Huawei Ascend Y200 - Ascending From Its Peers

Introduction and Physique

All the Basics, Plus More

Huawei has been adding to the Philippine market some quality smartphones over time. We had the Huawei Vision last year featuring a 3.7-inch display with an Android Gingerbread operating system while the Huawei Honor was announced early this year. It is a 4-inch Android smartphone with a battery life that was promised to last three days. This time, we look at their entry-level smartphone - the Ascend Y200.

The device gave us a good first impression. At first glance, it has a number of similarities with the Lenovo P700 that we recently reviewed. The solid black bezel is present in both models that slightly hints an executive feel to its general appearance. On its interface, the Ascend Y 200 has the Options, Home, and Back buttons while the Lenovo P700 has the same plus a Tasks button.

Starting from the very top, the power/lock screen button is residing at the leftmost part of the device and in the middle is where the 3.5mm audio jack in is located. The wide speaker grill can be found right above the company name on the IPS LCD screen of the device and just a little to the right is the notification light that changes into four different colors - a feature that is not common for entry-level phones such as this. At the bottom lies the mini USB port along with the mic that picks up voice clearly while on call.

Turning it face down reveals the 3.2-megapixel camera that, unfortunately, doesn't have any kind of flash to go along with. Although with a price like that of the Y200's, small things like that can be easily forgiven. Beside the camera are the speakers which have the power to reproduce decent quality music and can be cranked louder than most of its peers. The quality is not super great but we think it stands out among the phones of the same category. Another extra feature of the Ascend Y200 is the dual-mic installed for noise reduction. It captures ambient noise while on a call and projects a converted sound in the earpiece to cancel out the background noise and let you hear the person more clearly. This is one of the extra features that make the Y200 one step ahead from its competitors in the same price range. In addition, the side of the device is clean except for the volume rocker located on the upper left side. Finally, popping the back cover open will expose the 1200mAh battery, SIM card slot, and microSD slot that supports up to 32GB.