Huawei’s Android Go smartphone, Y3 2018, selling in Kenya

Android Go has been around for a while now. While we have noted time and again that, in its current implementation, it is far from the vision that Google sold to us while introducing it, it’s been something like a godsend. Thanks to Android Go, we now have the basic smartphones we would still be having, anyway, but at least in a state where there’s been some effort to optimize them to make the most of their meagre resources and inferior feature-set.

As a result, everyone and their dog has been rushing to market with Android Go devices. From where I sit, that is all good as the pricing has been on point. There are absolute barebones bargains like the Safaricom Neon Kicka 4, feature-packed bargains the itel A32F and even some that give other non-Android Go devices a serious run for their money like the Tecno Spark 2. Heck, Tecno’s own F series of Android Go devices has one that has LTE, filling a gap that had existed for a while.

Samsung has the Galaxy J2 Core as its first ever Android Go device (look out for thoughts on it soon). HMD Global has been there for a while with the budget Nokia 1 as well as the Nokia 2.1 and Nokia 3.1, Tecno has the second generation Spark phone and its entire F series, siblings itel and Infinix also have their Android Go devices (the A32F for the former and the Smart 2 for the latter, as far as we know)…

So, basically, every major smartphone brand in the country has an Android Go smartphone.

Huawei has been missing on that bandwagon but that is fixed now with the availability of the Huawei Y3 2018 in the country. It’s taken half a year but it’s finally here.

Coming long after its superior siblings like the Y5 Prime 2018 and the Y7 Prime 2018 have stolen all the shine before the Y9 2019 crowned the Chinese device maker’s unending effort to get a sizeable chunk of the local smartphone market, the Y3 2018 provides Huawei with a good chance to keep that fire burning.

Unlike the other Y series devices we have seen from Huawei over the last few months, the Y3 2018 entered the local market with no pomp and colour, only showing up at Safaricom’s ongoing Open Day as one of the deals where it is going for a “discounted” Kshs 8,000.

Specifications of the device are as follows: