The P9,490 Huawei Ascend G300 Android phone

The budget-priced Huawei Ascend G300 sets out to succeed, just like the 3.5-inch Huawei Ascend Y200--only this time, the target demographic is mainly wage earners who want a fuller Android experience and are willing to spend a bit more to get it. And just like its smaller sibling, the latest from China does not disappoint.

Design and build quality

As far as bargain smartphones are concerned, the Huawei Ascend G300 happens to be our favorite in terms of aesthetics--and why not? The dominant design scheme is distinctly familiar. This Android possesses the same rounded edges, black bezel, and metallic, two-tone body of older HTC handsets. The metallic shell benefits from fine craftsmanship, giving this smartphone a seamless look and feel despite being made up of several seemingly individual parts. The bottom line is, unlike many China-made devices of lackluster design and construction, you won't have second thoughts about whipping out a product this good-looking and well-built.

The Ascend G300's button layout is pretty straightforward and accessible. Perched on top is a power/lock button and a headphone jack for gears with 3.5mm plugs. The left side hosts a volume rocker, and the bottom is home to a lone microUSB charging port. Nestled beside the earpiece is a multicolored indicator light which stays lit whenever something on your phone needs your attention. The concave rear features a removable backplate and logos of Huawei and Google in gray. A subtle bump at the top is where a 5-megapixel cam, an LED flash, and a loudspeaker sit.

Hardware and performance

The Huawei Ascend G300 has a 4-inch screen with 800 x 480 resolution, but it sets itself apart with in-plane switching technology for better color reproduction and readability and wider viewing angles. There's even Corning Gorilla Glass for some scratch-proof toughness.

Things also go upmarket under the hood, thanks to a 1GHz Cortex-A5 processor, an Adreno 200 graphics chip, 512MB of RAM, and a 4GB internal storage with room for more by way of a microSD card slot.

In real-world practice, this Android Gingerbread phone delivers a relatively responsive performance. Multitasking works just as well, and most slowdowns come in the form of delayed home-screen effects and scrolling animations. The phone's silicon also means a yes for most resource-intensive applications and 3D games such as Pocket Legends and Temple Run.

For a more objective analysis, check out the Quadrant Standard, AnTuTu, NenaMark2, and Vellamo benchmark results for the Huawei Ascend G300:

• Quadrant Standard - 1,994
• AnTuTu - 3,225
• NenaMark 2 - 19.5fps
• Vellamo - 727

The rear-facing loudspeaker's sound quality is pleasingly, well, loud. With volume cranked all the way up, the resulting audio is far more audible than what we normally hear from devices with an equally maxed-out loudness setting. On some occasions, we even had to keep the volume down while inside crowded coffee shops buzzing with random blabber.

This Huawei's 1350mAh battery has "run-of-the-mill" written all over it. A 100 percent charge lasts a day to about a day and a half on the average. Naturally, you can squeeze more hours out of the battery--but only if you use the WiFi and 3G radios sparingly and sync apps and widgets less often.

Essentially, the hardware here is hardly synonymous with "cutting-edge." However, the Ascend G300 is still quite a revelation given its sub-P10,000 (P9,490) retail price.
Huawei Ascend G300 specs:

• Qualcomm MSM7227A Snapdragon chipset
• 1GHz Cortex-A5 CPU
• Adreno 200 GPU
• 512MB RAM
• 4GB internal memory
• microSD card slot up to 32GB
• 4-inch IPS display (800 x 480 resolution; 233ppi pixel density)
• 5-megapixel camera with auto-focus and LED flash
• Dimensions: 122.5 x 63 x 10.5mm
• 140g
• 1350mAh battery
• Android Gingerbread OS

Camera

Under ideal shooting conditions (read: well-lit environments), the Huawei Ascend G300 delivers more hits than misses. Sure, its depth of field is limited, but paired with a 5-megapixel sensor and auto-focus, the camera produces images and footage with ample clarity and decent color accuracy. There's no beating around the bush with this model; you're getting what you pay for. Thankfully, it's a bit more than what most budget smartphones offer.

Here are photos we took with the Huawei Ascend G300:

Sample shot 1

Sample shot 2

Sample shot 3

Software

The smartphone's Emotion user interface may be a bit different, but the Chinese's re-imagining of Android Gingerbread doesn't fall far from the tree. It manages to retain--and in certain respects, even outclass--the best features of vanilla Gingerbread while bringing a fresh perspective to identical-looking re-skins. Particularly noteworthy is its iPhone-esque icons and pull-down notification menu with toggles for wireless technologies like WiFi, 3G, and GPS.

It's got home screens and app drawers that are easy to manipulate, too. Consider this: Whereas most custom OEM offerings see you wading through a series of menus before being able to rearrange items in the app drawer, the Ascend G300's UI only requires you to hit one icon to do as you please. Ditto for creating folders within the app drawer.

It's worth noting that some versions of the Huawei Ascend G300 can already enjoy the newer Android Ice Cream Sandwich OS. The official update is hosted on Huawei's website. Unfortunately, based on the included how-to, our unit isn't compatible with the download. Still, despite being stuck in the past, Huawei's Emotion user interface provides a pleasant experience, distinguishing itself with an attractive and functional layout that feels very natural.

Verdict

Pros and cons considered, the Huawei Ascend G300 is, without question, one of the wisest choices you can make. The Android brings an appealing design scheme, an impressive construction, a solid overall performance, and Huawei's form-meets-function Emotion user interface to the wage-earning masses for just P9,490.

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  Huawei Ascend G300

  This Android smartphone is priced at P9,490.