Huawei Honor

“The Huawei Honor is a capable device but it would definitely have a hard time dealing with its “Made in China” stigma.Huawei is a major telecommunications player and has enough leverage to cut deals with telecoms and we’re sure it will get over the not so noble origin and turn the situation in its own favor.The brand may not be that popular as a phone manufacturer, but Huawei are stepping up the effort in improving brand recognition as we speak, forgoing past attempts of setting up the Ideos brand as its headliner.Huawei is yet to establish itself as a major player on the market for smartphones and that holds true Stateside too. There, the Chinese giant supplies mostly low-end, low-cost devices for unsubsidized carriers. Some of them are even sold under different names – not Huawei. The company is now looking to increase its brand awareness by offering higher-end devices such as the Impulse 4G for AT&T. The Honor has been launched contract-free on Cricket Wireless under the name of Huawei Mercury.The Honor is a solid try in that direction – a good midrange option with some high-end specs.We also liked the creativity in the custom interface – it almost makes up for the tepid styling. Nevertheless we would have preferred a better camera performance and perhaps, a better quality screen.Taking a glance at the Honor's competition you realize that Huawei have secured a comfortable spot for their device among the waves of competition. It does offer a decent package of capabilities but more importantly offers a below-$300 price range SIM-free, which is a huge plus for people with tight budgets.”

“Talk about a pleasant surprise. The best prepaid smartphone in the U.S. comes from Huawei and Cricket, a manufacturer and a carrier that haven't been bywords for quality in the past. But it's true: the $249.99 Huawei Mercury, paired with Cricket's terrific $55 contract-free monthly plan, beats other cell phones on Cricket, MetroPCS, Virgin, and Boost.”

“Probably the biggest advantage of the Huawei Honor is its great value-for-money ratio. It can be bought for about $370 off contract, and at that price point, no other brand name company would be able to match its specs. However, you get what you pay for, so you will have to get used to its not-so-sensitive display and hope that your camera is free of glitches, not to mention that the device feels cheap and plasticky.If you insist on having a relatively big display, you can also check out the LG Optimus Black and the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc, and if 3.7-inches of display real estate would be sufficient, we can also recommend the Sony Ericsson Xperia neo, or Xperia pro.”

“On one hand, the Honor is a fairly solid mid-range device. On the other, battery life was disappointing, as was the camrea. And those are pretty big negatives. With a rather impressive set of specs and having already released an Ice Cream Sandwich build, this device hits a lot of key needs, and does it well. The bad news is that Huawei still has some work to do on the Honor. But that the manufacturer has already released official ICS demo ROMs means they're pretty likely to do it. We're not expecting to see any lines for the Huawei Honor, but it's a good start.”