14 DAY TRIAL // U.S. Cellular has just announced the upcoming availability of the affordable Huawei Ascend II Android-powered smartphone.
The handset is expected to hit shelves next week and will be available for free with a new two-year agreement and after $100 mail-in rebate that comes as a MasterCard debit card. According to U.S. Cellular, the Huawei Ascend II will go live in stores in early 2012.
The carrier offers customers who are willing to commit to a long term contract, any of its Belief Plans with Data Plus along with a range of benefits and rewards.
Huawei Ascend II is a budget-friendly smartphone, so customers should not expect anything impressive when it comes to specs sheet. However, the device is in no way inferior to other low-end Android smartphones.
As U.S. Cellular describes it, the phone “with Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) is your entertainment center, GPS navigator, news and weather hub, and your social network connection all in one powerful, pocket-sized device. Stream content from the web or your own media library and view it on the 3.5" HVGA touchscreen display. Grab apps from the Android Marketplace and snap photos with the 5.0 MP camera. Whatever you want to do, the Ascend II delivers.”
It comes with a more than decent 3.5-inch capacitive touchscreen that supports 320 x 480 pixels resolution and 262k colors. Four touch-sensitive controls are placed just below the screen, allowing for smooth menu browsing.
The phone is powered by a low-performance 600 MHz processor and packs 512MB ROM, 256MB RAM and microSD card slot for memory expansion (up to 32GB, 2GB memory card included).
Software-wise, Huawei Ascend II runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread and provides quick access to more than 300,000 apps via Android Market. In addition, the smartphone comes pre-loaded with Google Mobile services, including Gmail, Gtalk, Google Search, and Maps.
Other highlights of the phone include: Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support, 5-megapixel rear camera, microUSB and GPS with A-GPS support.
