The rumours were true. Laptop manufacturer Dell has finally thrown their hat into the smartphone ring, with a handset dubbed the Mini 3i, revealed by China Mobile today.

Listen closely, as the science part of the Dell Mini 3i is more than a little confusing… The Mini 3i is powered by Android, albeit a China Mobile-modified version named OMS.

The Mini 3i also is not 3G-powered as the name might subtly imply, but rather a 2G GSM with Bluetooth connectivity. That means no Wi-Fi, nor any support for the Chinese equivalent, WAPI.

Technical specifications beyond the dearth of connectivity are slightly more optimistic, as the Mini 3i has a 3.5″ capacitive touchscreen, with a 360 x 640 resolution.

Interestingly, the Mini 3i is without keys on the front of the device, although fortunately for Google’s button-dependent software, China Mobile’s reskin is much more iPhone-y, making for a decent touch experience consisting of the familiar grid of icons to activate programs.

The camera is a 3 megapixel LED-flash packing affair, whilst storage is handled by a microSD slot secreted on the Mini 3i’s person. A small saving grace is the addition of GPS support, but all in all, the Dell Mini 3i is a decidedly more mid range effort than the world was expecting.

Another ray of light comes in the form of a China Mobile app store offering all manner of games, themes and videos, except that without a fast connection to hook up and download, it could make for a painful online experience.

If this was the handset that Dell was showing to Western networks earlier in the year, then it comes as little surprise that they were sent back to the drawing board for a less than stellar entry to the crowded mobile marketplace.

Whether this phone will see the light of day outside of China is unknown at present, but if the Palm Pre’s charm offensive (remember that one?) was not enough to draw people’s gaze from the iPhone 3GS, the Dell Mini 3i might not even serve as a bump in the road to Apple’s dominance.

Source: GSMArena

With all the major lappy manufacturers getting their toes wet (or in Acer/Asus‘ cases diving straight in!) in the mobile phone market, it was a strange anomaly that the number 1 – Dell – had nothing.

Murmurs came and went, there rumours that their initial Dellphone was so dull that it was prematurely ditched, but there was still no sign of it…until now.

There’s the Dell logo on a phone in the above pic, it’s running Android, and it’s suspiciously lacking in buttons, like a shiny black egg (and not unlike the Palm Pre!).

Note the Chinese characters at the bottom right, could they be using the same software that is powering Lenovo’s oPhone?

Either way, a surprising initial entry for the American manufacturer. No Windows Mobile QWERTY slider? Perhaps this is just one device from their opening salvo, but it is all a lot more interesting than I had expected from Dell either way.

Will they be able to customise it enough to stand out from the phalanx of Android phones coming in the second half of ‘09? We’ll see.