The Huawei Ascend G300+ is available for $99 with free shipping from Dick Smith. It's locked to Vodafone. It's certainly better than the other cheapie $99 phones available!
Specs
for unlocks, Ozbargain user Bagman will do it for $5.
and it runs 4.0.3
http://www.androidcentral.com/vodafone-huawei-ascend-g300-ge…
but I highly recommend rooting the phone if you want a clean ICS experience (alot of Vodafone bloat comes with it)
Apparently this phone is triband 3G 850, 900 and 2100, so it works on Optus 3g as well.
+1 for bagman - fast and hassle free, nice guy too. Can do ZTE and others too
Are you certain this is suitable for Optus. I noticed a discussion previously when this was on sale that in 3G it was either 850 or 900. I also notice that on ebay the unlocked ones I looked at only had 850.
My wife needs a new phone and she is with Liveconnect so I would get one of these if suitable. The resolution seems great
I also would like any other suggestions. The
It should work since this is the G300+ model. It works on 850, 900 and 2100. The standard G300 is only 850 and 2100
There are 2 versions, G300 and G300+. G300+ is the phone being advertised here for $99, and is the one you want for Optus.
There is 4 GB internal storage but only 2.5 GB is usable but you can add a micro SD card. ICS is available officially and unlocking it shouldn't be an issue. Some people say it can be unlocked for free but if not, you can buy an unlock code from eBay for around $5
ICS is available in theory only. Check the Vodafone blog where there are a while bunch of bewildered owners wondering what to make of the Vodafone call that it is available but who push you onto a totally unresponsive Huawei (who is supposed to manage the roll out). Yes you can root it, but that isn't the same as the manufacturer or Vodafone claiming that this thing will be updated to 4.x.
The phone itself is Ok, and good value at sub 100. The radios all work well, including bluetooth and gps (which my old HTC legend could not claim). The screen isn't great or massively responsive but I managed to run everything I have thrown at it. I broke the lcd and got a diy replacement for $25. So can keep chugging.
Seems pretty good for the price.
I've got a budget Huwaie locked to Voda but it is very slow and basic.
What video resolutions does the camera record at? HD footage?
640x480
Meh, VGA only. I think I'll hold off upgrading for a while.
Those Acer Liquid Metal phones for $130 still hold up well 1.5 years later.
Anyone got any idea about the warranty - is it the same as direct from Voda (2yrs)?
DSE site doesn't mention it at all!
is there big difference between 1 yr or 2 yrs?
Yes… 1 year…
Info with it states 2 years.
Will this work on Telstra/Kogan once unlocked for $5?
And will it be hard to update if it's not using Vodafone?
common sense is the difficulty of updating the phone has nothing to do with using voda or not.
I wouldn't count on Huawei providing a reliable ROM for this device. The Vodafone ICS rollout turned out to be rather bumpy and their blogs mentioned that ICS is not completely stable.
For the technical and tinker-inclined though, Cyanogenmod exists for the phone however as with all community made ROMS don't expect them to be bug-free.
"it is not advisable to upgrade your phone to ICS because we have receive feedback from customer who upgrade their phone and the phone becomes slow or hang sometimes. Also, after upgrade it is not able to return to old version by yourself unless by sending in the phone to service centre with charges apply."
Good one!
If ICS actually worked on this thing I'd probably go for it.
Huawei web sites (need to look at more than one to find anything) are pretty useless as well…
Should be fine on telstra since it is 850MHz HSDPA
Have a look around the custom rom communities, there is a good chance there is an ICS ported too it even if there isnt an official one
Also - holo launcher among others can give much of the look and feel of ICS
Just found this - http://www.modaco.com/topic/359227-tip-australian-3g-dropout…
Have only skimmed over it - complicated…
Sold out!
I purchased one from a store for that price. Had android 2.3.6 not 4.
Actually this is listed online again but now without free delivery.
No - the G300 has now dropped to $99 as well.
Not so good for Optus users like moi…
Bought one two days ago for a family member.
Runs surprisingly well although Gingerbread and the Huawei skin is a tad ugly. The standard Huawei launcher feels lagging when scrolling across homescreens but that can be fixed by installing something free like Go Launcher, ADW Launcher or LauncherPro. Not only will it make the transitions smoother but it will also provide more customization.
Games run pretty well - by games I mean like Cut the Rope, Doodle Jump, Draw Something and the like.
Screen is good - IPS and decent resolution, definitely better than most other phones under $200.
Camera is meh, speaker is pretty loud, battery life is decent.
Overall, a great budget phone.
On a side note, bought an unlock code from smgreen1969 on eBay for $7. Tried it just before and it worked fine.
Phone unlocked instantly and free on vodaphone's website just search 'unlock'
Must start phone with non voda sim in to bring up the unlock screen.
IMEI is on side of box with barcodes.
Actually forget what I just wrote!
As a special, one-off, ozbargain-only offer I will unlock these phones for a limited time, for just $6.99 :)
Is it android 4 already available officially?
How much internal storage? Easy to unlock?