Huawei Ideos

Chinese original equipment manufacturer Huawei isn't new to the Google Android mobile operating system just that its Android smartphones aren't commonly sold by telco operators in our region. Its latest offering, the budget Ideos which runs on the latest version of the open-source software, may change just that.

Design

The Ideos' small footprint has its advantages. It's a nice change from the raft of large smartphones that are getting more common in this day and age. The candybar also fits in a pants pocket without the awkward protruding bulk. The design of the Ideos resembles a flattened pebble with curve edges and a smooth plastic chassis. Size-wise, at 104 x 54.8 x 13.5mm, the Ideos sits between the HTC Wildfire and incredibly tiny Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 mini.


Naturally, there are some tradeoffs with the compact form factor. The capacitive screen measures 2.8 inches and has a resolution of only 240 x 320 pixels. The panel is a bit limited in the amount of information it can display, though it's just about right given the size of the Ideos. Of course, there are slightly better options out there. The Wildfire has a 3.2-inch panel offering the same resolution, while the upcoming LG Optimus One packs more pixels (320 x 480) into its 3.2-inch screen.

Text input is entirely touch-based, although there are still physical Call and End keys as well as a round directional/enter button below the display. Typing in portrait mode requires you to peck away at the keys even with predictive text, so switching to landscape mode will make the experience a lot more bearable. Sandwiched between the touchscreen and physical controls is a row of touch-sensitive Back, Menu, Home and Search options, which you'll typically find on Android devices.


There're a volume rocker on the left side of the Ideos, with the power button and 3.5mm headphone jack at the top. The micro-USB port for connecting to the AC adapter or PC (you can also charge the phone using this connector) is at the bottom. Around the back are a 3.2-megapixel camera and onboard speakers with the microSD expansion card slot behind the battery door. It may seem trivial, but the Ideos comes with a few different colors for its back cover, ideal for the younger crowd who may wish to have some personalization in their handset.

Features

While the brightly colored back covers can be customized, the Ideos ships with a vanilla Android 2.2 Froyo. When it comes to entry-level Android smartphones, the Ideos could be the only one we know of in the market now with the latest version of Google's mobile operating system. The Optimus One will have it out-of-the-box, too, when the phone becomes available, but other current devices such as the Wildfire and Xperia X10 mini are running either 2.1 Éclair or 1.6 Donut releases.

Notable enhancements with Froyo include the ability to set multiple user accounts, USB tethering, Internet connection sharing and improved Microsoft Exchange support. The Ideos, however, doesn't support Flash. We set up our Gmail and Google Apps accounts on the Ideos with no problem, and, as expected, the Google email integration was thorough. You can archive, add labels, reply, forward and report spam emails, etc. directly from the handset. Tapping on the email address at the top right corner lets you switch between email accounts. Text messaging is threaded and you can attach pictures, videos and audio clips from the options in the Compose field, as well as take photos or record moving images.

Some extras include an ambient light sensor which helps to adjust the LCD brightness according to your environment, an accelerometer for auto orientation of the display, and haptic feedback for typing. You can switch keyboards when punching out a message by swiping across the screen. The Ideos also supports voice commands to call a person, send a text message or locate a pizza restaurant on Google Maps. The latter feature is useful if you are sending a short SMS or trying to reach a person, but not ideal for dictating longer messages. At times though, this came back with a server error alert in our tests.

The Ideos offers up to 7.2Mbps HSDPA and Wi-Fi for data connectivity, as well as Bluetooth for wireless headsets. The quad-band GSM candybar also comes with built-in GPS for satellite navigation, EDGE and GPRS. However, there's no video call support.

Aside from the usual set of Google applications (Gmail, Latitude, Maps, Market, Places and Talk), a read-only version of Documents To Go and a News/Weather program are preinstalled. Although Google has announced the availability of paid apps to Hong Kong, Singapore, India and Taiwan (in addition to Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea), we haven't seen the option on the Ideos yet at the time of this review.


For imaging, this Huawei is equipped with a basic 3.2-megapixel camera with a 2.8x digital zoom. The camera options are limited to configuring white balance, geotagging, color effects, picture resolution and quality. Once you've taken a photo, a preview is displayed at the top right corner. From there, you can adjust the image by rotating or cropping it, or share it via Bluetooth, email, SMS, Facebook or Twitter depending on the services you've set up on the device. You can also set the picture as an icon for contact or use it as the phone's wallpaper. An onscreen slider lets you toggle between still image and video capture modes. We felt that the picture quality could have done with a lot more clarity, but considering that the camera is a basic module without flash, this suffices as a snap-and-go shooter.

Performance

We tested the Ideos with the MobileOne service in Singapore and call quality was largely OK. We didn't encounter any particular issues with audio both on our end and with the other party during our weekend field tests. The onboard speakers were also sufficiently loud for playing music in a room or carrying a conversation on speakerphone.

In terms of general performance, we didn't expect the Ideos to be blazing-fast like its higher-end Android siblings. Overall, the occasional lags when launching applications or processing commands were acceptable for an entry-level device. According to listed specifications, the Ideos runs on a 528MHz processor with a 512MB ROM and 256MB RAM.

The 1,200mAh battery lasted us at most a day on a full charge. This was with two Google email accounts, Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare updates turned on, as well as light usage of the Internet, calls and text messages.

Conclusion

As far as entry-level Android phones go, the Huawei Ideos doesn't disappoint. Although the company has said that the device will retail between US$100 and US$200, with a two-year plan factored in, the phone should cost next to nothing. In Hong Kong, the Ideos (without plan) costs US$242, which although is slightly more expensive than expected, is still the most affordable model among budget Android smartphones. In Singapore, the phone is free with a two-year contract.

While some users may go with the Wildfire for its custom Sense interface or the Xperia X10 mini for its ultra compact size, a stock Android experience on the Ideos matched with admirable build quality for a budget phone also has its appeal.