Huawei's Ideos smartphone, announced today, is claimed by the company as the first affordable handset to ship with Android 2.2, the most up-to-date release of Google's phone platform.

I was briefly shown the new device at a launch event in London, and my first impression is that the handset looks like a smaller, neater version of last year's T-Mobile Pulse (which Huawei also manufactured).

The Ideos has a vanilla build of Android 2.2, with no user interface customisations such as HTC has with its Sense user interface. This is partly because Huawei co-developed the handset with Google, but also because such changes get in the way of users upgrading as soon as a new Android release is available, the company said

For a £99 phone, the Ideos looks pretty good and feels very responsive. Its screen doesn't appear to match up to the display quality of high-end devices such as the HTC Desire, but this is pretty much to be expected.

The Ideos does away with the mini trackball of the Pulse, and replaces this with a decent-sized five-way navigation key, which will frankly come as a relief to most users.

In the brief time I had to play with the Ideos, I was impressed with its on-screen soft keyboard, which seemed less tricky to use than on many touch-screen phones I've seen, Including Apple's iPhone, despite the relatively small 2.8in screen.

Huawei did not disclose the weight of the device, but it felt light compared to some high-end devices, and certainly no problem to carry around in a pocket.

Final judgement is reserved until V3.co.uk gets a review sample for a longer trial, but if the Ideos really is available at £99 SIM-free, it could prove a popular handset for those trading up to their first smartphone.

02 Sep 2010