For the past few weeks I’ve been testing out the new HTC Aria. I was more anxious than the LeBron James NBA decision to get my grimy hands on the phone! Reason for my excitement? I really like the Android mobile operating system and because the search still continues for the phone that can have that “iPhone” impact.
I gotta tell ya, I’m REALLY loving the HTC Aria & as of right now it is a smartphone that gives a beautiful user-experience and some awesome features. To me it’s a great alternative to the iPhone and shows the most competition to the iPhone. The HTC Aria is a serious competitor and brings some great diversity to the smartphone arena. Its 4 inches long, which is a tad smaller than the iPhone and is lightweight at 4 ounces. I love that it has both, a touch screen and a joystick which gives you more options to navigate the phone. The screen is 3.2 inches and is very crisp with color! The camera on the HTC Aria enables you to shoot video or 5-megapixel stills-one bonus I like about the camera is that you can touch anywhere on the screen to take the photo, most phones force you to click a specific button or touch a very specific area on the phone screen to take the photo. The HTC Aria also uses an integrated GPS, a digital compass, light sensor and has a microSD card slot for memory storage.
One of the features of the HTC Aria that I also like is called “Scenes” this gives you the ability to have your phone customized with certain on-screen apps and dashboard programs called widgets depending on your selection. I have a scene for travelling which changes my desktop and other screens to be customized with all my needed travel apps etc… OR I can change it to my “Work” scene and all the screens and apps will chnage to reflect my productivity and business-related apps. This ability to have quick-changing personalization is awesome! The phone costs $129.99 on a two-year contract (after $100 mail-in rebate, of course).
Here’s my HTC Aria video overview, take a peek: