ascend

Today, Huawei and U.S. Cellular announced the Huawei Ascend Y, a budget Android smartphone for first-timers. A few weeks ago, I got to briefly handle the Muve Music device.

With its Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS, the Ascend Y certainly isn't angling for tech-savvy users, or those ready to invest in a higher-cost handset. Its 3.5-inch touch screen definitely felt small compared with today's larger-screen phones, but its HVGA (480x320-pixel) resolution is appropriate for the display and looked fine. The Swype virtual keyboard will help compose text in tight spaces.

I didn't get an opportunity … Read more

We've seen many uses of machines in visual art, but few seem as promising as this configuration of dancing lights.

Just check out the amazing vid below, shot in Linz, Austria, at the Cloud in the Net festival.

Ars Electronica Futurelab managed to fly 50 synchronized quadrotors, effectively forming luminous pixels in the night sky. … Read more

BERLIN -- Huawei detailed its Android plans today, showing a half-dozen devices going on sale in October, a reworked version of the Android interface, and more of its ambition to grow into a company that regular people recognize.

"We are changing from an ODM [original design manufacturer] to a company trying to build our own brand, and we understand the importance of innovation," said Dennis Poon, who as Huawei's global user interface design director is on the front lines of some of that innovation. At the IFA consumer-electronics show here, he showed off version 1.0 of … Read more

SHENZHEN, China --Chen Lifang is a bit flummoxed.

Chen is a board member and senior vice president at Huawei, the giant telecommunications gear maker based here. She's digesting news that broke a day earlier that the U.S. House Intelligence Committee has increased the pressure it's putting on the company to disclose details about its ties to the Chinese government. The bombshell came in the form of a letter, released to the media, from the committee's chairman and the ranking Democrat to Huawei founder and Chairman Ren Zhengfei.

Really, the letter was more of an 11-page laundry … Read more

As expected Cricket Wireless added another Android device to its lineup this week with the Gingerbread-powered Huawei Ascend Q. Listed with a fairly reasonable and contract-free $139.99 price tag, the handset should appeal to consumers looking for their first smartphone.

Hardware for the Ascend Q includes an 800MHz processor, a bar QWERTY keyboard, a 3.2-inch display, and 3.2-megapixel camera. It's not top-of-the-line stuff, mind you, but it's more than what the target demographic is familiar with. Additional details include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and 3G connectivity, a 1,500mAh battery, and a 4GB microSD card with support … Read more

When it comes to Windows Phone 8, "ascend" is exactly what Microsoft needs to raise up its smartphone share.

That's why Huawei's commitment to produce a Huawei Ascend handset running Microsoft's freshly announced Windows Phone 8 OS is so key. Although the Chinese company isn't well known in the top-tier U.S. carriers, the company has a strong partnership with no-contract carriers like MetroPCS and Cricket -- two carriers that have plenty of midrange Android smartphones but no Windows Phone.

As smartphone demand continues to grow among these smaller carriers, it's crucial for … Read more

Huawei and "premium" don't often appear in the same sentence when you're looking at the company's smartphone history in the U.S. Yet, the unlocked, global version of the Huawei Ascend P1 offers a glimmer of hope in its eye-catching black-on-white design, its 4.3-inch Super AMOLED screen, and higher-reaching camera specs.

While the P1 is a good step, Huawei will still face plenty of competition at this level, including from the HTC One X and Samsung Galaxy S III, global front-runners with quad-core chips in their international models, excellent screens, and highly competitive cameras.… Read more

Remember the Huawei Ascend P1 from CES? Well, it looks like it could be coming to the U.S., thanks to a recent FCC filing.

Its ultrathin -- 0.27 inch thin, no joke -- and stylized white-on-black design is the Ascend P1's beauty that matches the brawn of its dual-core processor, 8-megapixel camera, and a cutting-edge Android Ice Cream Sandwich OS. I haven't been able to give the phone a thorough examination yet, but based on the features list and what we saw in January, I'd go so far as to call it the Huawei superphone … Read more

NEW ORLEANS--Huawei issued forth no formal product announcement at CTIA 2012, but I did find this new Android smartphone quietly sitting at Huawei's booth.

The Ascend Y200 is part of Huawei's latest strategy in naming families of phones. The "Y" stands for youth, which also typifies mass market, entry-level phones with smaller screens, slower processors, and fewer camera extras.

An Android Gingerbread phone, the Ascend Y200 has a 3.5-inch touch screen, a 1GHz processor, and a 3.2-megapixel camera with no flash. It's a fairly attractive phone nonetheless, with smooth, round lines and a … Read more