While AT&T only made general announcements of upcoming BREW-powered phones recently, the HTC Smart is one of the new contenders to keep an eye on.
When we played with the new HTC Tattoo a while back, we found a mass-market all-touch phone that made sense. It seems like HTC has ignited the idea of running HTC Sense UI on more mass-market all-touch phones as well.
Unlike the Tattoo, which is powered by Android, the HTC Smart will use Qualcomm''s BREW OS for third-party applications though. When it comes to specifications, the HTC Smart will not compete with high-end smartphones in raw power. However, there should be plenty of room for app storage for such a phone, no less than 256 MB RAM, pretty much competing with high-end smartphones in that regard.
When we checked out the HTC Tattoo, its sleek form factor combined with an accurate 2.8-inch QVGA touchscreen turned out to be the major selling-point. That''s also how the HTC Smart aims to attract the crowds, and HTC''s Sense UI freshens up and simplifies daily usage of an all-touch phone in a good way.
The HTC Smart also sports a 3.5mm audio jack, 3-megapixel camera and is claimed to provide a talk time of up to 6 hours on 3G networks. There''s no word on specific availability or price point yet.
It''s worth noting that AT&T recently announced that HTC and others will release BREW-powered phones to AT&T customers in late 2010 or early 2011, meaning that it could be just a matter of time before AT&T starts offering the HTC Smart or a similar phone.