The T-Mobile Pulse Mini Android 2.1 phone packs a lot of promise into a handset that costs under a hundred quid on Pay As You Go. While the specs might not turn heads, no shortcuts have been made on the software front, as it packs the very latest version of Google’s mobile OS, just like the flagship Google Nexus One and HTC Desire phones. But do we prefer a more vanilla, bleeding edge Android on such a small screen to the social networking skins seen on other cheap Google smartphones? Read our T-Mobile Pulse Mini review of the phone’s Android 2.1 flavour to find out.
Read the rest of our T-Mobile Pulse Mini review
T-Mobile Pulse Mini review: Android budget phone in depth
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T-Mobile Pulse Mini review: HTC Tattoo killer?
The T-Mobile Pulse Mini comes with the latest version of Android, 2.1, installed, which should be a surprising bonus on such a low cost smartphone, since it offers Google’s very best, speediest web browser, plus support for more than one Gmail account, security fixes, and a new pop up contact bar. To put it in perspective, many cheap Android phones ship only with Android 1.5 or 1.6, such as the Motorola Dext and LG GW620, so unlike its competitors, you can actually use Google Maps Navigation on the T-Mobile Pulse Mini. There’s no multitouch for easy pinch zooming however, but that’s down to the resistive screen technology.
Those core Android 2.1 additions are helpful, especially if you have a personal and work Google Mail account. Just as useful on a phone as small as the T-Mobile Pulse Mini is the quick contact bar which pops up when held over someone’s name, letting you choose how to contact them with easy to recognise icons.
But Huawei, the phone peddler that makes the T-Mobile Pulse Mini, has tinkered slightly with Android 2.1 however, slapping on some welcome extra homescreens. While the Android 1.5 HTC Tattoo leaves you with only seven panes to slap widgets and shortcuts on for quick glance access and information, the T-Mobile Pulse Mini offers up no fewer than 15 to whizz through, so although the 2.8-inch screen is tiny, you’ll have enough virtual screen real estate to keep everything you want available with a swipe or two, including a music player widget for pausing and playing tracks. Alternatively, a tap of the circular OK button brings them all up in a grid view.
While this more stock Android 2.1 lacks the tightly integrated Facebook and Twitter feeds of Friend Stream as seen on the HTC Desire and Legend Android phones, we don’t miss it a great deal. The Android Facebook app has come on leaps and bounds since launch, works perfectly on the T-Mobile Pulse Mini, so it makes up for it.
While social networking Android skin Motoblur isn’t a fair comparison while available only on phones with larger screens, HTC Sense on the HTC Tattoo makes Android much smarter on a small screen, despite the older core operating system, than Android 2.1 as seen on the T-Mobile Pulse Mini. At the cost of a slight performance lag when switching screens, you get a much easier to use UI, core apps loading faster (The T-Mobile Pulse Mini’s camera takes several seconds longer to fire up, and generally a more noticeable drag on closing apps) and most crucially, a better keyboard.
Unfortunately, the virtual keyboard on the Android 2.1 T-Mobile Pulse Mini proved infuriating for us. We’ve not got the smallest hands, admittedly, but even armed with the pull out stylus, we weren’t able to pick up great speeds, since accuracy was canceled out by the delay of the pointed end slipping on the smooth screen. Our repeat tests found we were able to type faster using the HTC Tattoo keyboard and its auto correct than the on screen T-Mobile Pulse Mini keyboard with fingers or a stylus. That’s down to the ability to roll across keys on it, not present on the T-Mobile Pulse Mini, even though they’re both using identical resistive displays.
Still, we have to give credit to Huawei for keeping up with the breakneck pace of Google’s Android updates, as the extra features it brings to such a cheap smartphone are helpful. Just don’t forget to tweak that keyboard when it comes to update time for the T-Mobile Pulse Mini please, fellas.
Read the rest of our T-Mobile Pulse Mini review
T-Mobile Pulse Mini review: Android budget phone in depth
T-Mobile Pulse Mini review: Size over substance?
T-Mobile Pulse Mini review: HTC Tattoo killer?
