Huawei Honor and Huawei Vision: our hands-on

The Chinese giant unveiled its Android line-up for the European market.

Chinese manufacturer Huawei is not among the most recognizable names for many, but in the past years the company has been steadily among the top 10 vendors with global sales higher than Motorola and Sony Ericsson. In the recent past they have decided to launch their own brand rather than simply selling phones to mobile operators, and to concentrate their smartphone business to the Android platform reaching already a placement in the top 5 Android vendors. We have already written about their latest smartphones, such as the Huawei Honor and Huawei Vision, but now that the company is ready to launch them in Europe we had the opportunity to touch them with our hands during an event in Milan, Italy. Here our preview, with the best wishes to the young and enthusiastic Italian Huawei crew we have been happy to meet.

Huawei Honor

Specs-wise, the Honor features a powerful dual-core 1.4GHz Qualcomm MSM8260 Snapdragon processor, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of ROM, 8Mpx rear camera with HDR and LED flash, 2Mpx front camera, all usual connectivities and sensors including gyroscope for gaming. The bright 4-inch display has a FWGA resolution (854×480) and the whole device is 10.9mm thin. A 1900mAh battery guarantees a long autonomy to perform every task. The smartphone comes with Android 2.3.5 but we are pretty sure it will receive Android 4.0 in the first months of 2012.

Our test with the device has been extremely positive: the system is fluid and there have been no lags; the Huawei UI is simple and functional, and the compact dimensions make it light and pocketable. The smartphone will be available in Europe in early 2012 at a still undisclosed price that rumors place around €349: definitely a good deal!

Huawei Vision

The Vision is built into a 9.9mm aluminum unibody chassis and has a 3.7-inch curved display with WVGA resolution (800×480). It features a 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon processor, 512MB of RAM, 2GB of ROM, 5Mpx rear camera and VGA front camera, 1400mAh battery. The user interface is a customized version of the SPB Shell 3D and the Android version is the 2.3.5. No word about a future update to Ice Cream Sandwich.

The phone is simply beautiful, light and compact. The 3D UI is really pretty and the overall performances are very good. Considering the rumored price below the €300 threshold, this smartphone is going to be very appealing!

Huawei Sonic

Last but not least the Sonic, which we did not see in real life, but that is also going to be released soon for the European market. This low-end Gingerbread smartphone features a 600MHz Qualcomm MSM7227 Snapdragon processor, 256MB of RAM, 512MB of ROM, 3.2Mpx camera and 1400mAh battery. The display is a 3.5-inch with HVGA resolution (320×480).