Up-and-coming mobile device brand Huawei has today unveiled a slew of new smartphones that start at prices under $100, ranging up to higher-end smartphones, but many launch details are scarce.Huawei, a company which primarily works in telecommunications and business solutions where it is a global leader, has previewed its latest phones which come out as a more polished offering than its launch products late last year.
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The products are set to be part of a major push to place Huawei into the mindset of ‘Australian families’ with cheap phones sold en masse but with smartphone capabilities.
It also revealed its offering to the tablet market, the MediaPad: a seven inch tablet that is set to be the world’s first tablet running Android Honeycomb 3.2, optimised especially for seven inch displays.
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The minor software update gives a few cosmetic tweaks outside of fixing display issues, like the widget resizing perk that mimics the feel of the Motorola Defy’s interface.
On the smartphone side, the new range includes typical Android touch screen phones that mimic the design of many existing brands, while some include a fusion of touch control and keypads in unique designs.
Models like the U6150 use Huawei’s own operating system that functions more fluidly than Nokia’s flailing Symbian though looks and feels outdated when put up against the Android models.
A similar Huawei-software phone previewed was the G7300, mimicking the Android interface with an odd fusion of the Sony Ericsson Xperia’s user interface with its spiralling contacts list. It also comes with a fairly large stylus to function its resistive touch screen which feels like a big step back.
The Ideos X1, launched yesterday, is a revamp of last year’s Ideos model that sold for the low-end smartphone market. It’s now shredded $100 off the price to sit at $99, while retaining the exact same inner hardware in a new, sleeker shell.
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Models that fuse keypad and touchscreen include the Boulder which looks like an upgraded version of a similar model the company launched last year. The interface is notably faster though, running smoother between keypad and touch controls with minimal lag. This phone may have a tough time up against HTC’s dedicated Facebook and messaging phone, the ChaCha, set for release tomorrow.
Apart from the X1, Huawei has kept quiet about any exact releases or carriers apart from noting its ongoing relationship with Crazy John’s. Some models have a general timeframe though, like the Sonic model coming in July and the Honour coming some time in Q3.
