revenue) and partnering up with the biggest brands known to mankind,interms of revenue this will be the biggest on the net.Can’t wait to see how this turns out.See demo site below:
http://www.yaffflezone.com
dumbass
FAIL!
You either spelled your own domain incorrectly or your site is somewhat like twitter (suffering down time).
That yafflezone logo is pretty sad.
looks like a bunch of Indians decided to be part of the global economy and gonna create a google slayer….
The bad taste, complete cluelessness, total lack of details, no common sense… I’d bet a fortune that we have some Indian self made entrepreneurs, creating a laughing stock for us all…
@ biiibbsn: precisely ;-) The sad “marketing” attempt fits the picture, too.
Why hate on Indians ?
WTH Was that dude?! Plz. Yaffle Zone, LMAO, Even when Google was called Backrub it looked better than this
When m gonna get this !
Looks somewhat similar to Palm pre…Dell will be a real competitor in smart phone segment if Dell buy palm…..
You think smart about smart phones and Dell, I want to do it before dell does – solution is not in another weak in consumer play manufacturer picjing up elegant Palm but in a chnage of paradigm and selection of the Pam Pre by a new comer with a global media platform and breathtakign media channels and video sponsorhsip revenues . I have one of these.
Nice looking phone.
Nice looking device, similar to Pre in my opinion.
No wifi sucks though, big fail point
“No wifi sucks though, big fail point”
That’s very likely a chinese government restriction (the same seems to apply to the iPhone). It’d surely have one if it launches in the west.
looks absolutely nothing like the Pre
Keep an eye on this new multi-media search engine launching soon.Heard about it and it looks promising.
It will be connected to all mobile networks worldwide(source of revenue) and partnering up with the biggest brands known to mankind,interms of revenue this will be the biggest on the net.Can’t wait to see how this turns out.
http://www.yaffflezone.com
Spammer!!!
Ugly logo on that searcengine You spammer
Android is going places
and, where would that be?
Lacy, when are you going to China again? can you buy me few of them?
and it looks like the iPhone… Sad
looks like iphone and alikes, since they are all designed in the same way, to some extent.
A 3″-something wide touch screen which pretty coincide with the dimensions of the device and the necessary hardware just beneath it.
btw I like this dell, but it doesn’t shock me…
This new 3i looks damn cool. Think it will be received well and Dell will soon be going global on this.
This should give a great boost to Android apps, and hopefully force improvements on Apple’s App Store. Let’s see however how the sales number will actually look like…
looks like an iphone to me…
Smart move from Dell: first they can field test a iphone+pre-like phone on a wide market without the bigger rivals.
Then, when first bugs will be ironed out and the production ready for ramp up, they will be ready for the Western world.
Gus is thinking the same exact think, it looks a lot like the iphone, even the apps have a similar design. Hopefully Dell’s device isn’t a piece of crap and actually functions like it should, cuz if it could do that, then maybe, just maybe Dell has a chance in the very competitive smart phone market. http://ziggytek.com/
No wifi because the Chinese government wants to protect its carrier revenue (the carriers are all part state-owned).
Well, I did lose my G1 a week ago, so I could get one of these, but I think I’m going to wait and see what the Lenovo looks like. It will be 3g.
Not carrier revenue, but control. It would be reasonable to assume that the 3G connectivity is monitored, but ad-hoc wifi would be tougher to crack down on.
it’s TD-SCDMA,this means China only
Only 2G, No wi-fi and all Arrington can say is “nice looking phone”?????
Nope, his anti iphone blabbering isnt personal.
Get a grip. It has no wifi because it is for the Chinese market; this has no real reflection on Dell, it’s simply not something the Chinese government allows.
Presumably it features China’s special, China-only 2.5G CDMA variant for the same reason?
It’s not like Dell would launch this phone in the west (because it simply won’t work) and one can assume that they aren’t incapable of a wifi-equipped smartphone. So maybe ‘nice looking phone’ is simply all that can be said at this point.
I don’t think you can really make this into a data point for iPhone hatred.
whatever. this phone looks like a crappy iphone imitation, and Dell will never make a phone that you will use.
Here’s the phone that you want to get excited about Mike:
http://gizmodo.com/5341180/samsung-instinctq-android-phone-images-leaked
now they’re saying it’s just a “proof of concept” in PC Mag.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2351637,00.asp
um… ok. there’s no such thing as a “proof of concept” in China. everything ends up falling off a truck in mass quantity. sure, it’ll probably be called the 0phone (as in a zero) or the OOphone. but these pictures means the shanzhai folks are busy. ^_^
hey seriously, if you guys want some first hand insight on China’s mobile sector, drop @sagebrennan or @benjaminjoffe a line. head of Mobile Monday Shanghai and Beijing. they know their stuff.
Wow, I’m sure Microsoft is pretty butt hurt over the chose to go to Android. Nice phone though.
Why is it that mobiles for use in China seem to always be missing wifi? Is it a cost issue or something else?
@bcos — it’s a Chinese government control issue. they’re paranoid about giving 700m mobile phone users the opportunity to access the web and …well, mobilize. mobile phone penetration swims circles around internet users via computer.
Thank you.
dell is out there mind they have came up with a device that doesn’t have 3G and WiFi, feel sorry for them, was expecting much more then that…….
for those that put down every other phone that looks like the iphone, GET OVER IT – all phones will look like the iphone for generations. just like the qwerty keyboard defined how we type – the iphone has defined how we interact with a small screen devices. expect more not less of the iphone format
not bad !!! looks like an iphone to me too…
As this is being released in China, I wonder if the version of Android available on this phone will be have multi-touch enabled …
Yeah that’s not a ripe off completely of the iphone at all. Seriously China don’t steel our ideas!
Thats not true.. Dell in not coming with any phone..
Check.. http://bit.ly/i5iso
Hi I’m withh Loop,
There’s a press note saying Dell didn’t present any Android phone…
Do you really thikg that China mobile would present Dell’s Mini 3i without inviting them??
This phone looks and is bad ass…For all those people that are complaing that it looks like an iphone, it doesnt hve 3G or WiFi…trust me it will when it hits the west. also for everyone that says this is not true..I hope you can read Chinese,but here is a legit website..
http://www.mmarket.com
Just look for the DELL logo…and all your answers will be answered. When it does arrive I will place my 3GS to rest and go with Dell…Android is the better software and it will make us forget the i-way-to-expensive phone…plus maybe this new phone will bring all the prices down so everyone can afford. You know Dell always makes it better and in-expensive, so everyone can afford.
I entered a comment elsewhere that had to do with a comparison between the HTC Sprint Hero and what I call the Euro Hero where I detailed my disgust with the lack of a good looking smart phone on both Sprint and Verizon. I subsequently bought three iPhones for the family. I’m not especially enamored with AT&T but they did have a smart phone that is the best of the lot. All four of the major cell phone network providers, I include T-Mobile here, are apparently merely phone companies and just do not get it. Their Karma is to overlook the fact that technology has enabled them to supply their customers with real game changing communication/computing devices. I see Apple as the only major player in the industry who is taking advantage of this fact. (Dell? Not so much… They are not coming out with anything new, just borrowed…)
Now to my point. Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile are seemingly in a race to the bottom. Recently both of my accounts with Sprint and Verizon were getting ready to go past the two year point and I was excitedly poring over the websites of both. I became aware that contrary to my expectations of being able to get a smart looking smart phone, there didn’t seem to be much in the way of choice. I saw the HTC Hero being sold in Europe but not here. I said, “Drat”, and moved on. Nothing much of note seemed to be happening. If there was, the new phones could kindly be called “Uninspiring” at best. “Pitiful” for the bottom of the pile.
Then came the news that the HTC Hero was going to be sold at Sprint. I was very excited. The search was over. But wait, the pictures showed a drastic change in looks. I was devastated….
Conclusion. Verizon is rumored this, Sprint is rumored that. Dell is coming out with a new phone. AT&T is going to improve the other thing. Cannot these communication power houses get anything right? I have great phones but I’m still not satisfied. I want to see these captains of industry get off the dime. Get crackin’ or somebody like Apple will clean your clock. Oh, wait……….
This looks like an iphone. I belive Dell sold it in china because china likes to copy products.
According to yahoo news, android will pass iphone by 2012. Honestly, i really hete the iphone. I mean, how is it better than a symbian or windows mobile smartphone? you can get all the apps of the iphone from a computer, but what else.
Fools, read CNET.
It is call dPhone.