u8230
Latest
Huawei U8230 quick hands-on
Some of you may be familiar with the Huawei U8230's corporate cousin, the U8220, sold on T-Mobile UK as the Pulse -- and it comes as no surprise that there's very little different in the new model. Like the Pulse, the U8230 features a 3.2 megapixel cam paired with a secondary VGA piece up front, quadband EDGE / triband HSPA, and a 3.5-inch display. The screen's decent and the system seems snappy enough (for a virgin demo unit, anyway), but the navigation buttons below are all placed along a single piece of plastic with mechanical switches underneath. It's an unsettling, vaguely crappy-feeling setup, but not a deal-breaker by any stretch -- particularly if it holds up over the course of a couple years' use. We doubt we'll ever see this one stateside, but frankly, we'd like to see Huawei work more with US carriers -- this would make a great free-on-contract device around these parts. %Gallery-82537%
Huawei U8230 (in other words, the one that isn't the Pulse) gets reviewed
Huawei's on the cusp of making a pretty serious Android push in Europe with the recent introduction of its Pulse on T-Mobile and this little puppy, the U8230, which -- let's be honest, is shaping up to be little more than a Pulse remix for countries where T-Mobile doesn't do business. In fact, it seems to be the same thing from a hardware perspective (right down to the 3.5-inch HVGA display and unfortunate 2.5mm headphone jack), so you can almost look at as a prime application of HTC's classic strategy of re-skinning devices for different carriers and markets around the world. Anyhow, PointGPhone has had a chance to screw around with a proper U8230, coming away with the conclusions you might expect -- it's an interesting play at the right price point, but with that sluggish 528MHz performance, limited on-board storage, and inexplicably missing 3.5mm jack, you might be better off looking elsewhere. Not to say we have an option in the States, anyhow.
Huawei starting its Android march with T-Mobile 'Pulse' in Europe?
Huawei's been talking up its impending play for a share of the Android pie for most of this year, but where's the beef? There's nothing in the market just yet, but that might be about to change with details on a so-called "Pulse" for some of T-Mobile's European networks in the coming months. The Chinese manufacturer specializes in the value segment -- a side effect of its brand not really commanding any premium outside Asia -- and the Pulse could be a big winner there thanks to an unlocked price said to be around €250 ($356). That's an impressively low figure in light of the supposed 3.5-inch display, full HSPA, GPS (of course), WiFi, and an HVGA display like all proper Android sets of the moment. Dutch site tweakers.net says this is all confirmed by way of a retailer that pegs the device for T-Mobile Netherlands in early October, which means the Heros and Galaxys of the world have precious little time to capitalize before these guys swoop in and undercut 'em all by a few bucks.
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.
