Huawei G300

[Over Carl]

Just got myself one of these after seeing people mention them in the bst.

Got mine from the vodafone shop for !£100 + £10 credit. Guy at the shop said I would need to pay £20 to get it unlocked but I popped my 3 sim in there and it worked straight away. Seems like a fairly nice little phone. I've noticed the ringer is pretty much useless but apparently there is a firmware update to fix it. Not sure if I'll bother as I think I'll try and seek an ics rom instead. Ignore what's been mentioned on the web about this having nfc as that's only in the U8818 model and vodafone apparently only have the U8815 model.

Just about to flash to g888-unbranded but apparently need to do the vodafone g886 upgrade first to get the speaker sorted. Note: Once you install cwmrecovery, the phone doesnt seem to want to install updates from vodafone anymore. Probably best to upgrade to g886 then install cwm and newer roms.

Edit: The update really sorts it out, I would advise to upgrade through phone menu before upgrading to g888 as I had to manually downgrade to g884 to sort the ringer issue.

Edit: Was really looking forward to using the inbuilt SIP client to connect to my SIP server at home but the client appears to have been removed by huawei

Edit: The email client doesn't seem to work properly with exchange, sure there's a fix, may be as simple as downgrading to previous f/w, will report back when I figure it out.

Edit: Email problem fixed by turning power saving mode off.

[emu]

hi
my phone is off for repair at the mo and am looking for a stopgap

how would this compare to say an htc desire?

[Over Carl]

Sorry I'm not really in a good position to say - I've not really bothered much with smartphones, only ones I ever had were a couple of very old htc's and a couple of blackberries so haven't got much to compare it to.

Haven't really scratched the surface so far but can't go wrong for a ton brand new.

Last time I needed a phone late last year I went to my local high street to find the cheapest second hand phone on 3 - ended up with a huawei u7510 for £60 2nd hand which was an absolute pile of shite. Apparently huawei have announced there will be an upgrade for the g300 to ice cream sandwich this summer but haven't found a hacked rom for ics yet.

There's one ending on ebay in 5 mins that already has £74 worth of bids so you shouldn't loose a fortune if you bought then sold it on.

[emu]

just ordered one of these a stop gap

but just seen the nokia lumia is down to 99.99 now

hmm what to do

[emu]

mine arrived today if anybody wants to know anything about it

[Over Carl]

emu - you sound a little more up to date then me with phones so I would love to hear your general opinion. Also maybe handy for others to know whether yours also came unlocked.

I would advise to make sure you have your stuff backed up - a mate with a cheapo samsung wasnt getting calls so we put his sim in mine and it worked fine. As soon as I took his sim out, if I tried mine or his, my phone was stuck in a reboot loop.

Only way to get out was to use the cwmrecovery menu to delete all user data - i.e. factory reset but keeping the flashed f/w. This did the trick but I lost my contacts and even though I'm sure I told the phone to sync them with the gmail account it made me create, I didn't get the new contacts back.

Also the phone just doesn't seem like it's working quite right any more - I have a feeling it because I've been trying pretty much any free sip phone I can on there, once I've settled on one, then I'm gonna restore to factory again and won't install crap.

Other major nuisance, if I hold the phone at around 45°, it likes to flick to landscape which can be annoying. Still well happy for the money though.

Also mentioned in another thread, initally I couldn't connect to an exchange account - this is because the day before, power saving mode started due to low battery and I needed to stop power saving mode.

Got my hotmail on there - POP3 mode is shit, errors after just a few emails then have to wait ages until it will do another batch. IMAP/Exchange is much better but still a pile of shite compared to a blackberry with regards to email - sometimes messages don't come for a while then come all together even when on the wifi.

[purpleanimal23]

Also mentioned in another thread, initally I couldn't connect to an exchange account - this is because the day before, power saving mode started due to low battery and I needed to stop power saving mode.

Got my hotmail on there - POP3 mode is shit, errors after just a few emails then have to wait ages until it will do another batch. IMAP/Exchange is much better but still a pile of shite compared to a blackberry with regards to email - sometimes messages don't come for a while then come all together even when on the wifi.

Try touchdown if you are a heavy exchange user, it wipes the floor with stock. I think there is a free trial.

[JonEp]

That power saving icon had me pulling my hair out for days till i realised what it was.

I never saw it on the Blade and the various roms I ran.

Two weeks on this is still a big upgrade on the blade. Bigger battery , larger screen and faster processor.

Only down side is the blade camera was able to cope better in low light (read corner of the pub with a book or newspaper) when taking pics of text.

[Rob1949]

Just bought one of these today - my first smartphone so I am on a bit of a learning curve. I have one question. After switching on and dragging the icon to unlock, the phone goes directly to the camera, instead of the home screen. Is this correct and and how can I change it so it defaults to the home screen. ? TIA.

[fladda]

Just bought one of these today - my first smartphone so I am on a bit of a learning curve. I have one question. After switching on and dragging the icon to unlock, the phone goes directly to the camera, instead of the home screen. Is this correct and and how can I change it so it defaults to the home screen. ? TIA.

The G300 screen saver works very well once you know how to use it. Drag the central 'cirlcle' downwards to unlock and to get the camera, 'left' for SMS, 'right' to take you back to where you were when the phone locked itself, and 'up' to make a phone call. It took me a week of using my G300 before I worked this out ;-)

Hope this is helpful,

Ralph

[JonEp]

Sounds like the camera app is open. Just close it down from settings / applications / force shutdown and try again.

[Over Carl]

Just got stuck in a reboot loop again. This time phone was on 1-2% battery, missed an incoming call then kept rebooting. Would be interested to hear if these problems exist on the stock rom. Managed to cure it this time by pulling the battery, starting up on the charger, then putting the battery in.

I've noticed all my widgets have vanished though, I think I may not re-enable them for now.

[emu]

having owned about 10 different smart phones this thing is superb for 100 pounds (mine came locked)

first thing i did was bin the vodafone rom and put on the generic rom

@rob1949 just check you are swiping right when you are unlocking (mine did the straight to camera thing for some reason as well) cant remember if it was before the rom change or not

the only tiny thing that peeves me off is the touch buttons at the bottom dont seem to be as responsive as they should

the screen and audio quality are very good for the money and wont be beaten at this price point

my case arrived today and ill be keeping this till the iphone 5 arrives

after owning a lot of high end android phones this does exactly what most of them did fine

[fladda]

[QUOTE=emu;3534126]having owned about 10 different smart phones this thing is superb for 100 pounds (mine came locked)

first thing i did was bin the vodafone rom and put on the generic rom
the only tiny thing that peeves me off is the touch buttons at the bottom dont seem to be as responsive as they should[QUOTE=emu;3534126]

What firmware version did you load ? I flashed my phone to firmware version U888 and this fixed the problem with the non-responsive menu buttons on the bottom of the screen. Also fixed the issue with the low volume of the speaker and removed all the Vodaphone 'bloatware'. However U888 is not an officially supported version and is it is not possible to easily go back to the original version.

Ralph

[Over Carl]

[QUOTE=fladda;3534195]

However U888 is not an officially supported version and is it is not possible to easily go back to the original version.

I believe to downgrade you need the version of U884 that loads from through the menus rather than cwm.

[Over Carl]

EDIT: DO NOT PURCHASE FROM THE LINK - THE ONES THAT ARRIVED DID NOT FIT CORRECTLY

I've run out of battery a couple of times already so just ordered two batteries plus charger from ebay for £7. DO NOT PURCHASE THESE! http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Q705-2X-Ba...item35bcc71ff7

I'm guessing the batteries will be fakes but at that price I'm not bothered. Also they claim to be rated 1400mAh while the one in my phone is rated 1500mAh and has different part number to the ones displayed.

[Over Carl]

I've run out of battery a couple of times already so just ordered two batteries plus charger from ebay for £7. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Q705-2X-Ba...item35bcc71ff7

Didn't fit my phone right - the new ones were smaller. Got one jammed in for a bit by using a load of matchsticks and the power graph actually seemed to be dropping more consistently than my original which would have little dips and peaks everywhere. However it's not the right size. Will see what happens with ebay.

[Over Carl]

Didn't fit my phone right - the new ones were smaller. Got one jammed in for a bit by using a load of matchsticks and the power graph actually seemed to be dropping more consistently than my original which would have little dips and peaks everywhere. However it's not the right size. Will see what happens with ebay.

They actually sent me a pair that fits my phone, and a charger that charges them (although you have to put the battery in about 2mm from the edge for it to work). Also hacked a bit of plastic from the wrong charger so I could charge both at the same time.

Each battery worked once, then one went nuts continually rebooting while I was trying to take a load of pics, then the other one refused to work, so it looks like I'm back to just the original battery again

[Rob1949]

@emu@JonEp. Yes, I was swiping in direction of camera ,instead of to the right !. Obvious now !. Thanks.

[emu]

this is a great starting guide
http://www.modaco.com/topic/353860-h...and-i-cant-do/

i did read tonight the b888 rom sorts a few issues out with the buttons so will try that

the xperia launcher works really nice on this phone with the weather widget

if anybody would like me to upload the packages to install i can