There was a great deal of excitement here at The Madhouse a few weeks ago when this mysterious box arrived. Even I was excited and I knew what was inside !
We'd been asked if we'd like to try out a new Smartphone - the Ascend W1 - from Huawei, a mobile phone company that's relatively new to Europe and who have designed a Smartphone that is simple to use, aimed at teenagers/adults that are new to smartphones. They asked us to pass the phone on to a teen (well, Sophie will be 12 next month - that's close enough !) and use it to provide a ‘Window into your world’.
Before giving it to Sophie, I had a play myself and was actually very impressed. This is supposed to be a low budget phone (it costs £129 on PAYG with O2) but it really looks the business.
We love the snazzy pinky-red colour (it's also available in blue) and it's lightweight and slimline. I'd be proud to be seen on the street with this, not hiding it away because it's a low-cost option. In fact, I'd have guessed a much higher price tag, even after having a very close look at it.
As you'd expect, it has a camera which can be flipped around so you can take a photo of yourself without stretching your arm out in front of you and chopping off half of your head ! The screen resolution is pretty good too.
OK, time to hand it over to Sophie who was excitedly waiting in the wings. So excitedly that she was almost fit to burst actually !
The first "Window to her World" is that she can talk the hind leg off a donkey and spend hours giggling on the phone to her friends !
She also managed to jump straight in and use Facebook and twitter on it, but that particular window to her world had the curtains closed - I was told that they were private and I wasn't allowed to blog about them !
I did discover that she likes sending funny photos like this to her friends though !
I also discovered that she likes taking photos of her little brother - awwwww !
In terms of apps, you need to go to the Windows website to download apps. We thought there was a great choice available and Sophie found everything she wanted. This is maybe where you can tell that we're just starting out in the world of smartphones though because those who are more "in the know" did say that some popular apps were missing.
Overall, it's a great phone though and it certainly fits the bill as an ideal starter smartphone. Sophie loves using it for youtube, facebook, google, twitter, email, taking photos and generally showing off because it looks so cool ! She could happily spend several hours a day just moving the tiles (for the different apps and features) about on the homepage and changing their size and colour and I'm sure we've only scratched the surface of what it can do at the moment !
star rating : 4.5/5
RRP : £129 on PAYG O2
for more information : http://www.o2.co.uk/huawei/ascend-w1
Check out what everyone else has been saying by searching for the hashtag #w1ndows on twitter and facebook
Disclosure : We received a #w1ndows smartphone with £50 of credit in order to write an honest review.
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Looks like a great phone, I think my son would love one
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