Android pioneers: here are the first Android smartphones of the major manufacturers

Initially, the 3-inch device was running Android 1.5 Cupcake out of the box, but LG was committed enough to keep it up to date for some time, eventually treating it to Android 2.2 Froyo. Like most Android handsets at the time, this LG pioneer came with a retractable QWERTY keyboard. The rest of its specs were perfectly adequate for its time period - a 528MHz Snapdragon MSM7200A SoC, a 5MP camera with flash, a 3" LCD TFT display with a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels, and a 1,500mAh battery at the back. 

Motorola CLIQ / Motorola DEXT

The Motorola CLIQ (also known as the DEXT outside USA) was the first Motorola ever to run Android - in particular, this was the creme de la creme of Google's mobile OS at the time, Android 1.5 Cupcake. Unlike Motorola's products of the last several years (which employ almost-stock Android), the CLIQ came with Motorola's MOTOBLUR UI, which provided users with feeds from a number of social networks (Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, to name a few). 

Packing a 528 MHz Snapdragon chipset, some 256MB of RAM, a 3.1" display with a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels, a 5MP camera at the back, and a 1,420mAh battery, the Motorola CLIQ had all the necessary bells and whistles to step hard on the heels of its Android rivals at the time. However, it was not as affordable as some of newer Motorola's devices.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10

Here comes Sony, another major manufacturer that decided to venture into the land of Android. Officially announced in late 2009, its first Android warrior, the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10, hit the shelves in several months' time. It came with Android 1.6 Cupcake right out of the box, yet Sony kept its Android pioneer up to date for quite some time, eventually treating it to Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread.

It was not only among the larger Android troopers at the time it landed on the market, its specs sheet was pretty respectable as well - a 1GHz Snapdragon QSD8250 chipset, a large 4.1-inch display, and an 8MP camera were the main highlights of the phone. And yes, unlike Sony's smartphones of recent, the Xperia X10 had a full array of hardware navigation buttons up front - back then, there was no little to no sign of the OmniBalance design that now graces most of Sony's mobile portfolio.

Lenovo LePhone

Lenovo was relatively late for the Android party, as its utter devotion to the PC market had prevented it from releasing a smartphone until 2010, which is an interesting fact if we take into consideration that it's now among the biggest manufacturers globally, but we digress. Lenovo's first Android handset (and first smartphone altogether) was the LePhone.

Unveiled in the early 2010, this handset came with a 3.7-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels, a 1GHz Snapdragon SoC, and two 3MP cameras - one at the back and the other one at the front, taking care of your selfies before these were trendy and cool. The intriguing aspect of this phone was its detachable keyboard - a definite zinger back in the day.

Xiaomi Mi One

In the case of Xiaomi, the egg surely came before the chicken. The fledgling China-based company first developed a custom ROM for Android, MIUI, and only after prepped its own Android smartphone. Dubbed the Xiaomi Mi 1, it saw the light of day back in August 2011. Naturally, it was rocking Android with MIUI on top. Being almost as aggressively priced as Xiaomi's current batch of phones, it is safe to say that this phone in particular marked Xiaomi's crusade towards the top of the smartphone market.

Boasting a dual-core Snapdragon S3 chipset running at 1.5GHz, 1GB of RAM, an 8MP rear camera, a 2MP front-facing one, and a 1,930mAh powerbank at the rear, this 4-inch phone was surely a bargain for the 1,999 yuan (~$325) that Xiaomi asked for it.