Huawei SnapTo hands-on

Here in the US, Huawei is still commonly known to do a lot of business in the entry-level segment of the smartphone market. Normally, we’re dealt with aggressively priced on-contract phones, but this time around, they’re going the no-contract route with the Huawei SnapTo, which was just announced recently. During Pepcom’s DigitalFocus event held in New York City, we caught up with the Huawei folks to check out this new, affordably priced device.

Contemporary, that basically sums up the SnapTo’s design. It doesn’t try to be ornate or extravagant, evident by its straightforward design language, but at least it doesn't exude that downright cheapo feel. Sporting a plastic body, one that features a pleasant “leather-texture finish” with the rear, it helps to offer a grippy feel in the hand – while the smoother plastic bezel around the sides is a nice contrast. Needless to say, the design won’t earn any awards, but like we mentioned already, it’s merely straightforward and ordinary.

The 5-inch 720 x 1280 display is passable for most things, but it’s clearly a low quality panel in there. Why’s that? Well, there’s a subdued tone with the display, one that results in giving it a profound colder tone – so whites exhibit a bluish hue. Viewing angles aren’t that great, made more obvious by the visible distortion at wide angles. And finally, it just lacks the pizazz to capture our attention. At the very least, however, 720p resolution dishes up enough detail.

Running Huawei’s customized Android 4.4 KitKat experience, it’s fashioned in the way that everything is accessed through the homescreen. Meaning, there’s no dedicated apps panel, so all the icons are placed on the homescreen. Considering this is geared towards the entry-level segment, we’re not totally surprised that the experience is pretty superficial in what it offers. It’ll handles all of the basics, but don’t expect an array of secondary features to supplement the usual Android stuff.

Rounding things out, it feature a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 chip, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage, 5-megapixel rear camera, and a 2-megapixel front one. All in all, this is something that would appease those on a tight budget – more so if they prefer the no-contract route. Slapped with a $179.99 outright price, you can pick this phone up soon through a handful of online outlets.