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Huawei Honor lands in America on Cricket Wireless, gets rebranded to the Huawei Mercury

Categories: Android, Cricket
By: , IntoMobile
Tuesday, December 20th, 2011 at 4:29 AM

No one in living in a rich Western country takes Huawei seriously because of their reputation for making cheap low end Android smartphones. All that’s about to change thanks to the Honor. Announced back in late August, we got some hands-on time with the Honor earlier this month and came away impressed. Make no mistake, it’s no where near the fit and finish of something like the Samsung Galaxy S II or Apple iPhone 4S, but it’s a huge step up from previous Huawei devices. Best of all, it’s still priced well within most people’s budgets. When we played with the Honor we were told it would come in at less than $300 unsubsidized. Today we can finally confirm that the Honor is indeed coming to America and that it’s going to cost just $250. You’ll be able to pick it up on Cricket Wireless, who is calling the device the Huawei Mercury. You’re looking at a 4 inch 854 × 480 pixel screen, 1.4 GHz processor, 8 megapixel camera, and 3G connectivity, though we’re only talking EV-DO here.

Should you buy it? That’s a really hard question to answer. Cricket isn’t really a national operator. They have roaming agreements, sure, but there’s a reason they have only 7 million customers. Their $55 per month unlimited everything plan is awesome, but you’re limited to EV-DO for 3G. If money really is an issue, then why not get a $40 per month plan with Simple Mobile? Then you can get whatever smartphone you want, likely something used since it’ll help you save some pennies, and have pretty much have the exact same level of service. Huawei probably doesn’t want to hear that, but that’s their problem. They should start selling their devices unlocked on Amazon or at Best Buy to expand their reach.

Anyway, what do you think, is the Honor/Mercury the device you’ve been looking for?

About The Author

Stefan Constantinescu

Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.

  • Anonymous

    As you probably can tell from my previous posts, I’m super stoked about smartphone democratisation, Chinese manufacturers producing viable hardware at a low price, I’m totally game.

    Depending on UK prices, It might be a recommendation for some of my tight friends and relatives

    • http://www.intomobile.com/ Stefan Constantinescu

      Yea it should come to the U.K soon, we don’t have any exact details about that.