Huawei, still snatching up millions of consumers in low end smart phones have come up with an improvement to last years model of the Ideos and are subsidizing it in Kenya. Safaricom has started selling the Huawei Ascend Y100 in Nairobi. The IDEOS U8150 replacement goes for Ksh 8,449 and is bundled with a Ksh 1,000 in airtime, 7 days unlimited SMS and 1.5GB of free data bundle. The phone is available exclusively to Safaricom which is has customised it with its UI and SIM-Locked it to the network.
The spec sheet is as follows:
HARDWARE
Form factor – Slab
Colour – Black
Processor – 800 MHz Qualcomm MSM7225A CPU
Memory – 512MB ROM internal storage, with 256MB RAM
Battery – 1050mAh
DISPLAY
Screen size – (diagonal)2.8 inch
Technology – LCD Capacitive
CONNECTIVITY
3G & GSM – Yes
Wi-Fi support – 802.11n, 802.11g, 802.11b
GPS – Yes
Bluetooth – Yes (version 2.1)
REAR CAMERA
Resolution– 3.2 megapixels
Flash – None
Focus type – Fixed
Video resolution – VGA
SOFTWARE
Operating system – Android
Skin – Huawei
Launch OS version – 2.3 Gingerbread (upgradeable to Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0)
Cost meets features…..
One should add the bundled up packages Safaricom adds to the phone as part of the features as they are what most Kenyans will be looking for as they buy the AFFORDABLE device.
Its main competitor the Galaxy Pocket launched only a month ago, shall suffer in sales as the Ideos reclaims its rightful territory. This phone will be eventually upgraded to Ice Cream Sandwich which is a very intuitive, fluid and smooth Operating System compared to Gingerbread and this update will be highly appreciated. Wrapping up, one cannot deny the work Safaricom have done to increase smartphone penetration by subsidizing the cost of many a smartphone to make them pocket friendly & appealing to most Kenyans. This is a very good, affordable Android (smartphone) phone, go get yourself one!
