Huawei IDEOS (U8150) Android smartphone

Huawei IDEOS review: A cheap Android smartphone that offers excellent value for money

Good Gear Guide

Low-end Android smartphones are becoming more popular and Chinese manufacturer Huawei is one of the first to release a budget-priced handset that runs the latest version of Google's Android operating system. The Huawei IDEOS U8150 smartphone is equipped with Android 2.2, called Froyo, as well as a 2.8in capacitive touchscreen and a 3.2-megapixel camera. It is let down by a small, low-res display but the IDEOS still represents excellent value for money.

Pros

  • Price and value for money
  • Capacitive touchscreen
  • Good build quality

Cons

  • Small and low-res display
  • No multitouch
  • Sluggish performance

Bottom Line

Huawei's IDEOS smartphone has a small, low-res display and lacks multitouch, but it still represents excellent value. It runs the latest version of Android and it is reasonably well built; it's an absolute bargain at this price.

Would you buy this?

  • Where to buy

    Selling at 1 store

Check out our round-up of other cheap Android phones.

Aesthetically, the Huawei IDEOS smartphone is as basic as they come. Its glossy plastic casing is standard for a phone in this price range, and Huawei includes three interchangeable rear covers in the sales package in blue, yellow and pink colours. The IDEOS's curved and rounded shape means it sits nicely in your hand, but it is not a particularly attractive phone.

Despite having the kind of plastic body you would expect at this price point, build quality is not compromised — the IDEOS doesn't creak or rattle and feels reasonably well constructed. Below the screen are Android's standard, touch-sensitive shortcut keys (back, menu, home and search), and Huawei has also included thin answer and end call keys either side of a large five-way navigational pad.

Manufacturers of low-end smartphones generally compromise when it comes to a handset's display in order to keep prices down, and Huawei is no exception. The IDEOS includes a 2.8in capacitive touchscreen with a very low resolution of 320x240, the same as the HTC Wildfire Android smartphone. The screen is responsive to finger presses but has poor viewing angles, is hard to see in direct sunlight and displays text with clearly visible aberrations. The IDEOS's display is fine for most general usage, but it is inferior compared to many Android phones when it comes to viewing photos and videos and browsing the Web.

The Huawei IDEOS is one of the first smartphones to ship with the latest version of Google's Android operating system, 2.2 or "Froyo". In addition to all the regular features and functions of an Android phone including access to the Android Market for third-party apps, an excellent notifications taskbar and automatic and seamless synchronisation with Google services, Froyo adds built-in wireless tethering, and the ability to store third-party apps on your SD card, as well as general performance improvements. One benefit of Froyo that doesn't apply to the Huawei IDEOS is full Flash support for Web browsing. Huawei says that the IDEOS doesn't have enough processing power to offer full Flash support. Unlike HTC's range of Android smartphones, which are skinned with a UI overlay offering extra widgets, the phone ships with the vanilla Android interface; it isn't an issue at all, as the standard Android UI is functional, easy to use and fully customisable.

The IDEOS' small screen combined with a lack of multitouch support (so you can't pinch the screen to zoom in and out) mean the Web browsing experience is noticeably inferior compared to Android smartphones with larger screens. Performance is adequate, but not outstanding; the Huawei IDEOS is a little sluggish to activate the accelerometer when tilted, and we also experienced occasional lag during testing, particularly when using the browser.

Other features include a built-in accelerometer, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a digital compass and a GPS receiver. The Huawei IDEOS also has a microSD card slot for extra storage, located behind the rear battery cover, but there is no microSD card included in the sales package. The Huawei IDEOS also has a 3.2-megapixel camera but lacks a flash for night-time photography.

The Huawei IDEOS is available through Crazy John's and Australia Post for $159, making it the cheapest Android phone on the Australian market at the time of its release. Online mobile phone retailer MobiCity is also selling the Huawei IDEOS outright and unlocked.

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User Comments

1

Greg ZengThu 02/12/2010 - 03:25

Was impressed ... but the HTC WILDFIRE has Froyo from 3rd party sources, plus flash/ torch/ movie lighting. The China camera is poorer quality in every way to the TAIWAN HTC camera.

Not a good review at all ... since you knew about the HTC ... now $299 in AU.

Retired (medical) IT Consultant
Australian Capital Territory

2

meThu 09/12/2010 - 02:25

I got s 1gb SD card with my unlocked ideos. from dick smiths but shouldn't make a difference.

3

Ross CatanzaritiTue 21/12/2010 - 08:58

Hi Greg,

Thanks for your comments.

The HTC Wildfire is $299, the IDEOS can be bought from Australia Post for $149. That is a big difference in price, and while the Wildfire is still good value, its not better value than the IDEOS, in my opinion.

I also don't see how that makes this "not a good review at all?"

4

RichardPSun 02/01/2011 - 20:57

I think it was a pretty balanced review.
We have been having an Ideos in the family for a couple of weeks now. It's not mine but I just could not keep my hands off it. We jokingly call it the "Idiot phone" because of the name but there is nothing idiotic about it.
It's a great budget phone. I'm sure some people will complain about it's slowness and various other shortcomings but I challenge anybody to show another comparable phone at similar price. In fact, you need to pay at least twice the price to get something genuinely better (which will still have some problems).
If you just need a very useble budget phone with comprehensive features, for everyday (not too demanding) use, this is it, at the moment. It's loaded with functions and it's quite usable.
I hope Huawei will come up with a "Big Ideos", with similar features but with higer res and slightly larger screen, better quality camera, faster performance. If they can do this with a reasonably small increase in price, I'll be beating down the door at the local shop to get one.
Just one more thing to add: the Ideos also has excellent reception. In a marginal area, a Nokia N97 mini had lost it's connection while the Ideos, on the same telco network, was happily carrying on and still showing 2 bars for the field strength. I guess Nokias generally have crappy reception - at least in my experience.
My frustration with the Android phones are that I still don't see one that doesn't have some annoying flaw, even the premium ones. At least the Ideos is cheap, it's with Android 2.2, it's easy to live with and hopefully a suitably good iPhone beater will emerge in a year or so. Android is good but the hardware manufacturers have to pull up their corporate socks, to unlock the potential.
Rich

5

facaletzWed 19/01/2011 - 09:46

Hi and ...Happy New Year
It is not so Happy for me..:>
I got an ideos it is not too bad for beginners But can You tell me how can download the flash player on the machine????
Also if you guys know so much about ,can You give me a site with real support for that,I mean one which cares about customers.
I bought it from Dick Smith ,just two pages of information ten times less then a sim card.Still I payed AU$194 for the little piece of something ,nobody knows about.....
I'm prepared to pay 20 bucks for flash player installed ,and to can put it on desk top :D
Thanks for .....that ( facaletz2@gmail.com )

6

WamweaTue 25/01/2011 - 01:13

There is only one important thing that is letting us down with this smartphone.battery life is lather short.chinesse are famous for building durable bridges and roads why fail on battery longetivity

7

Tracy TeesThu 17/02/2011 - 18:18

My $149 Ideos from Australia Post came with a 1gig SD card in the phone and a 4gig sd card in the pack, but only 2 back covers. Supposed to be locked to Vodafone/Crazy Johns but works with Telstra sim. I don't notice the not-so-good screen until I pick up my iTouch and then the difference is obvious. Anyway I'm very pleased with it, it is great value and lets me experiment with Android apps.

8

ShenanigansSat 19/02/2011 - 13:14

I bought one of these for my partner from DSE for $159, which included a 2GB SD card. It's our first Android phone and I think it's great. Call quality is good, the touch screen is responsive and vanilla Android works just fine. I haven't really noticed too much lag in apps - I suppose vanilla Android is less demanding than re-skinned offerings. I do agree the accelerometer can be slow to rotate, however Google sky works fine, so not sure why that is.

Our only gripes are the relatively poor screen quality, the virtually useless camera and the somewhat short battery life. However, for what we use it for (making and receiving telephone calls (!), a bit of texting and emailing and browsing), it is excellent.

The phone seems reasonably well built and is not too heavy. Considereing the price I would asy this phone is outstanding value.

9

RobertFri 15/04/2011 - 14:31

So far this is a fantastic bargain at $149 purchase price. I can only find fault with the battery, all else is great!

10

hak2livFri 09/09/2011 - 12:53

The downside of Huawei Ideos U8150 is their battery. It easily drained.

11

chrisstarThu 27/10/2011 - 17:40

This phone currently at Aldi for $60 with Virgin mobile. Bargain!

12

greggl`sSat 29/10/2011 - 12:39

can anyone tell me the phone tells me it is an unknown caller when they are clearly in my contacts ??

13

AlbertFri 04/11/2011 - 20:04

This phone is available at Aldi for 60$, do you reckon it is worth buying?

14

frittleWed 30/11/2011 - 10:46

It does have multitouch. try gPad for example

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