Huawei Ascend Y300 hits UK for £60

[Guest PCTechRoss]

- TAKEN FROM CNET -

Carphone is flogging it from tomorrow for just £60 on pay as you go, or £70 if you're a new customer, including £10 of top-up. It's been on sale in Argos for a few weeks for £130 SIM-free, but this is less than half price just for getting it with a SIM card.

But check out these specs: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, 1GHz dual-core processor, 4-inch 800x480-pixel screen and a 5-megapixel camera. Not bad at all!

To put that screen in context, its 233 pixels per inch density is exactly the same as the original Samsung Galaxy S, which you can find knocking around for about £150 new.

The biggest downside to the Y300 is how little space there is for apps -- a minuscule 0.8GB. While you can expand the storage by 32GB with a microSD card, you can't install apps on that, just store photos and music and so on.

So in practice you'll be able to cram Facebook and Twitter on there, but very little else. If you're looking for a dirt-cheap second phone that can still surf the Web and support a few widgets, this could be a very good deal.

Not bad for a small upgrade!

[Guest jamie_w]

I saw this and was thinking about it. Doesn't it have the same Ram as G300? 4Gb Internal and 512mb Ram? Or have I read it wrong?

[Guest sedj]

Yeh its the same storage wise as the g300, good price its a bit thicker than the g300 and does not have a notification LED. It does have a front facing camera though and the screen appears to be the same spec but with 5 point multitouch.

I was a little tempted because its cheap but it aint much of an upgrade from the g300, it benches at 6000 which is 50% better but having watched a few vids it chugs a bit when web browsing.

[Guest tillaz]

The biggest downside to the Y300 is how little space there is for apps -- a minuscule 0.8GB. While you can expand the storage by 32GB with a microSD card, you can't install apps on that, just store photos and music and so on.

So in practice you'll be able to cram Facebook and Twitter on there, but very little else.

setup Link2sd and this is no longer a problem :)

the zte skate had even less.. 150mb for apps but with the above i managed to fit over 100 apps on it lol

[Guest nsmacd1]

I am currently running the G300 with Electra - Is it worth the upgrade, or won't it really be noticeable?

Also, any news on how the screen looks in daylight, as the G300 is almost unreadable in sunlight?

If not, then any other recommendations round about the £100 mark (with SD slot and rootable!)

Edited June 5, 2013 by nsmacd1

[Guest george109]

I am currently running the G300 with Electra - Is it worth the upgrade, or won't it really be noticeable?

Also, any news on how the screen looks in daylight, as the G300 is almost unreadable in sunlight?

If not, then any other recommendations round about the £100 mark (with SD slot and rootable!)

You could always check out the China phone discussion. Most Chinese phones are actually amazing for the price...

[Guest tillaz]

i think anyone could get over £60 for there G300 on ebay... unlocked and rooted, as long as its in quite good condition.

my parents sold their G300s for £100 each.

so, you could ask your self is it worth a swap ?

[Guest akarana]

You could ask, do you want to "swap" to Y300 with an extra A5 core and 4.1, but virtually all other features identical to G300,

or upgrade to G510 with dual 1.2Ghz A9 cores, 4.1 and the rest the same for £130 (release price, might have eased by now).

[Guest tillaz]

the G510 for an extra £70 is not really worth thinking about, a China phone like the vowney v5 is a much better option in my opinion if spending around £130

720P IPS Display OGS

1GB RAM

1.2Ghz Quad core CPU

Android 4.2

8MP Camera / Record 1080p video

it puts the G510 to shame and its around £15 cheaper if using the % 4 off coupon, plus its sim free :ph34r:

http://www.merimobil..._p/meri7415.htm

[Guest akarana]

Is the Vowney v5 available over the counter in UK? Does it have telco backup?

Both Huawei Y300 and G510 are/do. The Y300 is aimed squarely at the bottom of the smartphone market, and looks to be right on target.

For myself I'd like a bigger screen without going to 5inch. Megapixels on the camera don't matter if the lens or compression is crap.

Or you could pay £130 for a Huawei quadcore 1.2Ghz MT6859 G520, but :wacko: the same size screen as G/Y300, and :( gsm only

[Guest tillaz]

Is the Vowney v5 available over the counter in UK? Does it have telco backup?

its not no, but its not exactly hard to order it online... as for telco backup i have never even heard of it

Megapixels on the camera don't matter if the lens or compression is crap.

your right, but the vowney v5 looks to have a good censer (sony) and takes good pictures from what i have seen

Or you could pay £130 for a Huawei quadcore 1.2Ghz MT6859 G520, but the same size screen as G/Y300, and gsm only

and still have the lower end 480 x 854 display / 512MB RAM / 5MP camera / Android 4.1 / No 1080p recording

all i'm saying is there are better options from from china, but if people want to pay more for less that's there choice ;)

http://www.merimobil...priceasc&page=2

[Guest KenBW2]

its not no, but its not exactly hard to order it online... as for telco backup i have never even heard of it

your right, but the vowney v5 looks to have a good censer (sony) and takes good pictures from what i have seen

and still have the lower end 480 x 854 display / 512MB RAM / 5MP camera / Android 4.1 / No 1080p recording

all i'm saying is there are better options from from china, but if people want to pay more for less that's there choice ;)

http://www.merimobil...priceasc&page=2

Specs isn't an absolute. It's nice to have the guarantee of buying from a UK company: if it turns out to break 6 months down the line you have comeback.

There's also the lack of development community for phones that noone has.

[Guest blaster99999]

well ive just ordered a y300 for daughter, she was going to have my g300 as ive now got the vowney v5 , got it at upgrade price of £59.95 , will get more than that for my second hand g300 on ebay, so looks like a good swap to me.As said above wouldn't pay the £130 for the 510 model better off with a china import if your spending that money.

[Guest sharkyo01]

Pretty sweet price shame I didn't know this a few weeks ago. I would of waited for it instead of getting another g300.

[Guest Ascend]

Are the CPW versions unlocked? I would like to use it on "3" network but they don't sell it for 3.

[Guest blaster99999]

Are the CPW versions unlocked? I would like to use it on "3" network but they don't sell it for 3.

yes all carphone warehouse phones are unlocked

[Guest KenBW2]

yes all carphone warehouse phones are unlocked

I'm on 3 too. I bought one this morning on my brother's o2 SIM.

Do they come SIM-unlocked even when you do the upgrade deal?

[Guest Frankish]

Always sim unlocked unless it's an iPhone as far as i know. Then iPhones are sim free but lock to the network you first put a sim in off (i think).

[Guest tooplanx]

I'm really interested in this, but I've discovered it doesn't have have a compass / magnetic sensor. This doesn't seem to be brought up in any reviews I've seen which is weird as I think it's a pretty major thing. Seems to be the case with many other low-cost phones at the moment. Not sure why, are magnetic sensors particularly expensive? Or do manufacturers think they're not important?

My Orange San Francisco has a magnetic sensor and that's nearly 3 years old!

Anyone have a phone without a compass who can relate how much of an issue it's been for them?

[Guest bryfly]

does not have a notification LED.

just bought one of these to play around with, cheap enough at £59.95, bought as an o2 payg upgrade, phone was already unlocked and I'm using "Three" sim in it with no problem, re notification LED . does have a notification light, top left of the phone, works fine on email and sms, have not found away to change colours yet

Edited June 9, 2013 by bryfly