Well looks like the rumours and speculation turned out true! Dell really is developing a smartphone for the Chinese market (confirmed by Yahoo Tech).

The Dell Mini3i, as pictured courtesy of 163.com, features a 3.5-inch 360 x 640 capacitive touchscreen, a 3MP camera, microSD slot, Bluetooth, but lacks WiFi/WAPI and 3G making this a purely 2G GSM phone running Android-based Open Mobile System (OMS to it’s friends). Not something that’s going to set the mobile world alight, but you might find a relatively cheap smartphone running a modified Android operating system might do well, especially in the largest cellular subscriber market in the world.

I wouldn’t hold your breath to see this anywhere outside of China, but it will be interesting to see how Dell does in the Chinese market and whether it might dip it’s toes in other worldwide markets in the next 5 years.

Couple more images after the break.

[Via Engadget via Cloned in China]