Introduction, Positioning

I'm a big fan of small touchscreens, this is why my personal phone is Nokia 5530, which I just had to buy once I got my hands on it shortly after its release. It was small, light, touchscreen and, on paper, had everything I was looking for. While I have experienced more frustration with it than with any phone I have ever owned (it basically serves as an alarm clock now), I kept on dreaming about a similar size touchscreen with something more advanced than Symbian inside, Android for example. HTC Aria comes very close to that phone of my dreams, but, besides Aria working only on AT&T, a couple of minor deficiencies keep me from going with it.



Before we get there, let's take a look at what competition Aria is stuck up against – other small touchscreen (3.2" LCD or less) smartphones. Let's start with AT&T network itself – Aria is priced at $129.99 with a 2-year contract or $379.99 without one. For the same amount of money or less you can get yourself a Palm Pre ($49.99/$399.99) or a Sony Ericsson Vivaz ($79.99/$429.99). As you can see, the competition within AT&T network uses other OS (WebOS and Symbian respectively) and is cheaper with a contract, but more expensive without one.