Huawei has so far launched three Ideos Android smartphones under its own brand name in the Indian market. These devices seem to be a mix of aggressive pricing and decent quality; the Ideos X2 or U8500 is no different in this regard.
The design of the phone is different from the rest of the lot because the back panel has a matte finish which continues to the front of the phone till the bottom of the screen. Four physical buttons are placed on a strip with gunmetal finish, which is split into two by the track pad in the middle that has Chrome surrounding it. There is also chrome in the ear piece.
Both side panels have a gunmetal finish. The top of the phone has a glossy finish. The body seems to be of good quality and looks nice and quite unique.
The device has a 3.2 inch capacitive touchscreen with 320 x 480 pixel resolution. The display is good to look at, producing decent colour and a sharp image. The touch response is good too. The track pap at the bottom aids navigation, making it a sweeter deal.
There are four physical buttons at the bottom of the phone, a volume rocker on the right side and a power button at the top along with a 3.5 mm audio and USB jack.
Performance
The phone is based on a 600 GHz Processor and as such we did not expect blazing performance, but this phone was disappointingly slow. We tried reformatting to improve performance but even then the speed didn’t improve.
The 600 MHz processor is somewhat standard in this price bracket and other phones in this range are Spice Mi310, Dell XCD 328 and Micromax A70, all of which perform decently — certainly better than the Huawei device does.
We believe poor performance was a problem of the particular piece we received for review because we didn’t find complaints similar to ours on the net ( We will reserve our comments about performance of Ideos X2 as we are in the process of getting a new handset) .
The 3.2 Megapixel camera performs as per expectations and images have decent colour and clarity. The battery is 1150 mAh and supports a full day of medium usage; heavy users will have to charge the phone by evening.
Experience
With good looks and reassuring quality, you will feel good having the phone in your hand. The buttons, though few, have a nice tactile feel and are well placed. The track pad that augments the touchscreen is responsive too. There is nothing much to talk about in terms of the user interface as Huawei hasn’t added much to Android OS.
Two problems of the phone kill the user experience – the first is its speed and the second is the old version of Android.
The second problem has an easy solution as you can upgrade the device to Android 2.2 Froyo from Huawei’s homepage.
Unzip the zipped folder. You will see different folders. Find the largest download folder, about 211 MB. Copy the download folder to the root of your SD card. Turn off your phone. Hold the hang up key + volume up and hit power. The word “Froyo” will flash on the screen. Then it will say “update failed”. Wait a bit and then pull out the battery. Put the battery in again and start the phone. The first start will take five minutes, so wait. When the phone starts, it will be running on Android 2.2 Froyo! If you are experiencing any problems with WAP or radio then redo the installation.
Verdict
Apart from the problems, the other features of the phone are impressive. With WiFi, 3G, A-GPS, FM and 32 GB expandable memory, the phone is value for money and worth considering.