Huawei U8230 Android phone officially launched at CommunicAsia

Remember that mysterious Huawei Android number from MWC? It's all grown up and officially launched as the U8230 now. Specs are still maddeningly ambiguous, however -- the only hard info we've got is a 3.5-inch touchscreen and a 1500mAH battery, which is said to be the largest battery "among Android-powered handsets currently available." Considering the only set that's really out there is the notoriously battery-poor G1, that's not such a radical claim, but we'd sure love to test this one out in person when this launches (perhaps on T-Mobile?) alongside the 2.8-inch Windows Mobile-powered C8000 later this year.

[jean @ Jun 16th 2009 11:14AM]

First Android phone released that looks decent, no QWERTY thou....

[joe23521 @ Jun 16th 2009 11:47AM]

Agreed. This would be the first device to make me consider using an Android phone, if it ever comes Stateside.

[joe23521 @ Jun 16th 2009 11:54AM]

I'm SO glad they went away from the iPhone clone look saw in the first rendition. Good on them.

[Anonymoose @ Jun 16th 2009 11:08AM]

wow, that looks nice. about time people realized conan is better than leno.

[UnKool @ Jun 16th 2009 5:23PM]

I see what u did there

[Jakob @ Jun 16th 2009 11:09AM]

"Considering the only set that's really out there is the notoriously battery-poor G1, that's not such a radical claim"
Perhaps in the US, not in the world.

[Shyam D @ Jun 16th 2009 11:36AM]

Yah, Nilay is not too capable of understanding this concept of outside the US.

[InnocentSmith @ Jun 16th 2009 12:19PM]

Yep what's up with this statement? HTC Magic comes to mind... there are probably other Android phones out there too.

[ddub @ Jun 16th 2009 4:46PM]

really? couldn't tell. But ok the Magic is out? didn't know that. What else?

[TareX @ Jun 16th 2009 11:14AM]

1) It looked significantly better in the renders (why is the screen suddenly smaller)
2) No qwerty = Not for me.

PS - It's going to be HOT.

[Phineas J. Whoopie @ Jun 16th 2009 11:51AM]

If this has a media processor and some kick ass specs, I'd ditch my G1 and its physical keyboard for the upgrade.

A physical keyboard is definitely nice, but unless you're writing novels, not a necessity IMO.

The phone looks gorgeous.

[Nick Soapes @ Jun 16th 2009 2:29PM]

want!

[damiaking @ Jun 16th 2009 11:18AM]

look good to me lets hope is true

[andres @ Jun 16th 2009 11:27AM]

i would buy this over the iphone

[webran61 @ Jun 16th 2009 11:44AM]

Yeah. You just hate Apple 'cause iPhone RULEZ!

I can haz copy and paste, yay!

[PS3guy @ Jun 16th 2009 11:27AM]

I'm so tired of touchscreen phone. yawnnnnnnnnnnn

[fistpittingnork @ Jun 16th 2009 11:35AM]

They still sell Nokia 3315s at flea markets, I'm sure.

Although I'm not sure how easy it is to find SF 49ers faceplates and blinking antennas anymore.

[Serryl @ Jun 16th 2009 11:29AM]

Reminds me a bit of a keyboard-less TouchPro 2. Very nice. Assuming that this is a Google-branded Android phone, I'd say it definitely beats the Magic/MyTouch in the looks department. It's not that I dislike the chin; I'm a fan of the Dream and upcoming HTC Hero. I just think the Magic looks sloppy.

[chefgon_ign @ Jun 16th 2009 11:31AM]

The Magic is quite possibly the nicest looking phone on the market right now.

[Victor+ @ Jun 16th 2009 11:50AM]

I personally think that the Magic may appear to look not-so-elegant as compared to the HTC Hero, but I guess there's a trade-off between looks and ergonomics. Having felt the actual device, the Magic feels really nice and fitting in the hand, and the Hero appears to be far thinner and 'sharper' at the chin making it less comfortable, but I guess that's just my personal preference.

[chefgon_ign @ Jun 16th 2009 1:17PM]

I haven't seen a Hero in person, but in pictures it definitely looks hideous. The software UI looks awesome, but the hardware itself is angular in all the wrong ways.

[M. @ Jun 16th 2009 11:29AM]

this + qwerty keyboard = perfection!

That is if it has all the wireless connections one would expect from a smartphone, wifi, bluetooth, HSDPA/UPA etc.

[fistpittingnork @ Jun 16th 2009 11:30AM]

Awesome, I just mentioned this phone yesterday.

Although I like the first renditions better, this still looks like a nice phone. With Cupcake, I can live without the physical keyboard. Can't wait to hear more details.

[chefgon_ign @ Jun 16th 2009 11:30AM]

Where's the Home button? I see Menu and Back, but without a Home button this phone isn't going to be compatible with a lot of apps. Of course, you won't know which apps those are until you launch them and find out that you have to reboot your phone to get back out of them again.

[jay jay @ Jun 16th 2009 11:36AM]

it's right next to the trackball.

[chefgon_ign @ Jun 16th 2009 1:20PM]

I see "Menu" on the left and "Back" on the right.

Of course, it is technically possible to configure Android to use the End button to return to the home screen instead of sleeping the phone, so if there's a separate Sleep button then maybe they're taking that route. Still not perfect, because you'd lose the Alt+Tab style application switching that you get by long pressing on the Home button, but at least it would be compatible with everything.

[iDavey @ Jun 16th 2009 1:33PM]

You know there could be buttons on the side also. Or the top.

[iDavey @ Jun 16th 2009 1:34PM]

You know there could be buttons on the side. Or the top.

[Suomaa @ Jun 16th 2009 11:31AM]

That would be great with Symbian and not with that limited toy OS. There's hope since Huawei is Symbian Foundation member.

[chefgon_ign @ Jun 16th 2009 11:33AM]

Symbian and WinMo are awesome as long as you're more worried about raw functionality than you are about your phone not sucking.

[dan2600 @ Jun 16th 2009 11:36AM]

BUT?!?!!??!?!!?!?!?1??!!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?


will it blend?

[joe23521 @ Jun 16th 2009 11:51AM]

Why don't you throw in a "first" too, while you're at it?

[nonstatic @ Jun 16th 2009 11:48AM]

The samsung i7500/Galaxy has a 1500mAH battery. launching any day now at O2 Germany.

[Mark @ Jun 16th 2009 11:49AM]

I like the design of the phone looks really nice and Android is the shit. I hope it has a 3.5mm headphone jack and good specs.

[bachviet @ Jun 16th 2009 12:10PM]

IMHO it looks better than the Samsung i7500.

Depending in the price and specs, I might get this instead of the Samsung i7500.

[BlurMagic @ Jun 16th 2009 1:38PM]

Make that two of us. This phone is absolutely gorgeous.

[lferguson @ Jun 16th 2009 12:21PM]

Give me this phone. Give it to me with Sprint service. Give it to me for $199 (WITH NO REBATE!!) and I'll gladly sign up for another two years and may even give a part of my liver.

Chance Stevens

[Siddharth @ Jun 16th 2009 12:41PM]

If its specs are as good as its looks in addition to being loaded with android.. beware iPhone.. beware..

[ryan @ Jun 16th 2009 1:06PM]

blurb says it runs the chrome browser. what?

[chefgon_ign @ Jun 16th 2009 1:23PM]

A Google rep once referred to the Android browser as "Chrome Lite" off-hand in a conversation, referring to the fact that they were both based on webkit, and a lot of places have adopted that name as official for some reason.

[ryan @ Jun 16th 2009 2:02PM]

oh that's a shame, a full featured chrome browser would have made me crap myself.

[iDavey @ Jun 16th 2009 1:46PM]

I want this phone sooooooooooooooooo badly!!!!!!

[J-St@r @ Jun 16th 2009 1:57PM]

WOW this phone looks HOTT!!!

[Zole2112 @ Jun 16th 2009 2:25PM]

With the new CyanogenMod Cupcake software my G1 no longer has a notoriously short battery life, in fact I can get almost 3 days out of 1 charge with the original battery!

[justin @ Jun 16th 2009 2:28PM]

usually im a physcial kayboard kinda guy but thats because android was only offered on 3.2 inch screens for the most part,but being as this has a 3.5" screen and how good im getting at the virtual keyboard typing in the G1's touch screen, I think with that screen real estate and those looks I could very esaily make the switch to all touch, especially since the HTC t9 And compact qwerty (suretype) are easily portable to google keyboard driven phones... Hopefully the Internal are nice..
As far as specs Id like to see:
600mhz processor
at least 8gb of internal storage Plus Sd card expansion
3.5mm headphone jack
GPS
WIFI
Tmobile 3g
Auto focus on the 3.2mp cam
512mb ram/rom


im prob buying this regardless if it rocks tmobile 3g but in any case I would like to see the above specs..

[Marc @ Jun 16th 2009 2:57PM]

Finally a decent (good) looking android phone. Screw you HTC.

[Alex @ Jun 16th 2009 5:18PM]

Why don't they just release the phone?
It has been so long, G1 is the only android phone on market.

[deinfinityx @ Jun 16th 2009 10:21PM]

True But there is at least three android's coming to tmobile by the fall, the mytouch go, the bigfoot, and the galxay, all of them look awesome.

[OLight @ Jun 18th 2009 10:16AM]

I don't have a personal experience upon which to base a judgment, but I'd be curious to hear feedback from this excerpt from the April 2, 2009 issue of The Economist:

In Britain Huawei, a Chinese firm, is one of the main contractors in an...effort to upgrade the telephone system. Huawei’s boss is a former Chinese army officer, and Britain’s spies fret that network equipment that will be used by firms, households and government departments could come with hidden “backdoors” that would let Chinese snoopers evade easy detection. In 2008 America’s Congress blocked Huawei’s plans to buy 3com, another computer-equipment firm, citing similar security worries.