HTC GSM Touch Screen Cell Phones: A Review of the HTC Aria

The HTC Aria debuted on AT&T on June 20, 2010. It is the first Android phone I have ever owned – not due to a lack of interest, but more so because I am stuck with AT&T for service and every other GSM Android phone that is available in the U.S. is basically garbage.

I have been using the Aria for a few days now, and I have to say I really like it a lot. Well, to clarify, I’d have to revise that to say that I really like Android a lot and that the Aria is a great little phone. It’s quick and responsive (more so than the HTC Hero, from what I can tell) and the screen looks great, although it is somewhat small compared to other phones on the market. For example, the HTC Aria, like the Hero, has a 3.2 inch screen, which is a bit smaller than the iPhone’s screen which is 3.5 inches. When you hold the Aria up next to Sprint’s HTC Evo, it looks like a complete dwarf. Its like the David and Goliath of cell phones.

Frankly, I like the smaller form factor on the Aria and my only complaint about its size is that the keyboard is slightly cramped and small, and in portrait mode it is borderline unusable although I seem to be getting a little more used to it as time goes on. There is no physical keyboard, so you have to interact with everything through the touch screen except for four capacitive buttons on the bottom, volume rockers on the side, and the lock button on the top. The four buttons on the bottom are home, menu, back, and search, just like on the HTC Evo, Incredible, and other similar phones by HTC. There is also an optical track ball which I use almost never, although it is nice. The only time I’ve found it to be necessary is when I am editing whatever text I am writing, such as an e-mail or text message, because it is the quickest way to select any given spot in a sentence or word. If you’ve ever used an iPhone, you know that you can do this by holding your finger on the spot you want to edit – the magnifying glass pops up, and you can easily select your insertion point for the cursor. Well, unfortunately, Android doesn’t do this or anything like it yet (My Aria is running 2.1 – I am not aware if Froyo implements a feature like this or not).

Now, compared to the Hero, the Aria seems to be much quicker and more responsive. The HTC Aria has a 600mHz processor, substantially faster than the Hero’s and I would say without doubt that this makes up the majority of the reason for the difference between the two, although if I remember correctly the Aria also has slightly more memory.

OK, so the hardware in the Aria is obviously somewhat average compared to other phones coming out this year. For example, the iPhone and Evo both have 1 GHz processors and way more memory, better cameras, and just all around better hardware. However, the Aria’s strength is that it is still a VERY functional touch screen cell phone – the internet looks amazing, as it will on any android phone, and the same goes for email and other features. Meanwhile, its smaller screen and less powerful processor allow for it to retain a better battery life – I seem to be able to get 2-3 days out of it with general usage (checking and replying to e-mail very often, browsing maybe an hour a day, and of course a lot of facebook). My iPhone 3G would almost never last more than a day with similar use, and although Apple claims the battery is better in the iPhone 4, I doubt it is much better considering the blazing fast processor they put in it.

So, in conclusion, the HTC Aria is by far the best subsidized GSM HTC Android phone available, although it doesn’t touch the competition that is currently out there for touch screen cell phones on other carriers. Still, it is very capable and for the vast majority of cell phone users out there, I doubt there is anything they would want to do which the Aria couldn’t handle with ease.