Huawei

Huawei and "premium" don't often appear in the same sentence when you're looking at the company's smartphone history in the U.S. Yet, the unlocked, global version of the Huawei Ascend P1 offers a glimmer of hope in its eye-catching black-on-white design, its 4.3-inch Super AMOLED screen, and higher-reaching camera specs.

While the P1 is a good step, Huawei will still face plenty of competition at this level, including from the HTC One X and Samsung Galaxy S III, global front-runners with quad-core chips in their international models, excellent screens, and highly competitive cameras.… Read more

Remember the Huawei Ascend P1 from CES? Well, it looks like it could be coming to the U.S., thanks to a recent FCC filing.

Its ultrathin -- 0.27 inch thin, no joke -- and stylized white-on-black design is the Ascend P1's beauty that matches the brawn of its dual-core processor, 8-megapixel camera, and a cutting-edge Android Ice Cream Sandwich OS. I haven't been able to give the phone a thorough examination yet, but based on the features list and what we saw in January, I'd go so far as to call it the Huawei superphone … Read more

I still see kids in the Tokyo subway actually using payphones (remember those?) to call their parents as they make their way home from school. Telecommunications giant NTT DoCoMo seems to be launching this just-for-junior Android-powered smartphone to convince them to knock it off.

The HW-01D (PDF) comes in yellow, blue, or pink. It's powered by Android, has a 2.0-inch QVGA screen with a 240x320 resolution.

The browser and phone can be restricted to parent-set contacts and sites.

It has a 100-decibel alarm to ward off nasty people, GPS, and can send SMS texts so you can keep … Read more

NEW ORLEANS--Huawei issued forth no formal product announcement at CTIA 2012, but I did find this new Android smartphone quietly sitting at Huawei's booth.

The Ascend Y200 is part of Huawei's latest strategy in naming families of phones. The "Y" stands for youth, which also typifies mass market, entry-level phones with smaller screens, slower processors, and fewer camera extras.

An Android Gingerbread phone, the Ascend Y200 has a 3.5-inch touch screen, a 1GHz processor, and a 3.2-megapixel camera with no flash. It's a fairly attractive phone nonetheless, with smooth, round lines and a … Read more

Here's the problem with Huawei's image: it doesn't have one.

While known in technology circles, it is a virtual nonentity for many consumers, some of whom are probably unaware they are using a Huawei smartphone.

Huawei, however, wants to change that, and is planning a large U.S. marketing campaign to build consumer awareness of its brand. The company has already worked with its carrier customers -- typically prepaid players such as MetroPCS or Leap Wireless -- to jointly do so. But with the planned campaign, slated for the second half of the year, the company will … Read more

How does T-Mobile follow up its most powerful Android smartphone to date? With a budget-friendly 3G handset right out of 2009, of course!

According to details passed to TmoNews, the carrier is on the verge of announcing the T-Mobile Prism 3G for Sunday.

Aimed squarely at first-time smartphone buyers, the Prism is expected to run Android 2.3 Gingerbread and feature a 600MHz processor. Additional specs include a 3.5-inch (480x320) display, a 3.2-megapixel camera, 2GB RAM, and 512MB ROM. As the name suggests, the Huawei-manufactured Prism 3G works on T-Mobile's 3G network. Incidentally, Nokia made a Prism … Read more

If you're a Cricket customer who skipped over the Huawei Mercury smartphone because it lacked Muve Music, you'll be happy to know you can hop back to it.

Cricket will soon supply an over-the-air download to upgrade the phone and let in the unlimited music downloads and ringtones on top of the usual unlimited calling, data, and text and multimedia messaging.

The Muve Music plan costs $65 per month, making it the priciest of Cricket's unlimited plans, but also its most comprehensive.

In an age of clone phones, it's refreshing to come across a handset with a character of its own. It might be just me, but the combination of the aesthetics and its software interface on the Huawei Pinnacle for MetroPCS struck a chord.

With the vast majority of the phones I touch being Android handsets, using the Pinnacle made an impression that recommends it to MetroPCS subscribers who aren't in the market for a smartphone.

Unfortunately, call quality was a major setback in my tests. It wouldn't keep me from using the phone if I already had … Read more

For a company that builds telecommunications equipment and smartphones, Huawei has--in its own admission--not been so great at communicating its story.

Huawei's focus on serving its customers in the past came at the expense of establishing any kind of presence with the media or consumers, something its executives believe opened the door to a misinformation campaign that has stunted its progress in the U.S.

"We realized we were not good with communication," said Charles Ding, the senior-most Huawei executive based in the U.S., in an interview with CNET. "We didn't clarify who we … Read more