Huawei Ascend Y300 Released 6th June At Carphonewarehouse £59.95 PAYG Upgrade

LouLou

As boyf has been using it, I've only been able to use the Y300 on and off, but here's my thoughts:

First of all, he put his Vodafone SIM in straight away (it takes a normal-sized SIM, and the Y300 I got was an Orange PAYG Upgrade phone). I had to get my Y300 delivered to a store (I ordered it right before closing time, but if you're earlier, say before 3pm, it'll be there the next day).

No bloatware, no branding. The phone is pretty zippy overall. It pauses if you ask anything demanding from it but it's certainly not unusable, you'll barely notice.

Huawei's "Emotion UI" take on Android has gathered a lot of grumbles on HUKD. Many are rooting their phones, but I was pleasantly surprised. I didn't find it offensive at all. In fact it's iphone-esque. You can "drag and drop" apps to different places if it really niggles you, but I would leave the UI as it is.

I installed Google Skymap and it works, re the lack of compass (but on HUKD I was told it doesn't work properly. To be honest I used it side by side with my Note 2 and it didn't seem that "off").

For Flash capability you can sideload it with another browser, most will allow you to do it: Maxthon is my favourite.

Calls and notifications sound absolutely fine, and the audio sounded good to my ears (I use AKG K750 or my trusty Koss PortaPro headphones with my mobile). The Huawei comes with in-ear headphones but I didn't test those.

If you want to go app-daft and install loads, or even put music and other files on, remember to turn the default storage to SD Card (I'd add the file path but don't have the phone in front of me).

My mum has the G300, which I set up for her. Physically the Y300 has the same physical earpiece and LED notification, but I'd say the Y300 has a more responsive screen than the G300. A HUKDer said they reckon the camera is much better on this phone, the speakers and ringtones are better, but I haven't compared the two side-by-side.

The screen looks a bit more colourful and vibrant than the G300 (though I've read the Y300 has poor viewing angles outside, can't say as I've only tested it indoors). I can say that my Note 2 is barely readable in bright sunlight, so I think most smartphones suffer with this.

Y300 "S-line" gel cases (with screen protector, if you wish: it doesn't affect the screen at all, as some G300 users told me on MSE months ago, re the G300's not-so-responsive screen) are all over ebay for just over £1 and fit fine. The gel case has nice "grippy" treads on the sides for your hands to hold.

I was expecting to be rather underwhelmed, or just think "it'll do" but I'm actually really impressed. The camera on it, 5 megapixel though it is, is pretty ruddy good too.

Oh, and don't forget the fantastic battery life. Some reviews state it is 1730mAh but that's actually for other countries: the UK market has a 1950mAh battery. It lasts for ages!!

A bargain for £59.95 I reckon! Thanks, CPW and Huawei!

LouLou

This tip (for those concerned about lack of RAM) is useful too: http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/huawei-ascend-y300-released-6th-june-carphone-warehouse-59-95-payg-upgrade-possible-1572075?page=49#post18260279

"apps like these (Facebook/Twitter) are getting bigger and more bloated by the day. They're very selfish and assume you're going to be using them 24/7 so they install background services that burn up dozens of MBs RAM. Even something like the IMDB app creates a background service just in case you use their widget... Err no thanks, uninstalled.

You should always disable updates, clear cache/data and completely disable apps you're unlikely to use (in ICS onwards):" - Thanks to lhassall.

Geoff_W

Had my Y300 for about 3 weeks now and I'm very impressed. To be fair, it's my first smartphone, so I have no previous experience. I bought a 16Gb MicroSD card so that I could load up some music and pictures and that is more than enough space for me. The sound quality is excellent through good headphones (the supplied buds are too big for my ears!). The 5Mp camera is also very good. Battery life excellent - I used it on holiday (with some Wi-Fi) and it was at 40% after more than 6 days - it was on standby a lot, though.

Being a smartphone novice I was caught out by the default switching on of the mobile services. I used up £5 worth of credit in less than a minute via an app looking for my location! (At 1.5Mb per location access it doesn't take long at 65p/Mb to run down your credit). Needless to say, I very quickly learned to turn that lot off and only use Wi-Fi. The screen isn't too good in bright light, but what lcd is? I have the same difficulty with my Panasonic TZ65 camera, but it's not a showstopper. Love the Android interface and its capability for customisation. No problems with Huawei's Me Widget UI either, although a bigger choice of widgets would be nice.

In summary, I'm dead chuffed!

d123

Geoff_W wrote: »

at 65p/Mb to run down your credit).

I think you need to be looking for a new service provider!

65p per MB is ridiculous.

Geoff_W

d123 wrote: »

I think you need to be looking for a new service provider!

65p per MB is ridiculous.

You are right, which is why I don't use mobile data services. This is Orange Racoon. I am considering 3's new 3-2-1 sim.

diamonds

Geoff how much do you recharge/frequency ?

Calls/text/data ? Same network/cross network ?

Try and advise you if you can give some usage pattern/costs

tyllwyd

Geoff_W wrote: »

You are right, which is why I don't use mobile data services. This is Orange Racoon. I am considering 3's new 3-2-1 sim.

If you know you are going to use data on Orange Racoon, you can always buy a data bundle Extra - I'm sure that there are better deals out there, but if you want to stick with the plan you are on it is less painful than paying 65p per MB!

Geoff_W

diamonds wrote: »

Geoff how much do you recharge/frequency ?

Calls/text/data ? Same network/cross network ?

Try and advise you if you can give some usage pattern/costs

Rather difficult to predict atm as I've never had a smartphone before. Previously only had (and still have) an old Nokia 2310 PAYG on Orange Racoon. This was only used as an emergency phone, and for Orange Wednesday cinema tickets. The £10 top I had when I got the phone lasted about 5 years! So, the Nokia gets used for about half a dozen voice and text calls a year, if that.

When we go away, either UK or abroad, I've used Wi-Fi on my iPod Touch to occasionally access the web. My wife's view on the smartphone is, "what can it do that you can't do on the iPod? Apart from make calls, that is."

I'd quite like to be able to access the web on the go without having to depend on finding a suitable Wi-Fi hotspot, but most PAYG data plans are very meagre and expensive. Also, I'm trying to avoid monthly contracts as I don't want to go from £10 in 5 years to (at least) £120pa.

As for calls, most would be to UK landlines or the Orange Nokia (or similar) and maybe a few texts.

diamonds

Well I would say as you top up very minimal 3's new rates may be the one for you then

If it was £10 a month OR and you want a a good whack of data Orange Dolphin payg with 1GB free data and 400 texts per £10 top up and use the £10 credit to buy Orange Extras and of course 35p Orange Wednesdays

http://www1.orange.co.uk/service_plans/payasyougo/extra_overview.html


You either pay per MB on 3 or get a free bundle with Orange or/and buy Extra, Orange Extras really make credit flexible.


I used to use Canary as it gave free eve/weekend calls & free text/mms and bought the (old) £5 unlimited text and the100 minutes for £5 so all my usage was covered for £10/£15 a month.


Grab a son/daughter/grandchild or a friends (ask first, enforcing a minor to a EE store with ID might be classed as kidnapping!! lol) and register U(nder)24 for unlimited FREE Orange/T-Mobile calls https://kareena.orange.co.uk/numberlookup/go/lookup
you ALSO get an extra 1GB of data and unlimited UK calls and texts to your friends on Orange and T-Mobile so any "Extras" bundles minutes you buy are not depleted as quick

1GB (rounded to 1000MB) on 3 will cost you £10 a month, £10 a month on Orange can give you 2GB 400 texts, unlimited Orange & T-Mob calls for then just buy extras/cinema tickets off your £10 credit.


Owning a internet phone will not allow you to £10 over 5 years that's for sure lol, unless you wifi it everywhere But you can show the other half what it can do everytime she sees something to buy, check price online and say yeah or nay lol

Also if the sim from the Nokia is in the new Y300 you may not get 3G, as 3G sims were tailored by Orange to only be sold with a 3G payg mobile until a few years ago, when thankfully that draconian policy was dropped and payg sims became 3G compatible. EE store should upgrade you FREE to a 3G sim


Also check out NEWER payg animal plans, changes over 5 years have happened - you may lose some benefits to the old animal plan but gain others

http://studio.orange.co.uk/service_plans/payasyougo/animals_overview.html

payg Monkey plan for £5 a month gives 2MB daily data which may be useful with Opera Mini or Opera Mobile browser/s.


Download Orange price guide and have a read http://studio.orange.co.uk/service_plans/payasyougo/services_price_guides_overview.html

Ovivo is £15 one payment and a free allowance per month that may work better for you Runs on Vodafone.


Freedom plan
150 mins
250 texts
500MB data

or

data only
750MB

http://ovivomobile.com/


Works out much cheaper than Orange Just keep your Orange sim for cinema Wednesdays and top up at an EE store from 10p http://more-from.orange.co.uk/activate/tiny-top-ups/

notbritishgas

Geoff_W wrote: »

Being a smartphone novice I was caught out by the default switching on of the mobile services. I used up £5 worth of credit in less than a minute via an app looking for my location! (At 1.5Mb per location access it doesn't take long at 65p/Mb to run down your credit). Needless to say, I very quickly learned to turn that lot off and only use Wi-Fi.

I have just returned from my local Carphone warehouse with my £60 still burning a hole in my pocket:(
Went through all of the sales patter for the Y300 and was ready to buy when the sales person said the mobile internet was permanently on and could not be switched off. This was a no no for me so aborted the sale, for the same reason as geoff stated, perhaps when we get a new Ovivo SIM card that would change.
However when I got home I downloaded the manual and thought it stated that in fact the mobile internet could be disabled and Geoff above has confirmed that, correct?

Also the SA said she thought Huawei did not come unlocked and would be locked to the first SIM card inserted, please someone tell me that is not correct.
I would love one of these phones.