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
Great phone
great phone for the price . holiday special of 100.00 . this is my first android phone and its great. only had it for a week now and its rooted and i have installed some cracked apps . it gets leggy fairly quickly do to all the apps running in the back ground so i suggest you get a good app to kill or freeze them ...
awsome!!
I love this phone! It is perfect for what i need and want a smartphone to do without having to go to the big carriers and gettign a long term contract. contracts are for suckers! This android phone rocks! I had another android phone that was the sprint moment. i did love the fact that it had a better camera and flash on it but i had to restart that thing 3 times a day!
PRO: good battery, ease of use, good feel in my hand and screen touch is nice too.
CONS: good have a better camera and a flassh- next model must hace one. i cant take good pics in not well lit areas.
Huawei great 1st start into Android in USA
Have had this phone for close to a week now.
I have a Motorola Droid . The Ascend is my wife's phone and she loves it. From my use of it you can see it is obviously slower than the Droid. Overall, it works better than many other androids I've tested, such as the cheaper Motorola androids(devour) and many horrible sprint androids that crash all the time.
PROS
- A much lighter android phone than most
- Android 2.1
- 9 home screens!
- Nice screen size and quality
- similar battery life as my Moto Droid
- Price! So cheap I may just buy another as a backup!
CONS
- No auto-focus camera and lower megapixels
- slow execution on some apps, but this is a cheap phone and expected
Great phone for the price! Not the best Android out there, but I think currently it is the best phone on CricKet Wireless at the moment!
great phone on cricket!
I just bought this phone Friday and am loving it! this is my first droid phone and I couldn't be happier. I am coming from a messsager touch (also a great phone, now my sons)I am on cricket (obviously). reception is good, calls are clear so far. I have noticed very little lag except 1. when running multiple apps that use a lot of bandwidth and 2. since this is a network dependent phone, when my signal is weak, so far only when in the giant interference monster that is my house. But to me, that is to be expected, I haven't played with any comparable phones except for the evo 4g, and that is just not a fair match up, So I could be wrong. Wanted the sanyo zio, glad I waited. the zio is $250 (cricket is now offering a mail-in rebate of $70, which makes it $179), has Android 1.6(donut), qvga and smaller screen.
Pros: 1.Price-$150,no rebates,no B.S. nuff said. 2.Android 2.1 3.just about everything bout it. 4. it does not feel "cheaply" constructed. 5. Swype technology for texting! I was worried about a virtual keyboard cuz I don't like them but when I found out it had swype, all worries faded away.
Cons: 1.when using headphones, volume needs to be louder! there is probably an app for this, i just haven't found it yet, i am sure it is out there. 2. camera is 3.2 mega, good but no flash and image capture quality could be better. 3. Battery life, but what android doesn't suck power?
Summary: If you want an android phone for a great price and no contract, this is it! buy it, seriously, buy it!
Ok Phone
This is a great phone from Metro-PCS, however the camera sucks. I enjoy using the Internet and the many apps from android. I just wished the camera was a little better.
Not so great
I have had many android phones. I actually was one of the first to have an android back Oct.2008 when T-mobile orginally came out with the product! This phone leaves alot to be desired and it seems to have a mind of its own. Although i am truly happy that the provider Cricket came out with android I mean who can beat $60.23 a month tax and all. I do though hope they come out with a android product with a sliding key board!Although between this and the Sanyo(kyocera) Zio this is the better phone.
Very pleased
For the very affordable price of 139.00 from Cricket Wireless, I am very impressed. This device is an amazing entry-level smartphone. It is perfect for people like me who do not care about games but want email, sms, twitter, facebook, and web. This is a good buy for someone who has a need for certain smart phone capabilities without the prices that Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile want to charge. At 55.00 per month, it just cannot be beat.
Good phone if you know what your doing.
I give this phone a 4 just because the battery life isn't that great and there's no 3.5MM headphone jack. otherwise it would be a 4.5 or 5 solid. When you first get this phone it is loaded with so much bloatware and is very slow and laggy. All you have to do is root the phone(via Z4 root), get superuser and titanium backup. uninstall the preloaded crapware. And the phone is as smooth as a baby's cheek. Make sure you also get a memory cleaner because this phone has limited amounts of ram so you have to maintain the speed. You can also get Launcher pro and change the appearance of the home screens and the menu.This phone isn't too far behind the higher end androids you just gotta root and make it your own.
PROS:
Bluetooth
Android OS 2.1
2MP Camera
3G EVDO/REV-A Capable
Video Record
Excellent signal strength
loud in call volume
usb/wall charger
CDMA
3.5 inch screen(same as i-phone)
small/lightweight but solid
micro SD Slot
wi-fi
trackball
screen brightness
CONS:
low speaker volume
hard keys instead of touch
flimsy slot/covers
2.5MM Headphone jack
low resolution
bad battery life
slow and laggy out of the box
cheap plastic battery cover
Overall a good solid Android phone if you root it and take care of it. I plan on upgrading to something really nice come tax season. This was my first android phone and I know what to look for now so i will get a bigger screen and thinner/nicer outer construction type of Android next year. But it definetly won't be a Huawei.
Serves the purpose
Anyone that thinks this phone was designed to be a hot andriod device is going to be disappointed. The Acsend is basic andriod device that allows users to have the funcunality of andriod with the price of a feature phone. I have the Ascend and it does everything i ask it to do. It has all the great features of an andriod with out the $500 price tag (you may pay nothing with a new signup with other carriers but try to replace it without insurance). The data is fast i don't drop calls and it may take a few second to open up apps but if you use a file manager and task manager app you can really wake this phone up. Cricket did a good job working with manufacturer to develop a phone that represents their services easy, reliable, and cheap. Good job Huawei and cricket bringing andriod to the masses
I wanted to give this phone more, but couldn't.
I'm only using this cricKet Huawei Ascend because I'm in a very broke period in life. I've had other Android and BlackBerry phones, and they're all better than this.
Pros:
Camera is decent.
Large screen.
Free, since I gave them my phone and ported my number over (that's the only reason it's as high as 3.5)
Cons:
I was quickly reminded of this carrier's lousy service.
Applications often make me have to click on "force close"
The battery life is HORRIBLE!!!!!
2.5 headset jack? Really???? And, on top of that, the sound is low, even when it's turned all the way up.
No instant Facebook Notifications (the T-Mobile Huawei Comet Android phone that I left for this phone did).
For the price, it's liveable. When I can, though, I'm getting the Boost Samsung Galaxy. The handset is more expensive BUT it's $5 cheaper per month for better coverage (plus the shrinkage thing that they offer) AND it's Samsung, which says enough for me. But maybe you'll have better luck with the Ascend than I did. Thanks for reading my review and God bless.
