Ask MoDaCo: Huawei Ascend G510

[Guest PaulOBrien]

Slightly bruised and battered by it's journey apparently... this is the Huawei Ascend G510, the spiritual successor to the Huawei G300 and perhaps the new bargain champion at only £130 on Prepay.

The device (available only in Black for now) includes a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor (MSM8225?), a 4.5" 854x480 FWVGA screen, Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean with Huawei Emotion UI, a 5-megapixel rear camera, front facing camera, 512MB RAM, 1750mAh battery, 4GB ROM + microSD expansion, Bluetooth 2.1, DLNA, NFC, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi. GPS / A-GPS and a FM radio.

What do you think? Good enough specs for £130? First impressions are that the device is very solidly built and the screen looks good. It IS SIM locked.

Got questions? Ask them here before our review!

Click here to view the item

[Guest TangerineTractor]

The obvious one, I guess. Why would you buy this ahead of a Nexus 4 for another £100? Is it actually worth the money, or is it a real compromise, a short term purchase that will be a long term regret?

[Guest kyan31]

Does the 512mb ram actually affect the phones performance when used normally? Do you notice any stutter or lag?

Oh, and how much ram is actually available, because huawei botched the ICS build for the G300, it only had around 100mb ram free even on the first boot :P

Thanks in advance :)

Edited April 16, 2013 by kyan31

[Guest Simon O]

The obvious one, I guess. Why would you buy this ahead of a Nexus 4 for another £100? Is it actually worth the money, or is it a real compromise, a short term purchase that will be a long term regret?

It's a budget phone aimed at younger users or those that don't want to spent over £200 on a smartphone.

It seems silly to compare this against a Nexus 4 to be honest. Completely different markets.

[Guest]

Any chance you can make a CWM and stock image for the Alcatel OT-983, it is a 1ghz 512mb 3.5" phone that is ~£35, no-one has done this yet, lots of people would love a stock cynogenmod android 2.3 image for it.

[Guest The Soup Thief]

I read somewhere a while back that this phone would have a second sim slot. Guessing that the Vodafone version will be the same basic hardware but have one of the slots blanked off / disabled (and the device simlocked also). Does it look like the second one is present in any useful way?

Just googled it and found this aliexpress link to the dual sim version (costing a tenner or so more in GBP) (here's another seller for a similar price). Might get around the unlock problem and facillitate a second sim too (though you'd still only end up with a poxy 512mb of RAM :P )

[Guest Sebastian404]

Any chance you can make a CWM and stock image for the Alcatel OT-983, it is a 1ghz 512mb 3.5" phone that is ~£35, no-one has done this yet, lots of people would love a stock cynogenmod android 2.3 image for it.

I don't know anything about that particular device, but Alcatel did start using signed boot for their devices, so its possible that is the problem

[Guest Skip Tracer]

Just having a look around at this one and today its £108-34 on the Vodafone site as of 17:30.

[Guest PaulOBrien]

The obvious one, I guess. Why would you buy this ahead of a Nexus 4 for another £100? Is it actually worth the money, or is it a real compromise, a short term purchase that will be a long term regret?

£100 is a lot of money. The Nexus 4 is clearly a better phone, but it's not so far off double the price.

Does the 512mb ram actually affect the phones performance when used normally? Do you notice any stutter or lag?

Oh, and how much ram is actually available, because huawei botched the ICS build for the G300, it only had around 100mb ram free even on the first boot :P

Thanks in advance :)

Too early to say, watch this space! :)

I read somewhere a while back that this phone would have a second sim slot. Guessing that the Vodafone version will be the same basic hardware but have one of the slots blanked off / disabled (and the device simlocked also). Does it look like the second one is present in any useful way?

Just googled it and found this aliexpress link to the dual sim version (costing a tenner or so more in GBP) (here's another seller for a similar price). Might get around the unlock problem and facillitate a second sim too (though you'd still only end up with a poxy 512mb of RAM :P )

Hmm, can't obviously see a second slot in the design.

Just having a look around at this one and today its £108-34 on the Vodafone site as of 17:30.

Not for me? :S

http://shop.vodafone.co.uk/shop/mobile-phone/huawei-ascend-g510-black-payg

P

[Guest shootomanUK]

512mb ram is gonna beal a deal breaker for most, just can't understand why device manufacturers these days choose to use 512mb instead of charging a little more money and using 1gb atleast, i mean how much does the extra 512mb cost to upgrade ???

[Guest princeotter]

Just having a look around at this one and today its £108-34 on the Vodafone site as of 17:30.

That's ex VAT price £108.34 plus VAT = £130

[Guest bas-r]

I was really lucky to find a refurbished and unlocked huawei g615 for £170 for my mum: quad core, 1gb ram and 720p ips 4,5".

It hasn't arrived yet, but if the build quality is anything like the g500 that I previously owned, than I'm a happy camper! Or my mum, that is ;)

Really looking forward to reading your review!

[Guest hecatae]

standard sim or micro sim?

[Guest Simon O]

I read somewhere a while back that this phone would have a second sim slot. Guessing that the Vodafone version will be the same basic hardware but have one of the slots blanked off / disabled (and the device simlocked also). Does it look like the second one is present in any useful way?

Just googled it and found this aliexpress link to the dual sim version (costing a tenner or so more in GBP) (here's another seller for a similar price). Might get around the unlock problem and facillitate a second sim too (though you'd still only end up with a poxy 512mb of RAM :P )

The G510 comes in two different versions. The EU version with a Snapdragon S4 Play CPU and single SIM slot, and a Chinese version with an MTK6577 CPU and dual SIM. Quite silly really.

I was really lucky to find a refurbished and unlocked huawei g615 for £170 for my mum: quad core, 1gb ram and 720p ips 4,5".

It hasn't arrived yet, but if the build quality is anything like the g500 that I previously owned, than I'm a happy camper! Or my mum, that is ;)

Really looking forward to reading your review!

Ooh, that phone looks good. Quad core FTW!

standard sim or micro sim?

Standard

[Guest The Soup Thief]

Ahh, right. Any idea about the relative merits of the two chipsets? I'm am a bit intrigued by these Mediatech based phones...

It is a bit daft though... Calling two different devices the same thing is begging for brickage when people start flashing the wrong roms for their device type. Just like with the different blade variants I guess...

[Guest Sebastian404]

The G510 comes in two different versions. The EU version with a Snapdragon S4 Play CPU and single SIM slot, and a Chinese version with an MTK6577 CPU and dual SIM. Quite silly really.

The Chinese version seems to have a D on the end of the model number (for Dual sim I assume)

[Guest tillaz]

512mb RAM is not as bad as people make out to be honest... my old phone on JB (LG Optimus 2x, dual core tegra 2)

only had 512mb RAM but it was buttery smooth / lag free and played every game on the market without a problem.

if your currant phone with 512mb RAM is sluggish its more than likely the CPU / GPU

and as far as i know the only better option at the moment for the spec and price are china phones

Huawei should of included 1GB RAM though, there just been tight... :(

[Guest The Soup Thief]

@flibblesan & @Sebastian404 Bit weird - I get what you're saying about the dual sim model probably being a Chinese release with an mtk chipset but if you check the links I posted above they both claim to be selling the dual sim version with msm8225 processors (snapdragon s4 play) - neither ad makes reference to the g510d. Maybe both have got their ads wrong, but that seems a bit of an odd coincidence.

Edited April 17, 2013 by The Soup Thief

[Guest Skip Tracer]

That's ex VAT price £108.34 plus VAT = £130

Yes your right I missed that but it’s strange because shops that sell directly to the general public generally put the VAT as inclusive unless you’re trying to pull the wool over someone’s eyes or you are a general builders merchants.

[Guest artesea]

Yes your right I missed that but it’s strange because shops that sell directly to the general public generally put the VAT as inclusive unless you’re trying to pull the wool over someone’s eyes or you are a general builders merchants.

You most likely hit the business tab (or searched for something which resulted in the subsection) which don't need to quote the VAT.

[Guest Cusy]

This vs Huawei Y300 ( http://www.gsmarena.com/huawei_ascend_y300-5386.php ) @ 130€ here in Italy.

What do you prefer?

[Guest PaulOBrien]

Just SIM unlocked mine for less than 4 quid! Huzzah! :D

P

[Guest timfimjim]

After the g300, I wouldn't buy it on principle haha. They lost me on the ICS update. Good work Huawei! Plus I don't even think the specs look that good on this. I got a second hand HTC Sensation XE on Ebay for £110 and it's better than this

[Guest Chrisund123]

After the g300, I wouldn't buy it on principle haha. They lost me on the ICS update. Good work Huawei! Plus I don't even think the specs look that good on this. I got a second hand HTC Sensation XE on Ebay for £110 and it's better than this

No official Jellybean though!

[Guest KenBW2]

After the g300, I wouldn't buy it on principle haha. They lost me on the ICS update. Good work Huawei! Plus I don't even think the specs look that good on this. I got a second hand HTC Sensation XE on Ebay for £110 and it's better than this

Interesting, what was wrong with official ICS?