Huawei W1 - budget smartphone on Windows Phone 8

Today we will have a little unusual review. No, no, this will be an overview of the next Chinese phone, but not on the Android operating system, but on Windows Phone 8. Meet - Huawei W1, a budget solution on Windows Phone 8 from Celestial.

► Specifications

Screen: 4 ", 800x480, IPS, OGS

Chip: Qualcomm MSM8230 (dual core Krait 1.2GHz, 2 cores)

Video accelerator: Adreno 305

Operating system: Windows Phone 8

RAM: 512MB

Permanent memory: 4GB + microSD slot with card support up to 32 GB

Camera: front 0.3MP, rear - 5MP

Connectivity: 1 sim card (GSM + WCDMA), GPS, Bluetooth, Wifi (802.11 b / g / n)

Battery: 1950mAh

Huawei W1 can be attributed to the representatives of the budget class of smartphones with the operating system Windows Phone 8. At the moment, there are 3 devices similar in characteristics: Huawei W1, HTC 8S and Nokia Lumia 520.

Let's look at the comparative characteristics of these 3 phones:

	Huawei W1	Nokia Lumia 520	HTC 8S
Screen	4.0 ″: IPS 800 * 480 (233 ppi)	4.0 ″: IPS 800 * 480 (233 ppi)	4.0 ″: Super LCD 800 * 480 (233 ppi)
CPU	Qualcomm S4 MSM8230, 2x1.2 GHz	Qualcomm S4 MSM8227, 2x1 GHz	Qualcomm S4 MSM8227, 2x1 GHz
Permanent memory	4GB	8GB	4GB
Camera (front / rear)	0.3Mp / 5Mp	no / 5Mp	no / 5Mp
Battery	1950mAh	1430mAh	1700mAh

Huawei W1 stands out among competitors with an increased processor frequency of up to 1.2 GHz, as well as a more capacious 1950 mAh battery. The presence of the front camera is only formal and it is useful only for fans of communication with video via Skype.

The obvious disadvantage is only 4GB of internal memory, because of the special work of Windows Phone 8, this can bring some inconveniences, which we will discuss in this review.

If we compare these smartphones at the official prices, at the time of this writing, they are as follows: Huawei W1 - 6990 rubles, HTC 8S - 10090 rubles, Nokia Lumia 520 - 7490 rubles.

Since Huawei is a Chinese company, when buying in China, this smartphone can be purchased for $ 177 including free shipping.

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► Completion and appearance

The phone comes in a compact box:

The kit includes a charger, USB cable, headphones, a cleaning cloth for the screen and instructions with warranty card:

The screen frames on the top and bottom are quite wide, which slightly spoils the appearance of the device.

I got a test version with a red back cover (in fact, the color is not bright red, but with a slight outflow in pink)

In addition to this color in the model range there are options with a black, white and blue back cover. In black, the back cover has a small texture, and the rest have only a matte shade of color, without texture.

There are 3 touch buttons on the front: “Back”, “Home” and “Search”:

On the step, between the edge of the case and the screen is a microphone.

Below is the microUSB input, which is used to charge the phone or connect to a computer.

On the left are the volume buttons of the same color as the entire back panel:

Above - 3.5mm headphone jack:

There is also a Power button.

At first, I did not even guess about the functionality of this button:

It turned out everything is very simple - this is the hardware button to turn on the camera.

5MP rear camera with flash:

Sample image in good light:

In low light, the camera starts to make a lot of noise.

The speakerphone is located behind:

The sound from it is very loud, with a predominance of high frequencies.

Under the back cover is a full-sized slot for SIM cards. Supports work in GSM and WCDMA networks:

As well as a slot for microSD memory cards.

Small battery has a capacity of 1950mAh:

The battery life depends on the intensity of use, as well as the brightness of the screen. With an average intensity of use of charge lasts about a day.

Once we have already looked under the cover, then let's quickly see what is hiding inside.

► disassemble

Understanding the smartphone is very easy, you just need to unscrew a dozen screws under the cover.

General form:

Plastic frame:

Neat and beautiful.

All loops click and no scotch:

The modules on the board are shielded:

Rear camera module:

What can I say - build quality 5+.

► Screen

The Huawei W1 is equipped with a 4-inch IPS screen with a resolution of 800x480. According to information from the manufacturer, the screen is made according to the OGS technology, when there is no air gap between the touchscreen and the protective glass.

Despite the small resolution, the image on the screen is clear, with good color reproduction.

But in the sun, maximum brightness is not enough and the screen starts to fade.

Viewing angles are good, as it should be for an IPS screen:

The screen of the Huawei W1 is good, as for a budget smartphone.

► Hardware

If Android has taught us that a lot of RAM in the phone does not happen, then for Windows Phone 8 512MB of RAM is quite enough. After the system is booted, the user has about 360MB:

Huawei W1 is built on a Qualcomm MSM8230 chip. It is made on 28nm technology and consists of a dual-core Krait processor with a frequency of up to 1.2GHz and an Adreno 305 video accelerator. The chip supports Bluetooth 2.1, Wifi 802.11 b / g / n

As for the Android OS, the meaning of all benchmarks is not in numbers, but in comparison with other devices. Under WP8, there is an Antutu benchmark, but I'm not sure which Android version can be used to compare its results. I will give only a screenshot:

Interesting results are obtained in SunSpider - this is one of the tests to measure the performance of JavaScript.

Let's compare the SunSpider result in IE10 on the Huawei W1 with the results of the embedded browser in Android 4.2.2 on the Lenovo P780 (the lower the result, the better):

Let me remind you that the Lenovo P780 is equipped with a 28nm Mediatek MT6589 chip with a 4-core Cortex-A7 1.2GHz processor and 1GB of RAM.

This is a small feat of IE10.

In another test called Phone Mark, the results are quite predictable: the Huawei W1 outperforms the performance of the Nokia Lumia 520 and HTC 8S.

The smartphone has only 4GB of permanent memory installed. And this is not enough. Working with microSD memory cards in WP8 is organized in a peculiar way. When you first start with a new memory card, the system will offer you to use it as a storage for photos, videos and music.

A feature of working with the card is the inability to install applications on it. Those. in fact, only about 1.77GB of memory is available to the user and nothing can be done about it. You can forget about many installed games.

By the way, applications and games can be installed not only from the market, but also from the SD card. To do this, copy the installation xap files to the SD card, launch the market and select the sd card as the installation source:

After that, the application will install and try to authenticate in the market.

Another unpleasant feature of WP8 is temporary files that are created in the "Other" folder. In the last WP8 update for Huawei W1, a memory management utility was added that can clear the cache and remove installation packages. But the size of the folder "Other" is not affected.

► Games

In the market under Windows Phone 8 Not many games. Mostly arcades that are already well known on other platforms:

(Aces of the luftwaffe, Cut the Roap, Temple Run)

From the heavy free games I managed to find SIX Guns:

The game goes quite smoothly, with a slight subsidence of fps on difficult scenes.

► Software

If the theater begins with a hanger, then familiarity with the new phone usually begins with a firmware update. In our case, this is most likely a necessary measure, as there is no Russian language in the firmware.

The Huawei W1 firmware is a bit more complicated than the firmware on devices on Mediatek chips.

To install the firmware with the Russian language, we need:

1. Install the driver

2. Open the cover of the smartphone, remove the SIM card and memory card. Close the small round contact with the memory card slot on the metal cover of the SIM card slot.

and without releasing to press the power button. If everything is done correctly, then the smartphone should have a black screen. Now we connect the phone to the computer (contacts can be released). A device should appear in the device manager

3. Next install the QPST program. All programs must then be run as administrator. After installation, open the QPST Configuration, the phone should be automatically detected, minimize (do not close!) The program and open the eMMC Software Download program. Uncheck Program MMC Device. Then download the bootloader files and unzip them. In the eMMC Software Download program, select Load Build Contents and there specify the path to the contents.xml loader file and click Download. After that, the device manager should have the following device:

4. Next, remove the tick from the Program Boot Loaders and tick the Program MMC Device, select the Qualcomm MMC with the mouse and click Download. After that, Windows will offer to format the partition, click "Cancel". After that, disconnect the phone from the computer, pull out and re-insert the battery and press the power button. If you did everything right, then iWare uniBIOS FFU Application should appear on your phone.

, reconnect it to the computer and check the device manager, there should be the following device:

Qualcomm programs can be closed.

5. Download the flasher and firmware (Russian firmware GDR2). Open the flasher, enter the password “Huawei”, specify the path to the downloaded firmware and the configuration file WindowsPhoneDefaultsCfg.xml (located in the folder with the flasher), click Next and Scan && Download. The firmware process will begin.

6. After the end of the firmware on the phone will appear a big “OK”

and after that you can pull out the battery, insert the SIM card, SD card and turn on the phone

Source instruction

After turning on the phone, we will have a desktop in the corporate style of Metro UI:

After Android, everything seems a bit unusual, but after a couple of hours you get used to it and already you can easily navigate the system.

The settings menu in WP8 is not very extensive:

Separately, you can configure the parameters of basic applications, such as browser, maps, contacts and others:

Calls and SMS:

In the market there is a division into Applications and Games. Download games available from XBOX Live

Unlike Nokia phones, there are no proprietary utilities in the system. Everything is very standard.

Office 365 package with the ability to create and edit files:

An application for creating various types of notes One Note:

The default search in Bing:

Naturally, the default browser is Internet Explorer. As an alternative from the market, you can download the UCWeb browser.

Map application with the ability to load countries:

Navigation works fine. A cold start takes about a minute, a hot start takes about 10 seconds.

When connected to a computer using a USB cable, Windows automatically recognizes the phone and offers to download a synchronization management utility.

You can sync music, photos, videos, podcasts:

Or access files directly. Access is not open to the entire file system, but only to certain folders, such as: Documents, Image, Video, Music, Ringtones:

Did I like Windows Phone 8 or not? I liked it. At first, it annoys you terribly, because you don’t understand why you cannot change this or that parameter or why you work with a memory card in such a way. Probably this is due to the fact that Android so spoiled us, having received Root-access in which you can climb into any config and delete any file in a couple of clicks.

But do not forget that the OS is quite young and I hope that the developers will bring to life the work of the system in some areas in the near future. And of course, the Market, without good applications, it will be difficult to win a part of the market.

► total

Compact size

Good build quality

Smooth Windows Phone 8 Interface

Only 4GB of internal memory

The average quality of images from the rear camera

A small number of applications in the Windows Phone app store

This is a double review - and a Huawei W1 smartphone and a little Windows Phone 8. From this we can conclude that Huawei has a great smartphone. Except for claims to the quality of the rear camera images, there are no significant comments to the work. A decent screen, excellent build quality and smooth operation of Windows Phone 8 are quite a good combination, as for a budget phone.

You can buy a Huawei W1 smartphone at the DX.COM store at a price of $ 176.59 using a 10OCT599 discount coupon . Valid until October 31st.

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