Gigabyte Android-powered smartphone spotted

Gigabyte’s maiden attempt in the world of Android-powered smartphones has been pictured, where it will still remain within the GSmart series of devices that have all along boasted the bloodline of Windows Mobile. We would think that the slow but steady demise of Microsoft’s mobile operating platform has prompted a shift in allegiance for Gigabyte, and their latest handset certainly points toward that assumption. Running on Android 1.6, this GSmart handset will come with a trackball, a 2.8″ QVGA touchscreen display, an integrated accelerator, GPS capability, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity, a 2-megapixel camera, a microSD memory card slot and Qualcomm’s ESM7225 528MHz running proceedings from within, aided by 256MB RAM and 512MB ROM. Touted to hit Russia in February, the $300 equivalent price tag seems pretty reasonable, although it is a pity to see it come with such a small display and low resolution compared to other Android handsets that are already in the market.