Yesterday, Huawei paraded out its new Androids, the Ascend D2 and Ascend Mate, at its CES press event, but the Ascend W1 Windows Phone 8 handset, which the company has previously said would make a CES appearance, was oddly absent. Afterward, a company exec showed-off a W1 spec sheet, but we still hadn’t heard a formal announcement; what was going on? For whatever reason, Huawei has decided to wait until today to make the Ascend W1 official, confirming the smartphone and describing plans for its global launch.

The W1 is on the lower-end of Windows Phone 8 devices, with a dual-core 1.2GHz SoC, four-inch WVGA display, and just 512MB of RAM. While that may not be up to the standards of a Lumia 920, it’s at least able to offer a full WP8 experience (as opposed to WP7.8) for users looking to keep their smartphone purchase under budget.

Huawei claims the W1′s design is “inspired by a tropical island” (we’re having trouble seeing that, too), and will be available in black, white, blue, and red. After a launch in China and Russia this month, Huawei will make the phone available in other markets, including Europe and the US, later in the year.

Source: Huawei
Via: IntoMobile