Smartphone Review: Huawei IDEOS U8150

Competent and easy on the wallet

Smartphone Review: Huawei IDEOS U8150

by Trevor Tan
05:55 AM Nov 19, 2010

THE black minimalist front of this mobile phone gives no indication of its brand. Turn to its back and you will spot a Google logo and an IDEOS badge. Is this another G-Phone? No, it's Huawei's entry-level 3.5G smartphone, the IDEOS U8150 ($339, without contract).

Just slightly bigger than a credit card, gentlemen might find this phone a tad small. But the size and its weight (110g) should be ideal for ladies. While the U8150 is smooth to hold, the plasticky back cover can be slip-prone.

Using a rather modest 528MHz processor to run Android 2.2 (Froyo), the U8150 has 512MB NAND memory and 256MB RAM. Powering it up for the first time took an excruciating 71 seconds.

So don't bet on running any memory-intensive apps. Still, the phone comes pre-loaded with a pretty comprehensive suite of apps that includes Facebook, Twitter, Google Maps and Gmail. You can access up to five windows of apps (16 apps per window) on the home screen of the phone.

With Froyo, you can now run more Android apps from your microSD card (supported up to 32GB). Ironically, the phone does not support Flash, a feature that Android crows about.

The 2.8-inch QVGA 320x240 capacitive touchscreen pales in comparison to the high-resolution displays of some smartphones. The screen is fairly responsive, with occasional lags probably caused by the slow processor.

Despite the small screen size, I find myself able to type quickly without much error using the virtual Qwerty keyboard. Call reception is clear.

The still and moving images taken with the 3.2-megapixel autofocus camera are too soft and noisy for my taste. In addition, you can only shoot when a microSD card has been slotted into the phone. The card slot is located behind the battery and its lack of tactile response means you will not know if you have slotted the card in correctly.

The best part of the U8150 is its ability to turn into a wireless router via its 3G Internet connection. Speeds reach 7.2Mbps and you can connect up to eight WiFi-enabled devices simultaneously. You don't have to carry an extra device with you and you can configure the WiFi connection with a password. The resulting WiFi connection is amazingly stable when used on my mobile phone, laptop and tablet at the same time.

Note that with WiFi tethering switched on, the phone gets hot easily and the battery goes flat in three hours. Without tethering, the battery can last you two days with light surfing, messaging and phone calls.

While it might not be a Ferrari speedster, the Huawei IDEOS U8150 is a competent and wallet-friendly Toyota that humbly does the job and even offers the convenience of a portable wireless router.

Source: www.todayonline.com