Huawei unleashes X3 and S7 Slim Android goodies

We'd already heard news of Huawei's plans to tackle the Android smartphone market at MWC this year; what we didn't know was the Chinese mobile giant was going to take a stab at the tablet market as well.

You're no one if you don't haven't launched your own tablet - well, that appears to be the message of 2011 – so Huawei has wasted no time pulling together a rival device. Well, perhaps rival is perhaps too strong a word. The clue is in the name as the S7 Slim is a 7-incher, but sports an 800x480 pixel screen res that's more akin to a smartphone than tablet.

It's loaded with Android 2.2 Froyo – which is nothing to get excited about in this new age of Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablets – runs on a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, has a capacitive touchscreen, measures 12.5mm thick and will come in 3G and Wi-Fi flavours, launching globally in April.

The company seems more excited about its Android 2.3 X3 handset, though. Specs-wise, it carries all the goodness of Gingerbread, sports a 3.2-inch HVGA capacitive touchscreen, while photo and video capabilities are taken care of with a 3.2MP front-facing snapper and 720p HD recording. A front-facing cam means video calling is on the cards, too.

Huawei has also been quick to point out it's the thinnest phone in the 3.2-inch realm, at 11.2mm - but it's not quite the thinnest ever, that title currently sits with the newly announced Samsung's Galaxy S II. It'll be available towards the middle of the year and with pricing coming in at just under $200 USD, it looks like an affordable way to hop on the Android 2.3 bandwagon – even if you've never heard of it.