Over the last couple of years, Vizio has entrenched itself as a serious player in HDTVs, pumping out richly-featured yet affordable home entertainment centerpieces. This year, they're entering the mobile game too and have announced their first smartphone effort: the Vizio VIA Phone.
Sporting a sleek-looking slate body, the handset will be running Android (no word on which version). A custom UI sits on top (at least, based on the press photos), which is consistent with the company's further announcements that they want compatible users experiences running across all their devices -- from web-infused HDTVs to smartphones to...gasp...tablets.
Details of the VIA Phone include a 4-inch capacitive touchscreen display, a 5. megapixel camera in the rear (with 720p video), a front-facing low-res camera for video chat, aGPS, WiFi, 3G with HSPA, Bluetooth 2.1, HDMI out (it can process 720p videos) and microSD card expansion. An unspecified 1GHz CPU will control the action.
Since this will be tied in with their HDTVs and Blu-ray players, the phone will come with a preinstalled remote app and a built-in IR blaster, in case you prefer changing tracks and channels on your home entertainment system with the same device you'll be sending text messages on. There's Market access, as well, along with all the usual Android favors.
Just in case you're interested, the Vizio VIA Phone was announced along with a Vizio VIA Tablet and a new line of HDTVs and BD players running Google TV. No pricing or release dates were given, but all the goods will be on hand at CES later in the week.
[via Engadget]
