The Ascend II is Huawei's follow-up to its flagship low-end smartphone. With a 3.5-inch display, 3G connectivity, and a 600 MHz Qualcomm processor, the Ascend II may not blow you away, but considering that you can get it for free with a contract, it's definitely worth looking into. The Ascend II ships with Android 2.3 and a custom skin by Huawei. Interestingly, you can switch between Huawei's UI and an almost stock Android experience. Huawei's widgets and toggles are still present, but the home launcher is more reminiscent of stock Android.

In this video, Sydney unboxes the Ascend II and gives her first impressions of it. As expected, there was some lag when in the Messaging app and when using multiple apps, but we'll see if that is something that persists and if it's manageable. The phone does not support pinch-to-zoom in either the web browser or the Gallery, which is an interesting decision by Huawei. Overall, it seems to be a decent low-end device, but further testing will show if you should consider it. Check back in for the full video review and written review.