Current best value Android Huawei Ascend G300

Jayop

nice_guy80 wrote: »

Bought this phone two weeks ago for the girlfriend

I have to say I'm impressed.
So much so, I think I'll get one for myself. The Nexus 4 is just too complicated to order

If I could afford a better phone I'd have one. I'd love an s3 or a nexus. As it is though the G300 is a little beauty for the price.

nice_guy80

the internet will not work on the 48 network for some reason with this phone

cannot get it to work. text and calls work fine
have changed the APN details
have turned data roaming on
cache deleted

0066ad

nice_guy80 wrote: »

the internet will not work on the 48 network for some reason with this phone

cannot get it to work. text and calls work fine
have changed the APN details
have turned data roaming on
cache deleted

I got it working with this app here from the playstore https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tweakker&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS50d2Vha2tlciJd

nice_guy80

0066ad wrote: »

I got it working with this app here from the playstore https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tweakker&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS50d2Vha2tlciJd

no joy with that

got it working, with help from the 48 support team

changed APN type to default,supl,mms

pickarooney

Does anyone find the camera usable at all? I've yet to take one picture that wasn't completely blurred. There's about a three second delay between pressing the button and the photo taking which is useless if the subject moves even a fraction. It seems to be the same with any smartphone I've tried though.

jambofc

ok bought one of these yesterday and when i go to about phone and look for software update it says there is none available,am i missing something here?
total newb by the way

Kristopherus

jambofc wrote: »

ok bought one of these yesterday and when i go to about phone and look for software update it says there is none available,am i missing something here?
total newb by the way

Is it unlocked? You can get it unlocked easily enough via a chap on ebay.ie. Then go here: http://www.modaco.com/topic/357243-explained-like-youre-5-install-custom-roms-from-scratch-install-the-official-ics-update-root-more/. This guide teaches you how to do all you want.

pickarooney

What launcher is everyone using? I'm not overly impressed with Trebuchet

Adyx

pickarooney wrote: »

What launcher is everyone using? I'm not overly impressed with Trebuchet

I'm using Nova, have been for almost as long as I've had the phone. It's speedy enough and has enough customisation options for me.

DamoRed

I bought one of these from Vodafone last week and since had it unlocked and now rooted and I'm quite happy with it. However, as a 3 Pay as you go customer, I've not yet been able to avail of their unlimited data their €20 top-up allows. Despite attempts by various shop staff and calls to 3 Tech Support, internet is still not working. They sent me an email with settings for the APN, but these do not fill some of the fields in the settings menu.

Here is the info sent..

We recommend that you please refer to the instructions in this email in response to your query.

Browser settings including URL & Proxy :
Menu
Settings
Connectivity
Network accesss point
Internet
connection name: 3
Access pont name: 3ireland.ie
Authentication: None
IP address: Automatic
Primary DNS: Automatic
Secondary DNS: Automatic
To change Home page
Open Browser
Press Menu Button ( Arrow pointing Down)
Settings
Homepage
User defined
Home URL: http://mobile.3ireland.ie/hb/HutchKey


You can also refer to our help and support section on our website for more information:
www.three.ie/support

Should you require any further assistance, please feel free to contact us on free phone 1913.

Kind Regards,

3 Customer Service


Can anyone help with this please?




Also, Is there any way I can completely get rid of the Vodafone stuff on there that's now taking up space? The largest offender is the 'Discover' box on one of the pages. It says preloaded apps cannot be deleted, but could a complete formatting, if such a thing exists, wipe that and the boot splash page?

Thank you

jgbyr

As you're rooted something like titanium backup can freeze or remove apps.

TM

pickarooney wrote: »

Does anyone find the camera usable at all? I've yet to take one picture that wasn't completely blurred. There's about a three second delay between pressing the button and the photo taking which is useless if the subject moves even a fraction. It seems to be the same with any smartphone I've tried though.

Might depend on what ROM/software and camera app you are using.

TM

DamoRed wrote: »

I bought one of these from Vodafone last week and since had it unlocked and now rooted and I'm quite happy with it. However, as a 3 Pay as you go customer, I've not yet been able to avail of their unlimited data their €20 top-up allows. Despite attempts by various shop staff and calls to 3 Tech Support, internet is still not working. They sent me an email with settings for the APN, but these do not fill some of the fields in the settings menu.

Here is the info sent..

We recommend that you please refer to the instructions in this email in response to your query.

Browser settings including URL & Proxy :
Menu
Settings
Connectivity
Network accesss point
Internet
connection name: 3
Access pont name: 3ireland.ie
Authentication: None
IP address: Automatic
Primary DNS: Automatic
Secondary DNS: Automatic
To change Home page
Open Browser
Press Menu Button ( Arrow pointing Down)
Settings
Homepage
User defined
Home URL: http://mobile.3ireland.ie/hb/HutchKey


You can also refer to our help and support section on our website for more information:
www.three.ie/support

Should you require any further assistance, please feel free to contact us on free phone 1913.

Kind Regards,

3 Customer Service


Can anyone help with this please?

Have you tried Tweakker APN as mentioned here?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=83258797&postcount=1174

If not then manually setting the APB details has always worked fine for me so once you know what they should be you should be able to configured.

Also, Is there any way I can completely get rid of the Vodafone stuff on there that's now taking up space? The largest offender is the 'Discover' box on one of the pages. It says preloaded apps cannot be deleted, but could a complete formatting, if such a thing exists, wipe that and the boot splash page?

Thank you

As jgbyr says Titanium Backup or something similar (ROM Toolbox? etc.) can let you freeze or even uninstall "system" apps that you are otherwise stuck with.

Or you could look at installing a custom ROM.

pickarooney

TM wrote: »

Might depend on what ROM/software and camera app you are using.

I'm using Cyanogen 9 and Pudding Camera (first one I found on play store) but if there's any better camera app I'll take it.

TM

There are a few camera apps mentioned in the MoDaCo CM10.1 thread because with that ROM the stock camera acts funny.

DamoRed

Thanks to those who replied with suggestions for the respective problems. Both have been sorted one way or another. It took a couple of days and a couple of reboots for the internet to start working. I did download Titanium Backup which is a very useful utility, but only the paid 'Pro' version would allow freezing of apps.

With regard to the Vodafone 'Discover' app, it was, quite ironically and appropriately an accidental 'discovery' that touching and holding an app allowed it to be dragged from its position, either to a bin which appears at the top of the page, or to another page. As a further extension of this, dropping one app on top of another creates a folder, which goes a long way to reducing clutter. I really don't care that it's still installed there. The problem was the space it was taking up for something I was never going to use.

The above is probably old news to most Android users, but being a newbie, I had to find out the long way myself. Still, I'm sure at least one will find it useful.

TM

DamoRed wrote: »

I did download Titanium Backup which is a very useful utility, but only the paid 'Pro' version would allow freezing of apps.

ROM Toolbox Lite may allow this too? If not then I'm sure that there are other options for (a) converting system apps to user apps and/or (b) deleting system apps. I think that link2sd supports this even if you don't want link2sd for its main job of moving apps to sd.

With regard to the Vodafone 'Discover' app, it was, quite ironically and appropriately an accidental 'discovery' that touching and holding an app allowed it to be dragged from its position, either to a bin which appears at the top of the page, or to another page.

It will still be taking up storage and maybe memory resources though. So if you really want to get rid of it you might need a tool that can freeze or uninstall it.

As a further extension of this, dropping one app on top of another creates a folder, which goes a long way to reducing clutter. I really don't care that it's still installed there. The problem was the space it was taking up for something I was never going to use.

The above is probably old news to most Android users, but being a newbie, I had to find out the long way myself. Still, I'm sure at least one will find it useful.

Ha! I never knew about the folder trick... Thanks!

clonadlad

MeijaICS's B10 update is available for anyone interested.

When I updated to Meija there's an app called GooManager. Anyone try an update their ROM from this app?

Adyx

clonadlad wrote: »

MeijaICS's B10 update is available for anyone interested.

When I updated to Meija there's an app called GooManager. Anyone try an update their ROM from this app?

Not on this phone but as far as I remember CyanogenMod on the Vodafone Smart used it. Was kind of confusing and fiddly but that could be the tiny screen. I found the server kind of slow too.

irishpancake

DamoRed wrote: »

Thanks to those who replied with suggestions for the respective problems. Both have been sorted one way or another. It took a couple of days and a couple of reboots for the internet to start working. I did download Titanium Backup which is a very useful utility, but only the paid 'Pro' version would allow freezing of apps.

With regard to the Vodafone 'Discover' app, it was, quite ironically and appropriately an accidental 'discovery' that touching and holding an app allowed it to be dragged from its position, either to a bin which appears at the top of the page, or to another page. As a further extension of this, dropping one app on top of another creates a folder, which goes a long way to reducing clutter. I really don't care that it's still installed there. The problem was the space it was taking up for something I was never going to use.

The above is probably old news to most Android users, but being a newbie, I had to find out the long way myself. Still, I'm sure at least one will find it useful.

For freezing apps, stopping autoruns, etc. moving apps, clearing cache, etc, etc. try Gemini App Manager

There are adds, but you can use Adaway to effectively make this and other apps add-free......

but remember, ads help devs keep apps free!!!

To remove system apps, being verrrrrry careful is the first thing......you could use this, Root App Delete

All above require a rooted phone!!!!

Peregrine

Ascend G510 to be announced later in the week

What do you reckon guys? Will I just buy a G300 now or wait for this? It'll be at least April or May til this comes out in UK..not even sure about Ireland

TM

clonadlad wrote: »

MeijaICS's B10 update is available for anyone interested.

When I updated to Meija there's an app called GooManager. Anyone try an update their ROM from this app?

Adyx wrote: »

Not on this phone but as far as I remember CyanogenMod on the Vodafone Smart used it. Was kind of confusing and fiddly but that could be the tiny screen. I found the server kind of slow too.

I haven't seen GooManager do anything useful for the G300 having played with it a bit. I also used it on the Vodafone Smart - I think to get CM7.2 on. And maybe also to update CWM but that may have been ROM Manager....

TM

Nimrod 7 wrote: »

Ascend G510 to be announced later in the week

What do you reckon guys? Will I just buy a G300 now or wait for this? It'll be at least April or May til this comes out in UK..not even sure about Ireland

No easy answer as far as I'm concerned.

"Around £120" probably means about €200 here!

I'm happy with my G300 but am not sure that it'd be the phone that I'd buy now as there may be better bang for your buck out there now.

I'd be more inclined towards a dual core with 1GB (not 512MB) of RAM at this stage.

But it's horses for courses and depends on your budget and needs I guess...

Peregrine

TM wrote: »

No easy answer as far as I'm concerned.

"Around £120" probably means about €200 here!

I'm happy with my G300 but am not sure that it'd be the phone that I'd buy now as there may be better bang for your buck out there now.

I'd be more inclined towards a dual core with 1GB (not 512MB) of RAM at this stage.

But it's horses for courses and depends on your budget and needs I guess...

Like what?

Ideally I'd like to keep my budget below €200, I was hoping I could switch and get the G510 for under 200 if it ever makes it into the market in Ireland.

irishpancake

Nimrod 7 wrote: »

Ascend G510 to be announced later in the week

What do you reckon guys? Will I just buy a G300 now or wait for this? It'll be at least April or May til this comes out in UK..not even sure about Ireland

Nimrod 7 wrote: »

Like what?

Ideally I'd like to keep my budget below €200, I was hoping I could switch and get the G510 for under 200 if it ever makes it into the market in Ireland.

China??

See here

Around €145-€150.....free shipping.

But, 512M RAM, not so good!!!

Also, this new GUI Emotion UI??

Probably better out there with 1GB RAM and similar cpu....but not branded Huawei.

clonadlad

TM wrote: »

I haven't seen GooManager do anything useful for the G300 having played with it a bit. I also used it on the Vodafone Smart - I think to get CM7.2 on. And maybe also to update CWM but that may have been ROM Manager....

It was a bit pointless really. You still needed clockwork mod to flash the ROM but it worked in the end. I thought it would do it for you or something handy but it just downloaded the file for me and I had to flash it normally then.

TM

Nimrod 7 wrote: »

Like what?

Ideally I'd like to keep my budget below €200, I was hoping I could switch and get the G510 for under 200 if it ever makes it into the market in Ireland.

Along the same lines as irishpancake's post...

http://www.modaco.com/topic/359664-anyone-thinking-of-buying-a-china-phone-such-as-the-newman-n2/

Back to custom ROMs... I'm still on CM10.1 R1 and was thinking of installing R2 (from scratch to avoid potential problems with existing data etc.) but having looked at MoDaCo again I'm wondering if I might be better off trying the likes of Stock+ (http://www.modaco.com/topic/360947-romics-stock-rom-b960-r3-updated-26-02/) or SlimROM (http://www.modaco.com/topic/360832-romics-b952slim-rom/) or something else? It sounds like they may be faster and more stable than CM10.1. Anybody got any experience? I like CM generally and CM10.1 for G300 in particular but it does have its quirks/bugs (e.g. can be a bit laggy, have to workaround the "3G reboot" problem with Llama toggle to 2G on sleep, camera issues (still haven't installed a replacement), battery life (?), some lockups/reboots - particularly if I power on immediately after a notification of an SMS/email etc., wifi hotspot/tethering doesn't work).

loyatemu

I rolled back from R2 to R1 of CM10.1 as I found the newer build very buggy (though I didn't do a clean install).

The likes of Slim and Stock+ are still built on Huawei's ICS ROM, which is garbage, so I'd imagine they also have their quirks. If you want a completely stable G300 you probably need to revert to Gingerbread.

TM

Thanks. I saw that some people had problems with R2 but I guess at least some of them could be related to not doing a clean install...

I also understand that some of the other ROMs are stock based but they do seem to attract favourable comment. The problem is that most of the feedback on all ROMs is very anecdotal so it's difficult to get an objective feel for how they all rank...

Guess I'll just have to try some of them out myself...

Kristopherus

loyatemu wrote: »

I rolled back from R2 to R1 of CM10.1 as I found the newer build very buggy (though I didn't do a clean install).

The likes of Slim and Stock+ are still built on Huawei's ICS ROM, which is garbage, so I'd imagine they also have their quirks. If you want a completely stable G300 you probably need to revert to Gingerbread.

I don't agree with you re the Stock +. I have tried almost all of the roms over the past 3 months. The big problem with Huawei's ICS rom was the volume of the ringer and earpiece. Most of the custom roms solved this. Meija rom, Shendu & the Re-packed Shendu are all excellent. Last week I went back to Stock Plus. It is rock solid, no crashes or reboots, and Cyda has bumped up the volume. For anyone thinking of getting it have a read of the reviews here http://www.modaco.com/topic/360947-romics-stock-rom-b960-r3-updated-26-02/.


I see there's another update dated for today. Excuse me while I go off to download it:D.

EDIT: Ensure you do a complete clean install of all these roms. That way you'll avoid or at least minimise malfunctions.