buzz muddleheaded: Huawei Ascend W2 shows up prematurely, packs color-matching backlit soft keys (hands-on)

After the official product shot leaked in late May, we knew it wouldn't be long before Huawei's Ascend W2 makes an official appearance. Well, today's the day, but as the company's second-ever Windows Phone device, the W2's appearance at Mobile Asia Expo was surprisingly low key. According to the spec sheet at Huawei's booth, this affordable phone comes with a 4.3-inch 800 x 480 display (looked like IPS to us) and a 1.4GHz dual-core Qualcomm MSM8230 SoC (same as the W1 but faster) with 512MB RAM. There's 8GB of built-in storage along with microSD expansion -- the slot is located next to the removable 1,700mAh battery plus full-size SIM slot, all underneath the red or yellow back cover.

Even though Huawei doesn't hide the fact that the W2 is a low-cost device, it's actually not too shabby. Most notably, the three usual soft keys are color backlit and will match your desired theme in Windows Phone 8. As a bonus, the touchscreen has a glove mode -- as featured on several other more recent Huawei phones -- for the cold winter days. There's still no price or date announced just yet, but since this particular model packs a TD-SCDMA radio for China Mobile, folks outside China will have to wait for the WCDMA variant. For now, we have a hands-on video for you after the break.

Gallery: Huawei Ascend W2 shows up prematurely, packs color-matching backlit soft keys (hands-on)