Related Articles
Huawei’s latest smart phone, the cheap Ascend G330 is weeks away from hitting the UK, with TalkTalk confirming it will be flogging the 4-inch mobile from as little as £10 per month from December.
That gets you the phone for free. Huawei told me that TalkTalk has exclusivity on the phone for now, but other operators may get involved in 2013.
The Ascend G330 is worth paying attention to, because it’s the sequel to the cracking G300, one of the best budget phones ever created. That earlier mobile was released in April, and delivered decent battery life, a big screen and an attractive design in a £100 package, earning itself our coveted Editors’ Choice award along the way.
The G330 is a minor upgrade to that marvellous mobile, sporting a 1GHz dual-core processor and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. That’s not the very latest version, but still gets you access to the Google Play store and a whole heap of apps.
Around the back there’s a 5-megapixel camera, while the 4-inch display crams in 480×800 pixels — a heathly, if not mind-blowing, number. The phone also comes with the BBC iPlayer and BBC News apps pre-loaded, saving you a few minutes shopping in the Google Play store.
The Ascend G330’s biggest competition will come from Google’s Nexus 4, which has stolen the budget-blower crown, offering high-end hardware and performance as well as cutting-edge software in a package that costs as little as £239.
The Nexus 4 is great value (if you can get hold of it), but with the Ascend G330 looking even cheaper, it’ll be worth keeping an eye on. Keep your cash in your pockets until we give it the full review treatment, at which point we’ll decide whether it’s a worthy successor to the G300.
The G330 will be available on contracts costing £10, £15 and £25 per month depending on how much airtime you want. Expansys will be selling the phone SIM-free, but hasn’t announced a price yet.
Would you buy an ultra-cheap Android phone? Tell me in the comments or on our Facebook wall.
