Huawei Ascend
Phone Scoop Review
Nov 11, 2010 by Philip Berne
The Huawei Ascend is the most affordable Android phone on the market, available without a contract on Cricket Wireless. Can it rise above its meager asking price? read review ›
User Reviews
Average Ratings
Love Android; put up with Huawei
I bought this phone knowing it was low-end. I hate its camera, it has some built-in bugs, and it has performance issues. That said, I love Android, which makes this phone bearable. I've had it since January 2011.
Pros:
- Droid 2.1 is pretty good.
- it doesn't drop calls much.
- Has a micro-SD slot, and a 2GB card.
- Touch screen is capacitive, and sensitive.
- $129 price is lowest for Droid I found w/o a contract.
- MetroPCS provides many Apps that are free.
- MetroNav acts just like a GPS.
- 9 zones on screen provides ample room for shortcuts, and you can group them as desired. I still have more desktop space than I need!
- Virtual keypad rotates automatically with the phone.
Cons:
- crappy camera, with grainy pix.
- no flash.
- Built-in Apps that often remind you they are there, like Boingo Wifi, that wants to charge you money for the same feature MetroPCS gives you free (wifi).
- Can't remove built-in Apps, unless you root kit the phone. I'm scared to do that.
- Slow downloads, if not on hotspot. Not sure if this is a Huawei or MPCS thing.
- phone feels cheap.
- back cover falls off if dropped from waist height.
- needs rubber cover to make it more secure and durable ($8-20, depending).
- Needs task killer to limit Apps when not using them, or else you get short battery life.
- Charger for car works so slowly that it seems to be charging the car sometimes, from the phone. Really! The charged % goes down sometimes when it is plugged in in the car, but never when plugged into a wall or PC outlet.
- If talk volume is turned above 1/4, your voice echoes thru the phone, and is heard on your speaker.
- Camera provides grainy pix, no matter what, and they are high-res grains. My old 1.3MP LG took better pix, which took up less memory.
- Swype works badly. It's more work than it saves, so I gave up on it after a few days.
- Virtual Keypad takes some getting used to, but after three months, I am fairly accustomed to texting with it.
This phone is less thnen stellar
I'm sorry but don't be fooled by some of the great reviews here. This phone is garbage. I have had many android phones and this one is by far the worse. I can say that my old G1 was more reliable. Huawei needs to step it up because if this is the kind of phone they want to launch with the awesome Android on it, they're way behind.
I know it is an entry Android phone but with all of the great phones out now, this phone lacks any reliability. It's crashy, it stalls, its slow, the camera is practically useless and the battery is crappy at best. Even the Swype keyboard lags like a horse carriage.
The only great thing i can say about this phone is that it has a nice screen.
I say pass and wait until Cricket comes out with a faster phone especially not from Huawei.
Ok
When I first got this phone without any applications, it was my dream phone. By the time I installed 5 applications, one of the slowest phones ever. The phone freezes often, applications crash VERY often, the phone would start typing on its own, the keyboard freezes, internet pages take 1-5 minutes to load up, and a whole lot of other stuff. One time, it stayed on the home screen and I couldn't open an application. All i could do was look at the screen. When you try to type a text message, it would tell you that it has crashed. Most applications that you download slow the phone down TWICE as fast. It's just an ok phone. All i would use it for is to call someone. Overall, its ok for performing the actions of non-smartphones.
dont botter
im amazed this phone has so many good reviews
this phone really sucks i work on a metropcs store in florida and let me tell you i start selling it but after almost everybody came with complaints about how slow and retarded it is, i just stopped. its true it sucks! its mad slow when you press anything it takes from 3 to 5 secs to process it. people who buy this phone from me go with the warning of how it sucks. theres a new version that its supposed to be 2.2 but so far is the same based on the ones ive activated
pros:
good phone for kids 7 - 13 and people 50 up (no offense)
cons:
everything!
Emotions High, Emotions Low
I'll just get straight to the point with this one.
Pros:
Large display, touch screen, charges fast, nice and heavy. Worth the price-esp. with the rebate, bright display as well. Headset/microphone comes with it (although borderline obsolete in this day and age).
Cons:
Slow as molasses depending on where you're at, camera sucks and blows at the same time, headset jack isn't standard size, but for $100.00, what more than you expect?
I like it, but it needs more work. I still have it as a backup for all my contacts.
Decent phone for the price
It's cheap but good for a patient user. If you're a 15-yr old chick, don't bother with this.
It requires a little maintenance on a regular basis, needing a good utility app to clear your memory and kill tasks. I strongly recommend "Memory Booster" from the market, which has a task mgr built into it's memory cleaner. Use this once a day or after heavy activity, and this will wipe the system, keeping the phone sharp and responsive.
It does help if you root the phone, as well. There isn't a lot of space on the phone itself, and if your carrier packages in a whole bunch of garbage applications like boingo wifi, mocospace, etc you'll want to root the phone to uninstall these space-wasters.
Root + memory booster = great phone
Out of the box, most people will dislike this one.
I may not sound like it but I love it!
Great Phone, needs some adjustments.
This is my first Android phone, and i got it used. I think it is one of Cricket's bests phones. I think it's really cool, it can do more than i expected. It is worth the price, and plan price as well.
PROS:
--big display
--loud volume for music and ringers
--swype keyboard
--plenty of free apps on Android market
--durable construction
--nice graphics already built in
--comes with 2gb memory card (Cricket)
--lots of memory (imo)
--very customizable
--responsive touch screen
--very detailed options for contacts
--can upload pics right to Facebook
--wifi
--bluetooth
--micro usb charger
--HD Youtube videos, plays great
CONS:
--the camera sucks. if you enjoy taking pics, this is not the phone for you. no flash, and unless you are outside in broad daylight, you can't take a decent pic.
--2.5 mm headphone jack. totally sucks. the volume is not loud enough when you plug in earphones, even with the volume all the way up. MAJOR disappointment.
--drops data connection too much. really annoying. maybe that's a signal issue (Cricket)
I love it
I love my phone. I it's a nice beginner android at a great price.
Pros
-Price
-Convience
-Prepaid (no bills)
-Unlimited data
-easy to use
-customizable
Con's
-No 2.2 yet
-NO Flash for the camera
This is the worst phone I have ever owned
This phone has been nothing but a headache from day one.
1. It is so slow it's ridiculous. Sometimes it takes a few seconds to respond when you tap the display. Sometimes it doesn't respond at all. When you're typing text messages, you have to wait after each tap to make sure it registered.
2. It freezes up constantly.
3. It never automatically connects to wifi networks on its own. I have to re-login to my home wifi every time I walk in the door.
4. It takes 3 to 5 seconds to actually start placing a call when you press call.
5. The piece of crap headphone jack doesn't work with 4-pole plugs (like all other phones do). So, I had to order one from Hong Kong because they're so hard to find, and it's going to take a month to receive it.
6. The volume of the phone when using the headphone jack is too low at maximum volume. You have to download an app like Poweramp in order to boost it up a little, but it's still not enough.
7. It has the worst battery life of any phone I've ever had. I haven't made it through a full day yet without the battery running out.
Do not buy this phone. You will regret it.
Lags too much, hard to text at times
Nice phone, big screen but boy is it slow. Even simple things are hard to do such as contact calling (takes too long to load contacts) and texting (phone gets stuck in the middle of words). I want the Indulge but it's expensive. I hear LG Optimus M is much better.
