14 DAY TRIAL // Cricket, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Leap Wireless, has just announced the availability of the Huawei Ascend II, the sequel of Cricket's popular low-cost Android device, the Ascend, that was launched in October last year.
Although the phone is a low- to mid-entry Android-powered smartphone, it offers users a wide range of features at an affordable price.
Potential customers can purchase Huawei's Ascend II from Cricket branded retail stores, select dealers and online for a suggested retail price of $179.99
Additionally, the Ascend II will be offered on Cricket's all-inclusive $55 Android plan, which provides users with unlimited talk, text, 411 information, international text, unlimited and video picture messages, unlimited data services on Cricket's 3G network.
Those who decide to take advantage of the $55 rate plan will have free access to MyBackup, a system that allows subscribers to automatically protect, store and edit their mobile contacts online and without the need for data cables.
“We are excited about the sleek, new Huawei Ascend II. The original Ascend has been our best-selling smartphone and the Ascend II is sure to impress our customers with its faster processor, 5 megapixel camera and the Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system,” said Matt Stoiber, vice president and general manager of devices for Cricket Communications.
The Ascend II comes with a mid-size 3.5-inch HVGA capacitive touchscreen display with virtual keyboard.
The phone is powered by Google's Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) operating system and is equipped with a low-performance 600 Mhz processor.
Huawei Ascend II is the fifth Android-based smartphone offered by Cricket and features Wi-Fi capability, as well as 3G Real Web Browsing.
Other interesting highlights of the Ascend II include a 5-megapixel camera with video recording capabilities, MP3 player and microSD slot for memory expansion.
This handset also gives customers access to more than 200,000 cool apps on the Android Market as well as great Google applications such as YouTube, Gmail, Google Maps, Google Search and more.