Before today, AT&T was lagging badly in the Android department. All of AT&T's major competitors have already launched several Android handsets, with many of them serving as flagship smartphones. AT&T's lone Android device, the Motorola Backflip, was more of a backflop due to some software limitations imposed by AT&T. So it's with welcome arms that we greet today's news.

AT&T and HTC announced the Aria, a compact Android handset. The Aria will run Android 2.1 Eclair at launch (neither AT&T nor HTC said if/when it would be upgraded to Android 2.2 Froyo). It will also have the latest version of HTC's Sense user interface overlay. The newest version of Sense has some great usability enhancements and features, such as the seven-panel home screen with pinch-to-zoom, FriendStream social networking, and enhanced media software.

As for the hardware, the Aria is a tiny little thing. It has a 3.2-inch WVGA TFT-LCD display that uses capacitive technology. Based on the smaller screen size, it appears as though the Aria is replacing the Hero line, which also came with 3.2-inch displays. Under the hood powering all the action is a Qualcomm 700MHz processor. Sure, it's no 1GHz Snapdragon, but it's better than the 525MHz processors that were in some of HTC's earliest Android handsets.

It will work with AT&T's 3G network and can access the network at speeds up to 7.2Mbps (on the download). It is packed with radios, including Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, GPS, Wi-Fi and it even has a digital compass.

The Aria has a five-megapixel camera with LED flash and autofocus. It will record video, though not at high-def resolution. It will be boxed with a 2GB microSD card, and can support cards up to 32GB. The Aria also uses HTC's newer optical mouse, which has replaced the trackball on most of its devices at this point.

The one data point that concerns me is the 1200mAh battery. That seems a bit low considering what this device will be used for. HTC was likely constrained by the smaller footprint of the Aria.

The Aria will go on sale both online and in retail stores June 20, though AT&T hasn't yet said how much it will cost.