At CES 2010, AT&T announced it would introduce an HTC Android phone this year. True to its word, it just unveiled the HTC Aria. Similar to the HTC HD Mini in design, the Aria runs on Android 2.1 with HTC's Sense user interface and includes a good deal of features for its size. It's certainly not the most powerful Android device on the market--power users might want to wait for the recently announced Samsung Captivate--and we're upset that AT&T has once again blocked third-party app downloads. However, the Aria is a solid midrange smartphone that's certainly better than the Motorola Backflip, AT&T's other Android offering. The HTC Aria costs $129.99 with a two-year contract and after a $100 mail-in rebate. We think it should cost a bit less--$100 would be the sweet spot--but its price isn't unreasonable.

Though the smartphone design trend appears to be moving toward "bigger is better," the HTC Aria is representing for the little guys. At just 4.6 inches tall by 2.3 inches wide by 0.5 inch thick and weighing 4.6 ounces, the Aria stands in stark contrast to the HTC Evo 4G . While you might not get that ginormous screen that the Evo has, the Aria's petite size makes it easy to slip into a pants pocket and more comfortable to hold as phone.

The Aria's screen measures 3.2-inches diagonally and has a 320x480-pixel HVGA resolution. It's not the biggest or sharpest display we've ever seen, but it's clear, bright, and surprisingly adequate for use in most tasks. The Aria's capacitive touch screen supports the pinch-to-zoom multitouch gesture, so if you have any problems seeing something on the display, you can easily magnify it. The only issue we ran into with the display is using its onscreen keyboard as it's pretty cramped, particularly in portrait mode; however, with the built-in accelerometer, you can rotate the phone and use the landscape keyboard that has slightly more room.