MetroPCS announced Friday that the prepaid wireless carrier is launching Activa 4G, Huawei’s first LTE mobile phone in U.S. for only $149.
The announcement came shortly after that Cricket Wireless and Virgin Mobile decided to launch prepaid iPhones.
What is different about Huawei’s device is that the Activa 4G comes with a price at a very low end of the range for either 4G-ready or any Android smart phones. In addition, compared to Cricket, who uses Sprint’s EVDO network, and Virgin Mobile’s HSPA+, Activa 4G will run on MetroPCS’ LTE network, which is real 4G. Although that may not be as fast as Verizon’s or AT&T’s 4G LTE network, it is surely faster than normal 3G data speeds.
Corresponding to its price, the Huawei Activa 4G unsurprisingly offers an 800MHZ Qualcomm processor with Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system, a 3.54-inch HVGS touch screen and a 5 M video camera. The 4G smartphone interestingly has the movie “Kung Fu Panda 2” preloaded in its 4GB microSD card, which can be upgraded to 32 GB.
Currently Activa 4G is available in MetroPCS’s retail stores and also online for only $149 without contract. However that price may be just for a limited time as its website states the original price is $249.99. As for the service, the $40 plan includes unlimited talking, texting, and 250 MB data at 4G.
While Activia 4G is no match against smart phone juggernauts, such as an iPhone 4S, in terms of specs, but the big price difference may attract some users in the wireless market.
Huawei is a China based company whose major business is telecommunication equipment. Aiming to make a splash in USA, the company is expected to ship 60 million smartphones this year.
