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Huawei Vitria marries entry-level Android specs with $130 price

This low-end prepaid smartphone for MetroPCS won't wow with its 4-inch screen and Android 4.1, but does keep costs down.

Jessica Dolcourt Senior Director, Commerce & Content Operations
Jessica Dolcourt is a passionate content strategist and veteran leader of CNET coverage. As Senior Director of Commerce & Content Operations, she leads a number of teams, including Commerce, How-To and Performance Optimization. Her CNET career began in 2006, testing desktop and mobile software for Download.com and CNET, including the first iPhone and Android apps and operating systems. She continued to review, report on and write a wide range of commentary and analysis on all things phones, with an emphasis on iPhone and Samsung. Jessica was one of the first people in the world to test, review and report on foldable phones and 5G wireless speeds. Jessica began leading CNET's How-To section for tips and FAQs in 2019, guiding coverage of topics ranging from personal finance to phones and home. She holds an MA with Distinction from the University of Warwick (UK).
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Jessica Dolcourt
Huawei Vitria
MetroPCS

MetroPCS has quietly added another low-cost Android smartphone to its roster: the Huawei Vitria. (And that's Vitria, not Vitriol).

The low-end specs seem to line up to the $129.00 off-contract price. You'll get a 4-inch touchscreen topped with Gorilla Glass 2 (version 3 is even stronger). Disappointingly, the phone ships with Android 4.1 instead of Android 4.3 or even 4.2. The software differences aren't enormous between Jelly Bean versions, but it's always nice to be up-to-date, and with Android 4.4 KitKat around the corner, this phone will soon fall even farther behind.

Huawei offers 4G LTE for this device, which also comes with a 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm processor and a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera. A low-res VGA front-facing camera will stand by for video chats and self portraits. You'll get access to about 1.9GB of internal memory, which you can expand up to 32GB with a microSD card.

A battery capacity of 1,750mAh promises to yield up to 11 hours of talk time and up to 15.8 days of standby time. Of course, your battery's staying power has little to do with talking these days and much more to do with how often you use that data connection to download, upload, and stream.

We'll have a review of the Huawei Vitria as soon as the review unit knocks on our door, so check back!