Huawei Gaga U8180 Review

Last Updated on Thursday, 05 January 2012 21:36 Thursday, 05 January 2012 21:21

With iPhones costing upwards of $400 people are beginning to question if Android, the open source operating system, is the way to go. Android has proven hugely successful in offering just about everything iPhones offer - except the price tag. Which means for phones running Android, it really comes down to a question of hardware and its ability to handle the operating system.

The Huawei Gaga (U8180) is sold as a budget smartphone. We got our hands on one at Tesco for just under €60. Which is about as low as it can go for a smartphone. It runs Android 2.2.2 and comes with the bare minimum to get you up and running, that being the phone and charger. Some pretty woeful instructions are included but for anybody using a smartphone, if you can't figure out out to google Android, stick with the house phone.

The phone is pretty solid, it doesn't feel cheap or flimsy. The screen size is 2.8 inch, which for a touch screen is pretty small and this makes itself felt when it comes to texting or using the keyboard. Those with stubby fingers will be a bit peeved off but it is manageable with practise.

A 3.2 megapixel camera takes okayish shots. You won't be winning any awards with the pics and its pretty crap in low light but for the price, we're surprised there isn't some old 1.2 megapixel camera tossed in as an afterthought.

I've been using mine now for the past month and first impressions stick - this is a great phone for the price. It runs Android without a hitch, has wi-fi, radio and a reasonable battery. Android of course offers the ability to pretty much customise the phone as you want so the vanilla out-of-the-box screens and apps can be changed to whatever takes your fancy. You will need to buy a storage card for the phone so add another few bucks onto the phone price for a fully operational smart phone.