Touted as being the device to bring high-end specs with a low price, the Huawei IDEOS has is also calling Virgin Mobile its new home. A tipster sent us in the news and told us that it’ll be available from Dick Smith stores, with a little searching of the Dick Smith site it can be found here for a low $179, priced low as it will be network locked. At that price it will surely be a good little Christmas gift for that first time smartphone owner you know. If you’re a little unsure about the device, you can read Chris’ review of the IDEOS.
Source: Dick Smith.
I think Virgin prepaid and DJ $199 (unlocked) does not come with 4 Gb SD card unlike the CJ $159 deal. Some of the CJ IDEOS are unlocked, SKU numbers between 101xxxx to 105xxxx (i.e. the last 6 digits of the barcode). Avoid 106xxxx, they are locked and comes with only 1 backplates (Blue) instead of the Yellow and Blue.
Thanks for the tip NS-wp !
Better question (and poential reason to spend the extra $) is whether virgin has messed with the os and therefore would cause delays to any updates.. that would be worth the money in my mind..
From what I’ve heard, so far virgin have been the only ones not slapping bloatware onto phones. Personally, I’d be surprised if they started with the ideos.
Virgin are a subsidiary of Optus so most of their phones come with optus crap
I don’t know if this phone will go past Android 2.2
I don’t think we can say for sure if *any* current phone will go past 2.2… at least, unlike nearly everything else, this one *ships* with 2.2. At that price, it’s an experiment for me; if, after a year or two, I get to be fond of Android, and it’s still working, I’ll give it to the kids or chuck it in a drawer and buy a Desire or a Streak or whatever new shiny thing is *shipping* with the *current* Android.
wish virgin would hurry up and start getting some HTC phones!
Agreed!
Agreed, however I signed on with Vodafone for the desire hd because it took them forever. I can only hope by the time 2 years comes around I can return to Virgin Mobile…
Chances are more people use virgin prepaid than crazy johns
You wrote “At that price it will surely be a good little Christmas gift for that first time smartphone owner you know.”
Why delivering this marketing pitch? Why did you forget to mention the simple fact that buying crazy johns branded IDEOS and unlocking it online gives the end consumers better value?
Not a marketing pitch at all, this is a great gift. Not everyone is going to buy a locked device that is cheaper and then take the small risk of unlocking it. They just want a device thats going to work for them.
better purchase the crazy johns one and unlock
http://www.unlock-tmobilepulse.com/
20 US $ unlock fee
Any idea on the cost of unlocking it? Since its only 20 bucks extra to get an unlocked one why would you not.
You wouldn’t waste $20 if you were happy with Virgin…
the unlocked version is also available at dse.com.au for $199
http://dicksmith.com.au/product/E6826/huawei-u8150-android-trade-unlocked-mobile-phone
Crazy John’s selling them for $159 on prepaid.
Excellent! I was just at Dick’s, eyeing off Android phones. Amazing to see them still shipping with (in one case) 1.5! I handled the fakes on the wall to my heart’s content… HTC Wildfire feels very very nice, I was tempted, but unfortunately it’s locked to Telstra (and has 2.1).
The Huaweis are a bit cheap and plastic, but you can’t complain for the price… and since I’m already on Virgin prepaid, I think they just made a sale 🙂
Pffft, backordered 🙁
Not on Virgin’s page either
http://www.virginmobile.com.au/shop/ProductChooser/Handset/Prepaid
Virgin’s website is not updated all that regularly. They’ll probably appear in the store well before they pop up on the site.