Huawei intros Ascend W1 as its first Windows Phone 8 smartphone

After quietly sneaking onto the Pepcom show floor last night, Huawei this morning gave its Ascend W1 Windows Phone 8 smartphone a proper introduction. The W1 is Huawei's first entry in the world of Windows Phone, packing a 4-inch 800x480 IPS LCD display and 0.3-megapixel camera on its face, along with a 5-megapixel shooter around back. Inside the W1 is a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, 512MB RAM, 4GB storage (which can be supplemented with a microSD card) and a 1,950mAh battery powering the whole 10.15mm thick package.

Huawei will be offering the Ascend W1 in a quarter of colors, including straight up black and white models along with blue and magenta versions that feature a colored back and chin along with a black front. The W1 will be rolling out to China and Russia this month, and Huawei says that launches in the U.S., Middle East and Western Europe will follow at an undisclosed time.

As I noted earlier today when we got a peek at the Ascend W1 in action, this device has the makings of an affordable, entry-level Windows Phone 8 smartphone. It's not yet clear exactly which carrier(s) the Ascend W1 might hit when it makes its way stateside, but it'd be great to see Huawei create a version of the W1 for a prepaid operator like Cricket, which has offered several Huawei devices in the past but has yet to launch a Windows Phone device. Once we learn more about the Ascend W1's U.S. travel plans, we'll give you a shout.

Via Huawei, Windows Phone Blog