Huawei Mercury hands-on

When we think about prepaid smartphones, they normally consist of plenty of low-end devices that are made to complement the inexpensive nature of the service. However, when it comes down to reasonably spec’d high-end stuff, they’re sparsely found anywhere. Well, if you happen to be a Cricket Wireless customer, you might be interested in the Huawei Mercury, which seems to be the best thing for the carrier.

Why’s that you ask? For starters, its specs sheet is littered with plenty of exciting stuff that makes it stand head above the water against most things. Checking it out for the first time, it has a shiny polished look thanks to its glossy plastic casing, but as we know, it tends to get dirtied very quickly by smudges and fingerprints. Nonetheless, it contributes to a super lightweight feel in the hand, while still feeling extremely compact in the hand. Another item that stands out from an initial onset is the pleasant looking 4” FWVGA (480 x 854) LCD display it’s flaunting. Indeed, it’s not the highest resolution out there, but combined with its screen size, it still provides from some clear details – while delivering some natural looking colors.

Under the hood, its single-core 1.4GHz processor seems to work effectively with the 3D-like effects found with the custom UI it's running on top of Android 2.3 Gingerbread. As for the rest, it features an 8-megapixel camera, VGA front-facing camera, 1,900 mAh battery, Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR, and Wi-Fi. In terms of pricing, it’s up there at $249.99 no-contract. Certainly, it might make some people cringe at first, but when you look over the rest of the selection on Cricket’s lineup, there’s good reason why it’s where it is.