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MetroPCS lands Huawei's first U.S. LTE phone, Activa 4G

Huawei's Activa 4G ends the Chinese manufacturer's LTE dry spell for the U.S. market.

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).
Expertise Content strategy, team leadership, audience engagement, iPhone, Samsung, Android, iOS, tips and FAQs.
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Huawei Activa 4G
Huawei's Activa is its first U.S.-bound 4G phone. Huawei

Huawei promised CNET some 4G LTE action, and with the Huawei Activa 4G, the phone maker is ready to deliver.

If you're thinking this is the smartphone version of a certain yogurt with bifidus regularis, stop, because the Activa (pronounced "ACT-iv-uh") is in fact Huawei's first U.S. phone to get 4G, and it's available starting today at MetroPCS stores.

The Android 2.3 Gingerbread phone has a 3.54-inch HVGZ touch screen (480x320 pixels), a 5-megapixel camera with flash, and comes with a 4GB microSD that's preloaded with "Kung Fu Panda 2." The Activa 4G will also accept microSD cards up to 32GB.

Now for the downsides: it won't be eligible for an Android 4.0 upgrade, it's got a slower 800MHZ Qualcomm MSM7627T processor, and weak expected battery life at just a rating of 4 hours talk time.

The price is one silver lining: $149 after a mail-in rebate (for a limited time). That's the middle of the range for prepaid devices, and the low end of the range for both 4G-ready phones and for Android smartphones.

In truth I was hoping for a faster processor and better battery life, but we'll have to see how the phone performs in our real-life tests.

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