Huawei p1, just got mine.

[fogeshan]

If you void the warranty its the cellular providers warranty you void. Ie. That 7 day return policy is provided by each network, not the manufacturers. So, swapping a sim to another network can mean:

1. The 7-day swap out falls away (if they could prove it)
2. The 2 year warranty falls away - afaik most phones actually come with a 1 year warranty and it is the networks who offer the 2nd year.

I was told that if I switched to another network the warranty would decrease from 2 years (if I used a voda sim) to 1 year. That implies that Huawei offers a one year warranty and that vodacom offers an extra years warranty after that.

Again though, i don't know if they can see whether or not the phone was used on another network.

I suppose sticking in the voda sim once a month, if that will work, isn't a major hassle, but if I only have to do it before the phone needs to be sent in for repair, then that would be easier (first world problem).

On a side note, do you have to put airtime on the card or make use of it (calls, data, sms) to keep the number, or do you automatically keep it for life once RICA'ed?

 

[Aharon]

I was told that if I switched to another network the warranty would decrease from 2 years (if I used a voda sim) to 1 year. That implies that Huawei offers a one year warranty and that vodacom offers an extra years warranty after that.

Again though, i don't know if they can see whether or not the phone was used on another network.

I suppose sticking in the voda sim once a month, if that will work, isn't a major hassle, but if I only have to do it before the phone needs to be sent in for repair, then that would be easier (first world problem).

On a side note, do you have to put airtime on the card or make use of it (calls, data, sms) to keep the number, or do you automatically keep it for life once RICA'ed?

I would stick to the once a month if you remember. Remember although they can't prove it, its a safe assumption that if the phone wasn't active on 1 network, 99% sure it was active on another lol!

Any voda sim is fine - u don't need to worry about the one you have gotten with the phone, unless you like / want that number. U do need to keep it active though - load airtime, make calls etc - can find the rules for u if u need

 

[shubz]

When I bough mine at Edgars the salesperson actually gave me a MTN sim. I didn't even know it's a Vodacom phone.

 

[cavedog]

When I bough mine at Edgars the salesperson actually gave me a MTN sim. I didn't even know it's a Vodacom phone.

Indeed that is why I seriouslly doubt that the warranty will be void if you use another network. I just can't see it happening. If you only put a voda sim in it once it will register on the sim the phone. I can't believe they will even bother saying omg u never used our network sorry warranty is void. Sound scetchy to me.

Edit:

Also the 7 day swapout is done by the store you bought the phone from. They will not care what simcard is being used cause they sell all networks. If they do then they don't know what they are doing.

 

[minerva]

If anyone is thinking this was not a bargain price, read this...

http://tinyurl.com/afgwpju

 

[rtayob]

Read the same article today. $450. That's a a lot. Was checking the Chinese websites as well and they also over $400

 

[Daveogg]

I bought one for my son, awesome phone. We are in Italy now and went to get a wind sim. The Huawei has a cash price of E399 in the shop here.

 

[Aharon]

Looks like we really scored big time on the promotion they ran!!

 

[fogeshan]

I would stick to the once a month if you remember. Remember although they can't prove it, its a safe assumption that if the phone wasn't active on 1 network, 99% sure it was active on another lol!

Any voda sim is fine - u don't need to worry about the one you have gotten with the phone, unless you like / want that number. U do need to keep it active though - load airtime, make calls etc - can find the rules for u if u need

For 2K though anyone could have just bought it to use as a gaming device or some other smartphone use that is non phone call related.

Found this on the vodacom site:

"Keeping your Vodacom number
You can keep your Vodacom number forever by simply sending or receiving an SMS/MMS, making one paid call or receiving one call, at least once every seven months. This includes calls to voicemail (121) and the recharge service (100) and excludes calls to 111, 114, 1082, 199, 155, 112.

If you do not use you SIM card within seven months, your cellphone number will be deleted and it will no longer be valid for use."

Vodacom Prepaid T&C's

This still doesn't answer the question of warranty though, but checking my voicemail once every six months means I won't have to RICA another number.

 

[Alan]

My wife's blackberry was Vodacom stock but was using a Cellc sim. When I called in after about 8 months to query about the warranty they said it wasn't on their system. So popped in a Vodacom card for a day then went to the voda shop. And this time it showed on their system. They took it in and replaced me with another one a week later.

So your now ex wife sent in her phone and got a new husband.

 

[Aharon]

So your now ex wife sent in her phone and got a new husband.

lol sounds like a good deal

 

[SuperNev]

I got burnt with Huawei (Red Bull Mobile anyone?). I like the P1, but Huawei has pulled the middle finger in the past.
I just checked XDA-Developers and Cyanogenmod, there's no forum site for the P1, which for me means minimal modding. CM10 is the in thing (at least for when manufacturers play poker with updates), and the P1 only has a port which is a beta that'll never be worked on.

Yes it has ICS, but buying a phone to hopefully use for 2 years, when Android is at Lemon Meringue (i.e. when it's 3 versions ahead) it won't be fun being the guy with ICS. Same thing with that RBM thing, was stuck on Froyo when Android was at ICS. If it wasn't for custom ROM devs, I'd never have had ICS or even Jelly Bean

 

[rodga]

I got burnt with Huawei (Red Bull Mobile anyone?). I like the P1, but Huawei has pulled the middle finger in the past.
I just checked XDA-Developers and Cyanogenmod, there's no forum site for the P1, which for me means minimal modding. CM10 is the in thing (at least for when manufacturers play poker with updates), and the P1 only has a port which is a beta that'll never be worked on.

Yes it has ICS, but buying a phone to hopefully use for 2 years, when Android is at Lemon Meringue (i.e. when it's 3 versions ahead) it won't be fun being the guy with ICS. Same thing with that RBM thing, was stuck on Froyo when Android was at ICS. If it wasn't for custom ROM devs, I'd never have had ICS or even Jelly Bean

+1
I had huawei s7 slim tab
Its was also on froyo and only a few months ago did they manage to get a GB ROM sorted.
Infact that and the lack of local accessories are the only reasons why I've been hesitant to get one.

The price is excellent, the specs are good, but I m gonna stick with either a flagship Samsung or a nexus device for my next phone.

Currently I have an lg optimus black and had to import my accessories and wait for a decent custom ROM since lg never really came to the party

 

[SuperNev]

+1
I had huawei s7 slim tab
Its was also on froyo and only a few months ago did they manage to get a GB ROM sorted.
Infact that and the lack of local accessories are the only reasons why I've been hesitant to get one.

The price is excellent, the specs are good, but I m gonna stick with either a flagship Samsung or a nexus device for my next phone.

Currently I have an lg optimus black and had to import my accessories and wait for a decent custom ROM since lg never really came to the party

It's a longshot, but I'm gonna wait for the next Nexus device. Google I/O is 15 - 17 May, hopefully my phone lasts till then, and that they announce a new Nexus line. Else I'll import a Nexus 4 if LG gets their supply in order. The only thing Huawei I could ever touch are their modems, never again with phones. Don't care if the phone can warm the food for me.

 

[fogeshan]

I was also disappointed that there wasn't a thread on xda for the P1, but then I remembered how much I paid for it and didn't mind so much. I've found you can get most of the functions you want with apps, by rooting, and tinkering with a few system files. All modded ROMs have issues anyway.

The phone is leaps and bounds ahead of my old Sony Ericsson android which had a paltry 150-ish mb of ram, so maybe i'm a bit biased, but I really love how responsive the P1 is - even more so than the S3, which feels a tad laggy to me.

I've never been one for cases, my pdpy (phone drops per year) usually doesn't exceed 2. However, this phone is so flippin thin (7.7mm if you can believe the interwebs), i feel like a case would probably make it easier to hold onto. I'll have to spam Huawei's twitter account.

I do like screen protectors though, and despite having tiny gorillas in it's glass, it comes with a screen protector pre-applied, which meant i didn't have to whip out my lint free clothe and make shift clean room to apply my own.

 

[minerva]

I got burnt with Huawei (Red Bull Mobile anyone?). I like the P1, but Huawei has pulled the middle finger in the past.
I just checked XDA-Developers and Cyanogenmod, there's no forum site for the P1, which for me means minimal modding. CM10 is the in thing (at least for when manufacturers play poker with updates), and the P1 only has a port which is a beta that'll never be worked on.

Yes it has ICS, but buying a phone to hopefully use for 2 years, when Android is at Lemon Meringue (i.e. when it's 3 versions ahead) it won't be fun being the guy with ICS. Same thing with that RBM thing, was stuck on Froyo when Android was at ICS. If it wasn't for custom ROM devs, I'd never have had ICS or even Jelly Bean

Bottom line is there is nothing that tops this at R1999.99. All your points are valid, but this surely is the best bang for buck out there!

 

[cenredash]

I was at canal walk yesterday and saw the cash price in the vodacom store at R5899. And I'm like whatttttt? This is the one about 15metres from Edgars.

 

[Vis1/0N]

Bottom line is there is nothing that tops this at R1999.99. All your points are valid, but this surely is the best bang for buck out there!

Yeah I went in assuming the worst. Told myself that I could sell this on at a grand if it turned out to be a lemon. In another four months the S4 would be out and the S3 price would drop a lot.

I think that it will last me much more than a two grand price drop and the os is already a huge step up from my previous phone. the only thing missing for me is the offline voice recognition engine found in jelly bean.

This phone has been launched in Europe in August and only last week in the US but the price there is not competitive to the Nexus 4 which is not readily or really available.

For us this deal fell from heaven.

 

[cavedog]

Im actually very consfused cause stock is pretty limited and saw people snatching up the display phones for that price. I was lucky to get my huawei at Jet still sealed. Happy I did go and buy it. Its pretty epic. I sadly already had a drop test. The coner of the phone now has a small crack. Still working fine.

I don't think this phone needs to have a custom rom. It already has working 1080p video recording with a 8mega pixel camera. Its really smooth and performs very well even with the CPU on stock clocks. For me it the best freaking phone out there for R1999 no doubt about that. Its not a s3 but you can get damn close to it without spending 7.5k on the S3

 

[rtayob]

True. At the value it's truly amazing. Had the s2 and the s3. Find this the perfect in between. Didn't like the s2 because of the lower resolution. Didn't like the s3 because it was too big. This just perfect. Definitely needs a custom rom though. But too many bugs on the custom roms at the moment. Restored back to stock last night. But now that its launched in Europe and US I'm pretty sure we will start seeing improvements in development.