Dell Mini 3i Smart Phone Official in China, Brazil. What About U.S.?

After almost a year of rumors, Dell finally made its first smart phone official. The Mini 3i will launch in China in November and in Brazil by the end of the year. Details, including specs and pricing, are scarce right now, but we do know that the Mini 3i– just the first of handsets to come, says Dell– will run Android, a safe choice given how the OS is taking off. (One lucky Chinese blogger already did an unboxing.)

In China, the carrier will be China Mobile, and the phone will not have 3G connectivity there. However, the phone will have both 3G and Wi-Fi in Brazil, where it will be offered by the carrier Claro. We wouldn’t be surprised if that were the same Mini 3iX with 3G and Wi-Fi that showed up in FCC documents this month.

Despite the leakage of these FCC documents, Dell hasn’t confirmed U.S. availability. Rumors have suggested that AT&T will pick up Dell’s first smart phone, but neither AT&T nor Dell has confirmed this. It’s worth noting that AT&T is the only major U.S. carrier to have not announced any Android phones yet.

Although Dell made the Mini 3i official, it still left plenty to the imagination. Among the many rumors we’ve heard this year, one was that Dell shopped around a smart phone to U.S. carriers and was soundly rejected. Our guess is that Dell is working on a way for their phone to stand out here, perhaps like Motorola did with Motoblur and HTC did with Sense? One thing’s for sure: Dell won’t be able to rely on its brand alone to win over an increasingly smart phone-savvy public.