Current best value Android Huawei Ascend G300

mcpaddington

ArtVandelay76 wrote: »

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Capacitive-Screen-Cortex-Android-SmartPhone/dp/B008C0PAFU/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1353671548&sr=1-1

Does anyone have any opinion on this chinese android phone, you can get one for around €100 directly from chinese websites.

It's pretty bad, it only has 2GB of storage with no sd card slot.

twirlagig

I am getting one of these, I hope , in a couple of weeks. Had a look at my friends one and really liked the look of it. Getting it from my local vodafone store. I want to unlock it and keep using the o2 network. Talking of unlocking, a local place near me has told me they can unlock it for €30, but it takes approx 24 hours to come through - After reading here, I am presuming they are using one of these ebay cheap unlocking services, but charging me a whopping fee for passing the info on!? :rolleyes:
Anyway, is unlocking it enough to do? I see lots here about ROM and rooting etc and tbh, I'm lost... I had a prehistoric iPhone that finally gave up a few weeks ago after a LONG period of freezing/crashing. Really miss having the phone for boards, thejournal, rte, facebook and a few photo apps.. Do I really need to do all the other bits that I'm reading about here? I don't mind vodafone bits being still on it, wouldn't bother me that much. I'd be afraid I'd fcuk it up if I go tampering with it. I think I'd manage the ebay unlock thing alright though

ArtVandelay76

mcpaddington wrote: »

It's pretty bad, it only has 2GB of storage with no sd card slot.

Thanks, but it takes an micro SD card up to 16gb.

eamonnq

twirlagig wrote: »

Talking of unlocking, a local place near me has told me they can unlock it for €30, but it takes approx 24 hours to come through - After reading here, I am presuming they are using one of these ebay cheap unlocking services, but charging me a whopping fee for passing the info on!? :rolleyes:

Jaysus, I would unlock it and upgrade it for €30 !!

M cebee

i'm going to buy an unlock code

do i also have to root the phone and will the warranty be affected
thanks

Adyx

twirlagig wrote: »

I am getting one of these, I hope , in a couple of weeks. Had a look at my friends one and really liked the look of it. Getting it from my local vodafone store. I want to unlock it and keep using the o2 network. Talking of unlocking, a local place near me has told me they can unlock it for €30, but it takes approx 24 hours to come through - After reading here, I am presuming they are using one of these ebay cheap unlocking services, but charging me a whopping fee for passing the info on!? :rolleyes:
Anyway, is unlocking it enough to do? I see lots here about ROM and rooting etc and tbh, I'm lost... I had a prehistoric iPhone that finally gave up a few weeks ago after a LONG period of freezing/crashing. Really miss having the phone for boards, thejournal, rte, facebook and a few photo apps.. Do I really need to do all the other bits that I'm reading about here? I don't mind vodafone bits being still on it, wouldn't bother me that much. I'd be afraid I'd fcuk it up if I go tampering with it. I think I'd manage the ebay unlock thing alright though

If you're happy enough using the stock rom, there's no need to change it. Do upgrade officially to ICS though. If you do decide to get rid of the Vodafone crap, you only need to root which takes 2 seconds and is fool-proof.

M cebee wrote: »

i'm going to buy an unlock code

do i also have to root the phone and will the warranty be affected
thanks

You don't need root to unlock and as far as I know it won't affect your warranty - Vodafone themselves will even unlock it so I don't see how it could.

polder

could you give me the unlock code for this phone?

Kristopherus

polder wrote: »

could you give me the unlock code for this phone?

Welcome to Boards. You will have to buy an unlock code. They cannot be given out here. Google is your friend if you want to do it online. If not, then your local friendly unlocker who operates down some lane will do it for anything from €10 to €30.

pbarr

I got mine unlocked here:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=251050783250&clk_rvr_id=347361189525#ht_2431wt_1185

Bought it Saturday got unlock code back today.

Thanks to Jarren who posted this at the beginning of this thread.

mcpaddington

You can unlock it for free

Kristopherus

How & Where?

mcpaddington

Kristopherus wrote: »

How & Where?

http://www.modaco.com/topic/358599-how-to-free-sim-unlock-your-g300/

Kristopherus

mcpaddington wrote: »

http://www.modaco.com/topic/358599-how-to-free-sim-unlock-your-g300/

Thanks, McP, but that only works with a stock rom. I've put Infusion on mine.

jgbyr

Kristopherus wrote: »

Thanks, McP, but that only works with a stock rom. I've put Infusion on mine.

I thought you had to be on a stock rom to unlock the phone. I remember when I did mine I put on a stock rom just long enough to unlock it and then went back to infusion.

mcpaddington

Kristopherus wrote: »

Thanks, McP, but that only works with a stock rom. I've put Infusion on mine.

Just make a backup of your current rom, flash stock ICS then unlock it and finally reflash the backup

TM

In case anybody here was not aware tillaz at MoDaCo has a B06 (Final) update to his Infusion ROM with some nice new features (e.g. an overclocking kernel and various fixes). Certainly seems to be one of the most popular and maybe the best (?) custom ROM available right now.

http://www.modaco.com/topic/355994-rom-ics-infusion-261112-final-b06/

flugel

TM wrote: »

In case anybody here was not aware tillaz at MoDaCo has a B06 (Final) update to his Infusion ROM with some nice new features (e.g. an overclocking kernel and various fixes). Certainly seems to be one of the most popular and maybe the best (?) custom ROM available right now.

http://www.modaco.com/topic/355994-rom-ics-infusion-261112-final-b06/

Been waiting to update phone for a friend, not mine so only want to update once not having to update / fix on an ongoing basis. Think I'll wait another while see how CM9 works out. Great to know Infusion is complete, by all reports seems to be a great rom, just gonna see what CM9 brings to the table! :-)

TM

Just checked the CM9 thread and it seems to be coming along nicely alright. Not sure how the latest versions of Infusion and CM9 stack up against each other. Anybody here try both of them?

My preference would be for CM9 if it was stable and full featured enough for daily use. Might just give it a go... Think I read somewhere that CM9 has hardware acceleration but stock based ROMs such as Infusion do not?

One of the posts on the CM9 thread says that CM10 should be ready (i.e. fully featured and stable?) in a couple of weeks...

http://www.modaco.com/topic/359115-ics-cm9-404-cyanogenmod-9-for-the-huawei-ascend-g300-rom-last-updated-2311/page__st__1060#entry2058853

Update: even tillaz seems to give CM9 the nod here!

http://www.modaco.com/topic/359375-rom-infusion-vs-cm9-vs-others/#entry2058492

Kristopherus

Went on to Pbarr's link last night and purchased the unlock code. After that I installed a stock ICS. Got my unlock codes this morning. Worked first time Thanks to McPaddington, Pbarr & Jgbyr. Now have Infusion saved on the sd card as I'm happy for now with the stock ICS as it has no bloatware.:D:D:D

antomorro-sei

TM wrote: »

Just checked the CM9 thread and it seems to be coming along nicely alright. Not sure how the latest versions of Infusion and CM9 stack up against each other. Anybody here try both of them?

My preference would be for CM9 if it was stable and full featured enough for daily use. Might just give it a go... Think I read somewhere that CM9 has hardware acceleration but stock based ROMs such as Infusion do not?

One of the posts on the CM9 thread says that CM10 should be ready (i.e. fully featured and stable?) in a couple of weeks...

http://www.modaco.com/topic/359115-ics-cm9-404-cyanogenmod-9-for-the-huawei-ascend-g300-rom-last-updated-2311/page__st__1060#entry2058853

Update: even tillaz seems to give CM9 the nod here!

http://www.modaco.com/topic/359375-rom-infusion-vs-cm9-vs-others/#entry2058492

Hmm. CM10 is JB, right? May wait for that, if it is!

TM

antomorro-sei wrote: »

Hmm. CM10 is JB, right? May wait for that, if it is!

Yes - CM10 is JB. As far as I can tell from the CM9 thread and Dazzozo's comments CM10 (Android 4.1) may get parked and he/the team may skip to CM10.1 (Android 4.2) and this will take some time to get working. So I'd be inclined to go with Infusion or CM9 for now. I'm going with the latter as soon as I get the time to install!

twirlagig

I got this phone yesterday from local vodafone store and I've just ordered an unlock code from ebay - and boy am I glad I did! I have another very basic vodafone number that I just keep as my mam has free calls to me on it, so I popped that into the huawei last night as I couldn't resist having a play with it - had about €12 credit on it and was enjoying exploring it, about 2 hours later was having problems and checked my credit - was gone to €0.02! :eek:
I had planned to use my main o2 sim it once the unlock code comes through, but now I'm wondering... What network do any of you find best value for using internet/apps etc? Would I be better off getting a 3 sim, I wonder?
Previous to this I've been topping up by €20 a month on o2, which gets me free texts to all networks and out of that €20, I buy a €10 internet add-on, which has always served me well. - Is vodafone particulary pricy or had I just used the wrong settings last night?
Also, have any of ye gotten any nice cases/covers for your Huawei that ye would recommend? Thanks in advance all!

pbarr

twirlagig wrote: »

I got this phone yesterday from local vodafone store and I've just ordered an unlock code from ebay - and boy am I glad I did! I have another very basic vodafone number that I just keep as my mam has free calls to me on it, so I popped that into the huawei last night as I couldn't resist having a play with it - had about €12 credit on it and was enjoying exploring it, about 2 hours later was having problems and checked my credit - was gone to €0.02! :eek:
I had planned to use my main o2 sim it once the unlock code comes through, but now I'm wondering... What network do any of you find best value for using internet/apps etc? Would I be better off getting a 3 sim, I wonder?
Previous to this I've been topping up by €20 a month on o2, which gets me free texts to all networks and out of that €20, I buy a €10 internet add-on, which has always served me well. - Is vodafone particulary pricy or had I just used the wrong settings last night?
Also, have any of ye gotten any nice cases/covers for your Huawei that ye would recommend? Thanks in advance all!

EMobile for 20 e a month you get 250 any network minutes unlimited calls to landlines 250 texts and 250 mb data.

newg300

Three is the only PAYG worth considering. €20 for 15gb, unlimited texts and calls

twirlagig

pbarr wrote: »

EMobile for 20 e a month you get 250 any network minutes unlimited calls to landlines 250 texts and 250 mb data.

Thanks for that, but the calls don't bother me much, I'm more into texting tbh and data usage - That data package seems low...

newg300 wrote: »

Three is the only PAYG worth considering. €20 for 15gb, unlimited texts and calls

I'm thinking of 3 too - but have heard bad stuff about their coverage, guess the only thing I can do is borrow a 3 sim and try it at home and see how it works here. I knew their data was meant to be good - didn't realise they had unlimited calls and texts - are they to other 3 numbers? Or all networks?

keredern

twirlagig wrote: »

Thanks for that, but the calls don't bother me much, I'm more into texting tbh and data usage - That data package seems low...


I'm thinking of 3 too - but have heard bad stuff about their coverage, guess the only thing I can do is borrow a 3 sim and try it at home and see how it works here. I knew their data was meant to be good - didn't realise they had unlimited calls and texts - are they to other 3 numbers? Or all networks?

Three to Three only but all free at weekends...midnight Fri to Midnight Sun I think!

twirlagig

keredern wrote: »

Three to Three only but all free at weekends...midnight Fri to Midnight Sun I think!

Not bad!

BostonB

twirlagig wrote: »

...Is vodafone particulary pricy or had I just used the wrong settings last night? ...

They are all nuts unless you set up a data plan/prepay data.

Journeyman_1

i think for €30/m with vodafone you can get free V2V calls/texts and unlimited data on prepay. not 100% on that though.

TM

With regard to good value mobile packages it's worth checking out these links:

http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=166125

and several existing boards.ie threads.

My suggestions...

48 GoConquer
LycaMobile

Check the details in the link above. Obviously various terms & conditions apply. I'm with 48 myself right now (me being 18 and all that - wink wink...) but am thinking of switching to LycaMobile depending on whether or not they continue to provide offers such as double online topup credit and €29 for unlimited everything (subject to fair usage limits as with all such offers).

Also - if your Vodafone credit disappeared rapidly then check (a) are you on a data package and (b) are you using the right APN address (e.g. live.vodafone.ie versus internet.vodafone.ie or something like that - I seem to recall that something like the latter costs a fortune while the former is the one to use in certain circumstances to control costs). Check with Vodafone if in doubt. Or just switch off data for the moment!