Virgin Mobile Huawei Ideos U8150 Smart Phone
Android 2.2
2.8" capacitive touch screen
3.2MP camera
Includes $180 credit and 1GB data (28 days expiry)
Probably locked to Virgin
Also
I can't find it. It's in their latest catalogue.
do u mean u got one sent to you? upload?
cant find it anywhere online
Must be going in next weeks catalogue as it certainly isn't in the one that appeared in my post box today.
page 17
That's an amazing deal, got mine way back for $99 at crazy johns
if any1 is curious, u can get these unlocked from dodgy places for around $15
where are 'dodgy places' located ? is there one in Melb ?
Chinatown in any capital city :)
i cant help u sorry (i got a unlocked one, but i did research before i got it). theres a bunch of threads on whirlpool tho)
I got an unlock code from ebay for $10, worked like a charm.
wohoo! Finally can replace my nicked one!
where is it?
that DGTEC box sounds mighty interesting…if it means you can watch ABC iView on your TV, i want one…
…however, THERE ARE NO ALDIS IN ADELAIDE! sadface
build one already!
ditto
the other choice is the kogan, so makes the DGtec seems like a great buy!
Is there a dedicated app? i wasnt aware iview allowed this stuff. or do u mean just web browse.
any body tried this?
Good deal. This phone has just been merged into mainline cyanogenmod: http://mjanja.co.ke/2011/10/huawei-u8150-merged-to-mainline-… - so it should be included in future cyangenmod versions, which is nice as it bodes well for future unofficial software upgrades.
Been using one for 7 months (bought in March 2011 from Crazy Johns for $99), and if you're curious the downsides are: The processor is a fairly slow, the camera is pretty ordinary, and the screen res (QVGA) is nothing to write home about … BUT it costs $59. So if you're after a lightweight cheap android phone for the Optus or Vodafone networks, then it's pretty hard to go past this.
Only way to make this even better would be if they were confirmed unlocked, or if there was a way to unlock them for free (unfortunately I have yet to see a way to unlock this model without paying that is confirmed to work).
DGTEC does not access Android Market like Kogan. Recommend SlideMe. As it is, youtube video shows Android 2.2 and ability to allow 3rd party apps so stick 'em on ext memory or use WiFi File Explorer. Use Astro for the rest.
Xyron,
no not iView, but iTV.
Any idea what file formats this'll playback in USB?
so is aldi going to offer a 60-day refund policy on this?
$79 at dick smith so pretty good deal
Got a Huawei u8150 myself while my gs2 was in for repairs. Great phone. Bought it at DS though.
It costs $14 to unlock with DC unlocker program that one of the members above stated (Might be slighty cheaper depending on exhange rate).
So pretty much $73 for an Unlocked U8150 (Also has wifi tethering)
Plenty of support/custom roms for this phone also. All available at XDA Developer forums.
Note: there are a lot of reports about the phone having a crap battery. Mine doesn't have this problem. Whenever it comes to new devices with batteries, I always calibrate the battery by giving it atleast 3 Full charge/discharge cycles which i recommend you doing if you're thinking of getting this phone. might actually get another one since its such a good price. Great deal OP!
I was considering this phone after I left my job and had to hand back the iPhone 3GS.
This phone was released in September 2010, and was low end even back then. Instead of getting one of these, I decided to buy a used 3GS for $200 off eBay because:
a) U8150 has a 240x320 pixel 2.8" screen, while 3GS is 3.5" and 320x480
b) U8150 has fixed focus camera, iPhone is autofocus (neither has flash)
c) U8150 cannot be used on 850MHz (Telstra and new Voda networks)
d) There is no multi-touch in the standard firmware. There is a hacked version that apparently enables it, but from what I've read it's still not the best.
My decision to go with 3GS was based on $70 Used for the U8150 off eBay. I simply wasn't prepared to step down that far from the 3GS which is already an old device.
Anyone who's used a "smartphone" before would probably only get this as a spare. And people who've never used a touchscreen phone are going to be very underwelmed by the performance and appearance of this one, and wonder what all the fuss is about.
I have one of these (from crazyjohns) and I found the battery doesn't last long if you are doing anything other than general phone calls/txts. I usually turn off the data and stuff when I'm not using it to save the battery, but for an example, at the Easter show earlier in the year, I left the data on, and from a full charge the battery lasted until about 3pm. That was just posting the occasional tweet (about 6 in total) and a couple of facebook status updates and half a dozen photos. If I am at home with the data on it lasts a bit longer, but still no longer than about late evening. Making a video pretty much uses up the battery quickly too.
Without the data on, the battery lasts several days.
I find the screen is too small for reading really, and the camera isn't fabulous, but it isn't completely terrible either. Its way better in full daylight. But pretty much useless in overcast/darkness/indoors.
some sample outdoor photos I took (sorry, didn't resize them. wanted the quality intact)
http://i.imgur.com/ijaGt.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/c8Sme.jpg
That said, its a great little starter phone if you aren't using it for everything. I use it mostly for phone calls/txts/twitter/facebook/and as a wireless hotspot for my ipod touch when I want to use an app that isn't on android.
I got the U8150 recently. Amazed at how capable it is for the price. However, the downsize is the terrible screen. Very low resolution.
I would look elsewhere for that reason.
Great price for this phone… undoubtedly. I'd consider it better than the Huawei X1 (U8180) for $71 Optus Online… being that this phone has an Adreno 200 GPU and more Custom ROM's available.
The X10 has also been reduced to $150… an amazing buy for the price.
It's a great little entry-level phone for $59. Make a good gift for young kids or parents/grand-parents that want to make the jump from dumb to smart phones. Also a cheap toy if you want to muck around in Android world.
I bought the U8150 when it was reduced to $79 at DSE a few months ago. My "dumb phone", Sony Ericsson k550i, had died (only temporarily at the time though…) and I thought the U8150 would be a great replacement with more features, especially at half the price of when I bought my k550i. If I had known the k550i had only temporarily died, I probably wouldn't have rushed out to buy this.
$59 is a great price for a smart phone, but having now read most of the comments on this post , even if you are a budget phone user that wants just that little bit more than a ~$30 simple phone, it's probably worth spending around the mid $100 mark to get a better hardware-capable phone.
Opinions from a previously dumb-phone only user
Pros
* Cheap!
* Feel slightly more technologically advanced because it's not a "dumb phone" :D
* Lots of apps available through the Marketplace
* Has wifi, so I can surf the net, stream music and video, get e-mail/social-networking updates, etc
* It's like a really low-powered PC, which can be handy at times
Cons
* It is slow! Just even turning it on will give the user a great feel of what's coming. The power on video animation g-o-e-s s-o s-l-o-w.
* Slow response with opening apps, even just basic Messaging at times (the default app to send sms, etc)
* Texting feels very slow and I had to find an app to support T9 so I could sort of type without looking, but it doesn't compare to real keys. I feel texting accuracy is much higher with a physical, tactile keyboard than an onscreen keyboard
* The camera output was much better on my k550i, despite the k550i being 1.2mp less.
* The u8150 has also no camera flash, which can also mean no handy quick torch without installing an app. The k550i had 2 mega bright LED lights.
Screen is too small to fully utilise power of many android apps
* Quite a few apps are not support and cannot be downloaded from the Marketplace, including Tetris :(
* Small phone memory, which becomes an issue when some apps just can't be moved to the SD Card
* Probably more an Android gripe than a u8150 issue: The locking screen is annoying in that I don't like the slide to unlock and I have caught my phone randomly dialing contacts at times, which is very expensive for me as I'm on pre-paid.
* Battery life is poor, 3-4 days max, but I understand this is standard for all smartphones. I'm used to "dumb phones" that can last on a up to 10 days, haha!
* A dumb phone is definitely more durable and I wince much more if I drop this…
* Fingerprints :(
I tend to keep my phones for about 3+ years, so following that, I won't be upgrading until 2015. Maybe before then, there will be much better performing phones at this price point and I may switch earlier.
TL;DR: Great price for a smart phone, but probably better off spending around $150 for a phone that will better showcase android.
can anyone confirm if you buy it from somewhere other then ALdi and get them to price match will you still receive the $180 credit and 1gb data?
Does any firmware offer an improvement in the video recording ?
Its 352x288 CIF resolution at 15fps video recording.
If I can bump it to VGA at 25 or 30 fps I would love to grab this phone.
Just found the Aldi's link to the STB: http://www.aldi.com.au/au/html/offers/2827_19587.htm
But there are things that I still not sure with - can anyone shed some lights?
- It seems you can use that with a wireless keyboard + track-pad as mentioned on the DGTEC site and their YT channel, but it doesn't say whether it will come with the STB as standard or not though - it's kinda hard to surf the web w/o the keyboard, but it may cost more than $120 in total if we need to buy that separately…
- The wireless KB+TP (http://www.dgtec.com.au/products/set-top-boxes/DG-WKB3001) seems like the one we can get from sites like DX or eBay, I guess we don't need to stick to the DGTEC one.
- Can it play flash video? (I mean playing flash video like ABC News 24 feed)
- Do I need to stick to Kudroid for apps? Or I can still download apps from the market by accessing the market through the web browser.
But I think I will get it anyway, and return it if I am not happy … :)
bear in mind these are locked to Virgin, not to Optus.
I put a LiveConnected sim in a Virgin U8150 (at DSE a few months ago) and it did not work.
you sure it wasn't a vodafone u8150? (dick smith also see them)
nup, definitely a virgin 8150 from dse - was a person I work with who has virgin sim so they got a virgin 8150.
thanks for bring that to my attention. i might get optus x1 instead ($71) as i want to use a tpg sim. http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1673768 also seems to support that the phone is virgin-locked.
hey, i just noticed dick smith has dropped their virgin u8150 price to $59 as well. i don't know if you get the extra credit/data though. at least you should be able to test if your sim works before buying.
http://dicksmith.com.au/product/E6835/virgin-huawei-u8150-an…
edit: never mind, hardly any stock.
thanks for that!
seven hills and strathfield aldi were instasold out
Bought this yesterday. Activated the SIM but did not get the $180 credit. Called Virgin three times and after about 2hrs, finally worked out that Virgin has not updated their system to add the credit to this deal. It may take up to 15 days before I can see the credit!!
15days is not a guarntee, what i have been told is no time frame is set.
Good on u, better give it back to aldi
got one from dicksmith.. it comes with 4gb microsd card
Does it come with call credit?
yes $180 virgin
have you checked your balance. In my case, i got only 5 bucks credit
Bought this on Saturday. Activated the SIM but get $5 credit rather than $180. Called Virgin and being told ALDI should respobsile for adding the promotion into my account. Then call ALDI , being told nothing but would contact me later. Very shitty deal really.
being contacted by nice Aldi lady from its customer service and credit now is on.
My local Aldi (Maribyrnong) didn't have any stock when I went 5 Nov, but now has about 6 or 8 in the display case. I bought one…couldn't resist!
i had trouble activating mine online. i didnt know that there was a deadline to get the $180 credit. i called today and was told that the sim had to be activated by nov 30th . i told them i had been trying all day before the deadline and luckly they agreed to credit my account within 48hrs
where's the link ?