Huawei continues its American push, this time landing the Mercury on budget regional carrier Cricket. The 4-inch Gingerbread smartphone will run a single-core 1.4GHz processor on a 4-inch screen, and the impressive addition of an 8 megapixel camera. Cricket customers can pick up a no-contract Mercury now for just $249.99.
The phone was previously known as both the Huawei Honor and the Huawei Glory, apparently pandering to the lucrative market consisting of fans of crappy American kung fu movies from the early 90s. Those who’ve had hands-on looks at the hardware came away satisfied, considering its low price. A bright 854 x 480 screen combined with a relatively huge 1900mAh should make all-day use an easy proposition. 2GB of internal storage can be supplemented by a microSD card slot. A VGA front-facing camera rounds out the package.
Unfortunately, neither Huawei nor Cricket will commit to an Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade for the phone just yet. It should be more than capable of running the latest version of Android, but both companies have a lot on their plate. This is despite the fact that very same phone is already being update to ICS in parts of Asia. Here’s a hint, guys: promise us an update, or better yet, forget the lackluster aftermarket UI and release an AOSP Ice Cream Sandwich phone, and customers will break down your door to buy it.
[via Cnet]
