18 replies to this topic

[WhoAreWe]

I really liked the phone and feel it has no competition at that price point. Was forced to return the g300 and heres what imo represent some of the problems in this moment of time.
My techical issues may have been limited to my handset but some are consistent with general users. Vodaphones 7 days cooling of period really wasnt enough time for me to
make a more informed decision but certain fundamental flaws put me off for now.

Pros:

Custom Roms / Rooting options
Really decent smartphone for price point.
Good battery life.
Screensize and colours.
Replaceable battery & expandable memory (up to 32gb micro sd)
gingerbread is nice entry into android world
really great selection of android apps that improves functionality of phone.
External speakers for music were pretty decent.


Negatives:

Touch screen is not responsive with version U885. (Primary Issue)
Poor signal on both 3g and incoming/outgoing calls. Same sim worked fine in my other phone  (Primary Issue)
Incoming call volume  (Not that important)
Bit on the heavy side (Not that important)
For some reason, i had to reset date and time twice for no apparent reason. (Undecided)
After few days the OS become slightly sluggish. Reboots resulted in home page being almost blank before refreshes revealed existing icons apps. (Undecided)
Being forced to create a gmail account  (Not that important)
Huawei earphones are average.


Overall:

Versatile mobile with plenty of potential but utlitamtely flawed based on MY exp with the handset and its "official" updates.
I plan to keep an eye on the phones development via this site. I think the work being done here is amazing but id personally rather wait and see what ICS
brings and whether huawei will support the g300 with official fixes that specifically address phones signalling issues and touch screen
responsiveness. May also add to my exisiting  pros and con list depending on input from other members.

Edited by WhoAreWe, 29 June 2012 - 06:26 PM.

[fr0do]

No one else has mentioned signal quality iirc, and mine is good. I guess that could depend on the masts in your locality and the strengths and weaknesses of the phone you're using. I'm currently camping in France and my signal is between 4 & 5 bars.

Touchscreen responsiveness is perfect. Some mention problems with that and volume before the current free update over the air. What version where you on?

Yes the phone can lag if you don't configure it correctly. Like any PC, if you let it get swamped with bloat it will slowly die on you.

If you didn't want gmail then the point of android seems lost on you. That's how you connect to the cloud and syncronise your data. That's the great bit. With any other smartphone you need a corresponding online presence to make it work. Personally I find Google to be the best option over the poor alternatives provided by Windows and Apple.

[Maximus9]

There is a whole thread on the forums about inconsistent signal, and I think that is more obvious in the data connection, always jumping from H si 3G only.

Touchscreen responsiveness is resolved by installing B888 which is not official and creates a whole range of problems (invalidating the warranty and not being able to return to official ROM's).

A gmail account is not that bad, you can create one just for the phone and not ever use it for anything else.

[MrPuddington]

 WhoAreWe, on 29 June 2012 - 01:47 AM, said:

gingerbread is nice entry into android world

I would call gingerbread a bit out of date, especially after using ICS for a while.

Quote

(u885) touch screen is not responsive.

I had a few issues, but they seemed to be very specific (Angry Birds in Space, for example)

Quote

poor signal on both 3g and incoming/outgoing calls (same sim worked fine in my other phone).

Yep, I guess the antenna could be better.

Quote

After few days the OS become slightly sluggish. Reboots resulted in home page being almost blank before refreshes revealed existing icons apps (perhaps apps were eating up all ram?)

There are some apps that start with the system and then drag it down. They should be easy to spot in the application settings, and uninstalling them would fix it.

Quote

Being forced to create a gmail account

That's the Android way. I think you can do without, but that means missing a lot of "cloud" features. Just like the iPhone uses iTunes, Android relies on Gmail. And out of the two I would call it less annoying.

[Hogweed]

One thing about poor 3g signal. For the first three weeks I was on Vodafone until I used the 500 MB data that came  with the ten quid Sim/topup. I swear the only symbol I ever saw was "H".  Since switching to giffgaff, I now regularly see "G", "E", "3g" as well as "H". Sometimes the phone rocks back and forth between  them ONCE A SECOND and no data flows. Sometimes I see a solid  full bars connection and "H" but get no data. None of these problems occurred on Vodafone. Now I know gifgaff use 02 so I intend buying £5 for 1 GB of data from vectone on Orange/T-Mobile network for a comparison when my giffgaff goody bag is up.

It is my impression that there may be some kind of unannounced throttling on giff-gaff as all the above problems seem to occur mostly in good signal areas only after I have used streaming media for a time (then get suddenly bumped down all the way to "G"). It could just be that the underlying O2 network in my area is crap though.

[dbbloke]

Hey, I was / am on Giffgaff and got this weird switching between HSDPA / GSM as well, but since putting on the Atomic rom (which reboots now and again) it's gone.
Signal is fine.
Touch screen, always seems to have had this problem, swiping is fine, keyboard seems fine, touching next / apps / big buttons needs a hard press as soft doesn't register!

[WhoAreWe]

 MrPuddington, on 29 June 2012 - 07:42 AM, said:

I would call gingerbread a bit out of date, especially after using ICS for a while.

There are some apps that start with the system and then drag it down. They should be easy to spot in the application settings, and uninstalling them would fix it.

That's the Android way. I think you can do without, but that means missing a lot of "cloud" features. Just like the iPhone uses iTunes, Android relies on Gmail. And out of the two I would call it less annoying.

As someone who never use android before, i felt that gingerbread was pretty decent and the g300 specs were powerful enough for me to appreciate the OS. Having read about some of the features and
benefits of ICS, its essential to me that huawei provide this update and not some sort of demo.

Unistalling these aps to free ram would defeat the purpose of useing them in first place. Especially stuff that i find quite useful. Beleive there is a solution but didnt have time to try it out.

I made the mistake of not breaking my con list into primary issues and secondary. Having to set up google email is a minor inconvenience.

 Maximus9, on 29 June 2012 - 06:18 AM, said:

There is a whole thread on the forums about inconsistent signal, and I think that is more obvious in the data connection, always jumping from H si 3G only.

Touchscreen responsiveness is resolved by installing B888 which is not official and creates a whole range of problems (invalidating the warranty and not being able to return to official ROM's).

I beleive i was running B882 until i installed the sound fix bringing Version up to B885. If i didnt have the option to return the phone for a refund, i would have installed the custom B888 update.
Even though the g300 is only £100 i didnt want to risk invalidating my warranty. At this point, simply too many not known, unknowns.

 Hogweed, on 29 June 2012 - 04:51 PM, said:

One thing about poor 3g signal. For the first three weeks I was on Vodafone until I used the 500 MB data that came  with the ten quid Sim/topup. I swear the only symbol I ever saw was "H"

I cant even remember what letter i saw. Perhaps it was H. It certainly didnt switch around. I was more concerned with getting the 3g to work, given my decent sim plan.

Edited by WhoAreWe, 29 June 2012 - 07:21 PM.

[fr0do]

 WhoAreWe, on 29 June 2012 - 05:54 PM, said:

ICS, its essential to me that huawei provide this update and not some sort of demo.

Unistalling these aps to free ram would defeat the purpose of useing them in first place.

Why do you assume that there wont be full ICS?

You don't need to uninstall, just configure correctly

[WhoAreWe]

 fr0do, on 29 June 2012 - 06:29 PM, said:

Why do you assume that there wont be full ICS?

http://www.modaco.co...or-g300kind-of/

Even on the small chance that ICS is not released, the ongoing work with custom roms could make it redundant anyway. Would rather have facts tbh.

[FrankieADZ]

hate to say it, but this is a low end budget phone & so there will be certain things with it that wont be up to standards of other phones on the market.

[Pia23]

I want to return mine, i ordered online and can't find the packaging so i don't think i have a delivery slip. Do i need to ring Vodafone?

I don't want them to repair it, as there's more than one fault and i don't think they'll cater for that, like Orange with an OSF said they could only list ONE fault on their system.

My faults:

Phone has reset itself for no reason to factory settings
The touchscreen is mostly unresponsive when it is plugged into the charger
The speaker is low and it isn't giving me a firmware update, i don't feel comfortable changing rom to an unoffical one. (and why should i have to?)

Can anyone forsee a problem? Would they repair/refund/replace? Sorry to hijack the thread!

Edited by Pia23, 29 June 2012 - 11:41 PM.

[fr0do]

They might take it back for repair if you're over your 14 day cooling off period (they say 7 days but afaik that's illegal). Unless you have hard evidence of fault I don't think they're obliged to refund. Always worth a try though. What version are you on? 885(?) is the lastest so you can demand nothing newer ATM.

[WhoAreWe]

 Pia23, on 29 June 2012 - 11:41 PM, said:

I want to return mine, i ordered online and can't find the packaging so i don't think i have a delivery slip. Do i need to ring Vodafone?

Can anyone forsee a problem? Would they repair/refund/replace? Sorry to hijack the thread!

So you have no packaging or proof of purchase? I assume you paid by card so techincally a bank statement is sufficient. WHether they would accept that, i dunno.
I read somewhere that packaging is not a requirement for a refund/exchange. So long as original item and contents is in resaleable condition. Based on my experiences,
most companies will find some trivial excuse not to offer a refund. Vodaphone sorted me out on the mobile but they tried to stick me with the prepaid payg sim (despite saying
that i could return that as well). Resolved it in the end but had to complain on basis that i felt like i was mislead. Just got to be a bit pushy sometimes.

@frodo
If im not mistaken, legally we have 28 days. These 7days cooling off periods are apparently bs. Just not sure if it would mean quoting our rights to said company, writing
a letter of complaint or going as far as consulting with a lawyer. Regarding vodaphone, outside of the 7days, you have 12month repair return to store option....at least that is what i was told.

Edited by WhoAreWe, 30 June 2012 - 03:29 PM.

[fr0do]

I'm just quoting what I think I remember Martin moneysaving expert whoarewe. You could be right. Talking about resellable condition …i think Vodafone might not like no box.. but I also seem to recall Martin also saying like you.. the protection is in the credit card you used to pay.

[Pia23]

Hi yep 885 but the speaker is still shockingly low compared to the blade and skate I've got.  

Cooling off period and receipt shouldn't apply with a faulty product, ordered online so I have emails, order number and tracking info as proof aswell as bank statement. I will ring them and ask what they want to do, I won't be happy with a repair so may have a battle on my hands

[Pia23]

Sorry I should have added, I do have the box i just meant I must having chucked the parcel packaging without taking the delivery note out, which is very unlike me.  
All I can find is a label, I'm assuming its for returns

[fr0do]

That should be more than enough then Pia. Good luck!

[Maximus9]

 Pia23, on 01 July 2012 - 12:49 AM, said:

Hi yep 885 but the speaker is still shockingly low compared to the blade and skate I've got.  

Cooling off period and receipt shouldn't apply with a faulty product, ordered online so I have emails, order number and tracking info as proof aswell as bank statement. I will ring them and ask what they want to do, I won't be happy with a repair so may have a battle on my hands

Hey there,
I would strongly recommend you call them before returning, they sent me a special envelope.
Or i might miss understood and you plan to return to store.

[Pia23]

thanks I'll do that. still haven't sorted it, but have found yet  another problem - data keeps disabling itself and I have to turn it back on manually,  so annoying