Huawei's Trio of New Android Smartphones
Huawei held a media launch event for its new range of Android smartphones targeting the mass and high segment market. Join us as we check them out.
Huawei's Sweet Trio
Huawei held an exclusive event at Ion Sky to launch the company's new Android smartphones, which include the Ideos X3, the Boulder and the Ideos X6. Let's check out what Huawei has to offer in our hands-on experience below:
He Rong, General Manager of Huawei Singapore (center), and Alan Wong, Chief Marketing Officer for South Pacific (right) were present to grace the event.
Huawei Ideos X3
The Ideos X3 claims the honor for being the first mass market Android 2.3 Gingerbread smartphone. First introduced at MWC 2011, The X3 features a 3.2-inch HVGA capacitive curved touchscreen and a 3.2-megapixel camera. More importantly, Huawei intends to dominate the mass market segment, introducing phones with decent hardware specifications at a reasonable price point. And for that matter, the X3 will be priced at S$299. Given the aggressive subsidy from the three telcos in Singapore, it won't be surprising to see the X3 being offered as a $0 phone with a two year contract.
The estimated price of the X3 is about S$299 (without contract).
 | Key highlights of the Huawei IdeosX3
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Huawei Boulder
While we've seen devices such as the and equipped with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, the Boulder is one of the rare few Android devices that comes with a touchscreen and a full QWERTY keypad sharing the same real estate. Huawei chose Singapore to be the first country in the world to launch the Boulder, which is aimed at consumers who like the interactivity of touchscreen yet wants the traditional typing experience on a physical keypad. Interestingly, the Boulder is also a pretty slim QWERTY phone, measuring in at a mere 9.9mm. For now, the Boulder runs on Android 2.2 Froyo. Like the X3, the Boulder is priced at S$299, so you can probably expect it to be offered at S$0 with a two year contract with your selected telco.
Update: We just heard from Huawei regarding the Boulder's OS version. During the Media Q&A, the Huawei spokesperson misunderstood an earlier question about the upgrade of OS to Android 2.3. The Huawei Boulder is not upgradable to Android 2.3.
The Huawei Boulder is priced at S$299 (without contract).
 | Key highlights of the Huawei Boulder
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Huawei Ideos X6
The X6 is the flagship model for Huawei's Ideos series. It features a 4.1-inch capacitive touchscreen and a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash. It is powered by a 1Ghz Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon processor and 512MB RAM. Navigation on the X6 is generally smooth. But the real draw is its price point, placed at S$499. Considering how other similar smartphones of the same caliber are priced a few hundred dollars higher, this makes the X6 one of the most affordable smartphones with above average specifications tagged to it. Unlike the earlier two devices, the X6 will be preloaded with Android 2.2 Froyo. Fortunately, Huawei did state that the X6 will be receiving the Android 2.3 Gingerbread update, albeit in Q4 2011.
According to Huawei, the X6 is estimated to cost S$499 (without contract).
The Huawei X6's 4.1-inch screen looks fine when compared to the 4-inch screen of the Motorola Atrix.
 | Key highlights of the Huawei IdeosX6
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Sneak Preview of Upcoming Huawei Smartphones
Besides the three Android devices mentioned above, Huawei gave us a sneak preview of three other upcoming smartphones, the X1, Sonic and Duo.
Huawei has some surprises coming our way in the next few months.
Huawei hopes to market the Ideos X1 as an affordable Android handset for anybody to use.
We had our hands-on with the upcoming Sonic handset, which is NFC-ready. It also seems promising with its large 3.5-inch screen and smooth navigation.
The Duo handset is geared towards those who require two separate SIM cards for business and personal use but do not wish to carry separate phones.
Huawei seems to be very aggressive this year in marketing its mobile devices this year. Their tagline, "Simple is smart, simple as smart, smart for simple" is a clear indication of the company's direction in the near future. With more Android devices in the works, it is interesting to see how Huawei fares in the highly competitive smartphone market. We are certainly keeping our fingers crossed.
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