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$78 Huawei Ascend Y300 Telstra Pre-Paid Mobile @ Officeworks (RRP $99)

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Was browsing and found the Huawei Y300 is listed at the very friendly $78 price at Officeworks. It's usually $99 at DSE/Telstra with Target occasionally doing a $69 special if buy a $30 Telstra recharge. This appears to be the lowest it's very been. Doesn't say on the OW page but I believe these come with a $10 Telstra starter recharge.

Great value 4" (800x480) Android smart phone that's more usable than the bargain basement low-res $39.50 3.5" Huawei Y201 @ Coles. These can also be had on ebay starting at $96. Though Optus users may want to opt for the lower-performing $79 Huawei G300+ (when on sale) but with important 850/900/2100 support instead.

Specifications

  • 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8225 Cortex-A5 Dual-core, 512MB RAM, Adreno 203 GPU
  • 4" 800x480 IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors with scratch resistant glass
  • Memory: 512MB RAM, 4GB Flash with 2.5GB user space. Up to 32GB microSD external storage
  • 1730 mAH battery
  • FM radio, GPS, bluetooth, wifi. Can provide USB or wifi broadband tethering.
  • 5MP rear camera with flash, VGA front camera
  • OS: JB 4.1 User created ROMs at modaco.com inc MIUI, CM10.x and Kit Kat.
  • 3G UMTS: 850, 2100 MHz with 7.2Mbps data
  • GSM: 900, 1800, 1900 MHz

Unlocking options

Seek bagman's services who can unlock it for $5.49 here giving up to 48hrs turnaround.

Whirlpool page: Huawei Ascend Y300

Related Stores

Officeworks
Officeworks

closed Comments

  • Your bagman link is broke :)

  • Just thought I'd let anyone thinking of buying this know: I bought one of these as a spare phone and found Huawei's skinned Android to be pretty bad - The UI is laggy and riddled with bugs. I tried looking around to see how to flash a custom ROM (something closer to stock Android) but couldn't find any for this phone yet.

    • +4

      I'm guessing you are referring to the launcher? Not hard to change to another like Nova from the Play store. Or clear the settings and use the default android one instead of hwlauncher (EmotionUI) by following these instructions.

    • -2

      I have one of these as a second phone and found the overall UI not bad. I haven't even bothered changing to nova (and I am a paid user) coz although the phone UI does hesitate sometimes it's not that frequent. Maybe because my main phone is a Nexus S I tend to be more forgiving. :-)

      The things I don't like about this phone are (a) no custom ROM ability (although the phone is easily rooted) and (b) you can't put apps on the USB card memory as with other phones.

      • +2

        Really? I seem to have about 300mb of apps on the SD card in mine.

        Can't say I've ever noticed any lag in the UI either, unless you've got the thing flat out multitasking. Only 'bug' I've noticed is the old "music player sometimes starts when car bluetooth disconnects" and as I understand it, that's more an issue with Ford.

      • Have you read the original post? There are plenty of custom ROMs (CM 10.x, MIUI and even KitKat) linked there.

  • Seems like a good travel phone. Does anyone know Telstra's unlocking process/fees? Never been with Telstra..

    • $100 to unlock for new phones, $27.50 to unlock after 6 months.

      You can unlock with prepaid credit (but must be proper credit, not bonus credit). Honestly, bagman's service is more cost effective.

    • Link to unlock codes. https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/91771 Will cost you $5.49. This seems the most easiest and efficient way! :)

  • +1

    For $21 more you can get the Telstra 4G Frontier which has a faster processor, double the RAM, 4G, slightly bigger battery. Does the Y300 have any major advantage over the Frontier? It seems a big trade off in important features for only a $20 price difference.

    • Y300 has a better screen (IPS). Frontier 4G screen has poor viewing angle vertically and looks like a TN screen (probably is a TN screen). Colours appear wash out.

      Frontier 4G runs Ice Cream Sandwich. Not sure what ZTE did to the customisation, it feels sluggish / laggy. You would think it does not make sense given that the CPU is the same as Galaxy S3 US version (not the internaional exynos cpu ; Qualcomm M8960 - but still decent). Battery life isn't great either (4G does drain battery quite fast).

      It is true the CPU/GPU on Frontier 4G is better. It has more RAM and 4G support. The build quality and the software are both below par unfortunately.

      If you are into gaming or 4G is important to you and you are on a limited budget, then you could consider Telstra 4G Frontier. It is best you try it out first though. The screen is really below par.

    • Those Telstra ZTE are problematic for unlocking. Link has comments by bagman that he can't unlock all phones. If your using Telstra then no probs. If using another carrier then a bit pot luck. Y300 can be unlocked no probs.

  • Thanks for the heads up on "Though Optus users may want to opt for.. G300+.. with important 850/900/2100 support"

    Is this a real deal breaker?
    I'm looking for a phone for a friend who is on TPG(Optus)

    Anyone on optus with the y300 who can report if it's ok, or not?

    • +3

      Get the G300+ through Vodafone http://shop.vodafone.com.au/cart.jsp?bundleSku=sku1349050388… for $79 delivered. Bagman can then unlock for around $5.

      Don't forget you can get OW to pricematch. G300+ will work out to $75.05.

    • +2

      It's really not as bad as people make it out to believe being only single band on optus as long as you stay within city limits. 900 Mhz only really kicks in further out. I've been using only 2100Mhz on Vaya for the past few months and it's no different for me when I've been on a 900/2100. Go look on optus' website for the coverage map and look at the single band one and ask yourself if you'll ever really be out of those regions for an extended period of time.

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