According to several reliable sources, Dell's very first smartphone dubbed as Mini 3i has arrived. It runs on Android-based operating system but has fairly limited amount of features.

This sleek-looking phone is said to have a 3.5-inch 360x640 touch-screen, a microSD slot, a 3 megapixel camera, a miniUSB port, Bluetooth, and a 950mAh battery. The biggest downside is its lack of 3G and Wi-Fi support.

A tech site named "Cloned In China" has photos of Dell Mini 3i taken during the China Mobile Market event:

Earlier this year, CEO Michael Dell said during the Computerworld event held in Tokyo that Dell is exploring smaller-screen devices. However, as of today, Dell has not made a comment regarding the Dell Mini 3i.

Why China?

According to a report from eWEEK:

Analyst Roger Kay, president of Endpoint Technologies, says Dell’s decision to launch its first smartphone in China can have particular benefits.

“I think it’s good to do a geographically isolated launch, so you can see if you’ve got it right enough before you consider a launch in the United States,” Kay told eWEEK. It gives Dell the chance to “make any potentially embarrassing mistakes out of view” of other markets.


UPDATE:

Dell spokesman Matt Parretta had something to say about the rumored Dell Mini 3i:

"The only thing that we're confirming is that we're in product development with China Mobile," he said, "We were there as a development partner for the [Google Android-based] oPhone platform."