AT&T starts CTIA off right by introducing five new smartphones to its Android lineup

AT&T starts CTIA off right by introducing five new smartphones to its Android lineup

At CTIA last March, AT&T stole the show by announcing its intent to purchase T-Mobile US. This time around, the news is a bit more modest in comparison but the company's still hoping to give us a bit of a shock nonetheless, introducing a litany of new handsets right on time for the holiday season. The carrier promised the release of 12 Android devices throughout the course of the year, and this week's announcement pushes the 2011 running count to 19. Not too shabby. But we're looking for quality more than quantity, so what exactly are these new devices coming out? There's five to show off after the break.
Our first contestant is the long-awaited Motorola Atrix 2, the follow-up to the original smash hit of the same name. Everything appears to be exactly what we expected, such as the inclusion of HSPA+ 21Mbps, 4.3-inch qHD 960 x 540 display, 8MP camera with front-facing cam and 1080p HD video capture. AT&T also announced the Samsung Captivate Glide, which looks to be a decently-spec'd QWERTY-packing device that comes complete with 4-inch Super AMOLED display, Android 2.3, a 1GHz dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 CPU, 21Mbps HSPA+, an 8MP rear camera with 1.3MP front-facing cam, 1080p HD video capture and HDMI playback.

Let's check out the two new members of the Android family that offer a... well, different form factor. The Samsung DoubleTime is a clamshell QWERTY device with two capacitive touch screens -- an external and an internal. We give applause all around to attempting a new form factor, though the internals are a bit on the low-end; the new handset sports a 600MHz Qualcomm CPU and comes with Android 2.2. Yes, Froyo. To be fair, we imagine the DoubleTime will sell at a rather inexpensive price point, since it seems to be aimed at first-time smartphone buyers who want a crazy new phone design. Oh, and it comes in white and pink.

Next up is the Pantech Pocket, which offers a candybar Android 2.3 experience with a unique aspect ratio. How does a 4-inch SVGA (800 x 600) display sound? All in all, the Pocket sits squarely on the mid-end, with a 1GHz CPU, 5MP rear camera with flash and HD video capture (we're assuming 720p here, though it doesn't specify). Pricing hasn't been announced yet, but we've been told to expect the Pocket showing up on November 6th. Last but not least is the AT&T Avail, a ZTE device that's tailored specifically to the carrier's prepaid lineup. This one appears to hold up its end of the no-contract bargain pretty well, using a 3.5-inch display, running Gingerbread, and offering a 5MP rear camera with 512MB of RAM.

Get all that? It's certainly a mouthful, and the full listing of specs for each of the five devices can be found in the press release below -- as well as a gallery showing. We weren't told pricing for any of the phones, and the Pantech Pocket was the only one to receive a tentative release date. We're hoping to get the skinny on the missing details as we continue through CTIA. After all, we're just getting started.

Posted in: Android,Gadget,Smartphone