Review: Huawei Prism for T-Mobile
Screen
The Prism's display matches that of the original (pre-Retina) iPhone. It measures 3.5 inches across the diagonal, and includes 360 x 480 pixels. The size and resolution mean that it's pretty easy to pick out individual pixels. You can see the pixels along the edges of text and icons, and the screen door effect is apparent on some screens. It doesn't look horrible, but it is about as low-end as it gets with respect to the competition. The real weakness of this phone's display, however, is the brightness. It's barely bright enough for indoor use, let alone outdoor use. The screen is unreadable when taken out under a relatively bright sky. This means taking photos outdoors is going to be difficult and will include more guesswork than I'd like.
Signal
The Prism is a 3G phone, not a 4G phone. It supports HSPA at 7.2Mbps, and shows a "3G" icon next to the signal meter. In terms of signal performance, the Prism consistently found and connected to T-Mobile's HSPA network without problems the majority of the time. Signal strength varied, but the Prism was always able to connect phone calls on the first dial and never missed any while I used it.
Sound
Call quality impressed me. The Prism's earpiece produced warm voice tones and clear conversations. I didn't notice any static or noise during calls, and calls were free of fade outs and other nonsense. The earpiece produced excellent volume and could easily be heard over a raucous lunch crowd in a busy restaurant. The speakerphone was also good with quality and volume. Using it for calls didn't introduce any problems and the speaker was loud enough for use in the same noisy restaurant (though, yes, I got a few well-deserved dirty looks). The ringers and alerts were all loud enough, but the vibrate alert is too weak.
Battery
With its HSPA radio, smaller and lower-resolution screen, and single-core processor, the Prism is a battery life champ. I had no problem getting through nearly two full days of moderate use with the Prism. With Wi-Fi, GPS, and 3G pinging networks and pulling down email and social networking feeds consistently, I was able to manage a busy holiday weekend schedule with power to spare. Well done, Huawei.
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