AT&T’s Impulse 4G – Great Performing Budget Phone

If you’re looking to make your next phone a 4G smartphone but have been scared off by the three figure price stickers attached to most 4G phones consider the Impulse 4G for AT&T.

While it’s a budget phone ($29.99 on contract), the features and specifications are worth taking note of. First, at 3.8 inches the Impulse has one of the biggest displays on a budget phone – though if that’s not large enough, the Pantech Breakout has a 4 inch screen – and the smaller processor works surprisingly fast.

On paper the 800MHz processor doesn’t come close the to 1.2GHz standard we’ve seen on 4G phones released over the last few months but the Impulse 4G runs surprisingly fast – mainly because manufacturer Huawei haven’t added an additional UI layer to the Android OS. Because there’s less to do to keep things ticking over, the processor can do more with less power.

An added advantage to that is improved battery life which is pretty good. Huawei says the 1500 mAh battery will give 4 hours talk time and 240 hours standby time but if you’re a moderate user you’re likely to only need to recharge every couple days or so.

The 5-megapixel camera is a large as you find on many high-end phones like the Bionic and although it’s no competition for a more photography focused cameraphone like AT&T’s Thrill 4G it takes some pretty decent images and can also capture HD video up to 720p and easily upload immediately to YouTube with the built-in integration.

Call quality is good and since this is a Wi-Fi enabled phone it’s easy to connect to any home, work or public Wi-Fi network to enjoy broadband web access while avoiding data charges. For web access away from a network, the Impulse is of course able to connect to the AT&T 4G service.

Need more info? Check he full Impulse 4G Specs.

Overall Recommendation
If you’re looking for an Android 4G phone that has a budget price but doesn’t disappoint the Huawei Impulse 4G should be on your shortlist.

Pricing
Available direct from AT&T for $29.99 and from Amazon as a ‘Penny Phone’, making it $0.01. Both offer require a two-year contract and a $15 monthly data plan.