When it was initially announced, we thought of the HTC Aria as an AT&T exclusive device. That said, there’s really nothing special about the mid-range Android smartphone (and why some carrier would want to exclusively offer it), we just thought it is specially made to sing along AT&T 3G network’s 3G frequencies. Plus, there’s the HTC Legend (aka Hero 2) which is pretty much the same phone (specs wise) as the Aria. But what do you know – we were wrong.
First it was announced in Taiwan and now the Aria is heading to Australia, where Optus got the “same as AT&T” exclusive distribution rights.
From the press release, we learn that Optus plans to offer the phone for free on a $49/month two-year contract, which is a good deal.
As you may know, the Aria gets its power from a 600 MHz CPU, while sporting such things as a 3.2-inch 320×480 pixels capacitive touchscreen, 384 MB of RAM and 512 MB of ROM, HSDPA and WiFi connectivity, 5-megapixel camera, Android 2.1, 1200mAh battery and a microSD memory card slot…