Huawei G300 Android Phone
So anyone who knows me, also knows that I like Android phones and especially like budget Android phones with good features.
I previously had the ZTE Blade (also known as the Orange San Francisco), this was the ultimate budget Android phone, encompassing relatively good components into a cheap phone. The ZTE Blade also caused a bit of a phenomenon, it was easy to root and lots of developers began creating custom ROMs for it… even Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS), which wasn’t even designed to work on the hardware. There is still a large developer base for the ZTE Blade but after owning the phone for a year and a half (pretty much from the beginning), I felt that it was time for a change.
In stepped the Huawei G300 Android Phone. This is potentially the next ZTE Blade. It is gathering a lot of interest in the developer scene, partly due to its £100 price tag and that Huawei have announced that this Android 2.3 device will be receiving a full ICS rom upgrade in the summer.
I’m sure by now that you are wondering what is so special about this phone, well there isn’t one thing but a number of little things that you think ‘Oh, wow – considering the price’. Here is a comparison of the features of the Huawei G300, ZTE Blade and the Apple iPhone 4S:
| Feature |
Huawei G300 |
ZTE Blade
|
Apple iPhone 4S
|
| 2G Network | GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 | GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900 | GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900CDMA 800 / 1900 |
| 3G Network | HSDPA 900 / 2100 | HSDPA 900 / 2100 | HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 |
| Dimensions | 122.5 x 63 x 10.5 mm | 116 x 56.5 x 11.8 mm | 115.2 x 58.6 x 9.3 mm |
| Weight | 140 g | 110 g | 140 g |
| Display Type | TFT capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors | AMOLED or LCD capacitive touchscreen, 256K colors | LED-backlit IPS TFT, capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors |
| Size | 480 x 800 pixels, 4.0 inches (~233 ppi pixel density) | 480 x 800 pixels, 3.5 inches (~267 ppi pixel density) | 640 x 960 pixels, 3.5 inches (~330 ppi pixel density) |
| Multitouch | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Alert Types | Vibration, MP3 ringtones | Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones | Vibration, propriety ringtones |
| Loudspeaker | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 3.5mm Jack | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Memory Card Slot | microSD, up to 32 GB | microSD, up to 32GB, 2GB included | No |
| Internal Storage | 2.5 GB storage | 150 MB storage, 512 MB RAM, 512 MB ROM | 16/32/64 GB storage, 512 MB RAM |
| GPRS | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| EDGE | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Speed | HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps | HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps | HSDPA, 14.4 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.8 Mbps |
| WLAN | Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot | Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, Wi-Fi hotspot (Android 2.2) | Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot |
| Bluetooth | Yes, with A2DP | Yes, v2.1 with A2DP, EDR | Yes, v4.0 with A2DP |
| USB | Yes, microUSB v2.0 | Yes, microUSB v2.0 | Yes, v2.0 |
| Primary Camera | 5 MP, 2592х1944 pixels, autofocus, LED flash | 3.15 MP, 2048×1536 pixels, autofocus | 8 MP, 3264×2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash |
| Features | Geo-tagging | Geo-tagging | Touch focus, geo-tagging, face detection, HDR |
| Video | Yes | Yes | Yes, 1080p@30fps, LED video light, video stabilization, geo-tagging |
| Secondary | No | No | Yes, VGA, 480p@30fps, videocalling over Wi-Fi only |
| OS | Android OS, v2.3 (Gingerbread) | Android OS, v2.1 (Eclair), upgradable to v2.2 | iOS 5, upgradable to iOS 5.1 |
| Sensors | Accelerometer, proximity, compass | Accelerometer, proximity, compass | Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass |
| Messaging | SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM | SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, IM | iMessage, SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email |
| Browser | HTML | WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML | HTML (Safari) |
| Radio | Stereo FM radio with RDS | Stereo FM radio with RDS | No |
| GPS | Yes, with A-GPS support | Yes, with A-GPS support | Yes, with A-GPS support and GLONASS |
| Java | Yes, via Java MIDP emulator | Yes, via Java MIDP emulator | No |
| Colours | Black, Silver | Black, White, Grey | Black, White |
| Other Features | – SNS integration – MP3/WAV/eAAC+ player – MP4/H.263/H.264 player – Organizer – Document viewer – Photo viewer/editor – Voice memo/dial – Predictive text input |
– SNS integration – MP4/H.264/H.263 player – MP3/WAV/eAAC+ player – Google Search, Maps, Gmail – YouTube, Google Talk, Picasa integration – Organizer – Voice memo – Predictive text input |
– MicroSIM card support only – Scratch-resistant glass back panel – Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic – Siri natural language commands and dictation – iCloud cloud service – Twitter integration – TV-out – Google Maps – Audio/video player and editor – Image editor – Voice command/dial |
| Battery Type | Standard battery, Li-Ion 1500 mAh | Standard battery, Li-Ion 1250 mAh | Standard battery, Li-Po 1432 mAh |
| Stand-By | Up to 320 hours (2G); Up to 350 hours (3G) | Up to 192 h | Up to 200 h (2G) / Up to 200 h (3G) |
| Talk Time | Up to 320 mins (2G); Up to 300 mins (3G) | Up to 4 h | Up to 14 h (2G) / Up to 8 h (3G) |
| Price | About 110 EUR | About 170 EUR | About 460 EUR |
I would just like to point out that I do not believe that this phone is a competitor to the iPhone 4S but at a quarter of the price, it certainly handles itself well.
I’ve been using the phone now for about a month and enjoy using it everytime I pick it up. There have been reports that the touchscreen is a little unresponsive sometimes but to be honest I haven’t really noticed it. I find it quite reponsive compared to the ZTE Blade, the touch sensitive menu buttons at the bottom of the screen do tend to be a little bit of a pain but only when the screen starts to power save. I think the fact that the screen has Gorilla glass, at only £100 is amazing.
Overall, I’m extremely pleased with my purchase and am actually quite pleased that I didn’t pay four times as much for an iPhone.