The "New Weapon", Huawei Ascend G610-U20 [2014]!

Unlock to reveal Android awesomeness!

I'd like you to meet my "new weapon", the Huawei Ascend G610!

Yes, I received an upgrade early this year and I was able to finally replace my old phone. I'm not going to do a thorough review of this smartphone. I'm sure there are a lot of websites out there with in-depth reviews of this unit. I would just like to dedicate a post about it since I'll be using it as my main gadget in my future adventures (and in everything I do, really). Yay!

Wow. All of my gadgets are white. Well, the iPod Touch is black. (Left: iPod Touch 4G, Center: Ascend G610, Right: Xperia X8)

My Sony Xperia X8 has served me well, but I feel like it's starting to give up on me. So, I was pretty excited when the 2-year contract for my X8 had ended (Sorry, Xperia X8..) and I immediately went ahead and started tinkering with my new smartphone.

I'm no stranger to Google's Android OS. As you all know, the Xperia X8 also runs Android (although it was running the older Gingerbread version) and also my Nexus 7 2012 (which runs KitKat, the latest Android version at the moment). This unit runs Jelly Bean (4.2.1). Since I usually use my Nexus 7 for everything I do when I'm out and about, also as my main reading device, I got used to the little tidbits in Android KitKat's features. But it didn't really take me a long time to get used to Jelly Bean again. I usually just use my Xperia X8 for texting or calling, so I'm used to using Android Ice Cream Sandwich and above because of my Nexus 7. The Huawei G610 also has a custom UI on top of Android, called the Emotion UI (version 1.6 on this unit), which I don't like. Fortunately, there are a lot of launchers available for Android. I immediately installed Nova Launcher because I think it comes closest to Stock Android.

I've placed a handy set of toggle switch widgets accessible directly from the lockscreen. The wallpaper's a picture of my Hatsune Miku Nendoroid. Slapped my logo, then viola!

This is the first time that I've had a smartphone with a screen this huge! It has a 5-inch screen that looks very nice. I know that there are a lot of other smartphones out there (a ton, actually) with better-looking screens but I guess, since this is my first smartphone with an enormous screen, I'm quite satisfied.

The Huawei's camera is sufficient enough for me to produce pictures for my reviews.

I used the G610 for taking pictures of the AG Genoace and AG Gundam AGE-1 Normal reviews.

This is the Camera FV5 app. It's simple. (I kinda don't like the other camera apps on Google Play. Too colorful. I want things simple.)

I'll also be using this as my main camera. It's just that the Nikon D5000 is so heavy, so I'm having difficulty carrying it around with me. Plus, I don't really know much about photography and the D5000's features, so I'm most likely not using it to its full potential. I usually just point-and-shoot, to be honest. The Huawei G610 has a 5MP rear-facing camera and a 0.3 front-facing camera (which I don't really use), so it will suffice for my photography needs. For the camera apps installed on this phone, it has a stock camera (made by Huawei, so it looks different to a stock camera on a Nexus device), and I've also installed "Camera FV5". In fact, I used the Huawei G610 to review the Advanced Grade Model Kits from last month!

My main homescreen. I tried to put all the essential apps and widgets on there. It's kinda like deck construction in Yu-Gi-Oh!. It'll never fit.

Since this will also replace my Nexus 7 as my go-to mobile device, I've installed almost all of the apps that I have on it, and also a few others that I wasn't able to install on my Nexus 7 before (like the Camera FV5 app). Apps for school (Adobe PDF Reader, Kingsoft Office, RealCalc, Edmodo, Merriam-Webster Dictionary), note-taking apps (Evernote, Keep), entertainment (MX Player, DICE Player), some widgets (Event Flow, DashClock), etc. There's just so many that I won't be able to post them all here. Oh, I've also rooted my phone. (But I can't seem to find a way to unlock its bootloader, which is a shame..) I've recently reset my phone back to factory settings (and reformatted) so I currently don't have any games installed on it. But, I was able to play Shadowgun: DeadZone on it before with no issues. No issues with battery life as well, as I was able to use it without charging for 2 days straight with moderate usage (with its brightness set to auto and WiFi always on).

So far, the Huawei G610 has been great! And because I now have this, I only use my iPod Touch solely for playing music. My Nexus 7 is used as a reading device, and also for school work that needs to be done on-the-go (since it's easier to carry the Nexus 7 because it's a tablet).

I can finally take decent pictures outdoors without bringing the D5000 with me!

That's it for my post about my new main gadget. I have a feeling that I'll be using this phone for a very long time. I'll see you guys on the next post!