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CHINESE MOBILE FIRM Huawei has launched its flagship Android 3D smartphone, the Vision, and its own branded tablet, the Mediapad.

The company’s UK MD Mark Mitchinson announced pricing and availability for the Vision and Mediapad devices at an event in London this evening, and The INQUIRER was there.

Huawei had announced both the Vision and the Mediapad separately earlier this year. At the time, they were earmarked for UK release in the “second half” of 2011, so we had expected both of them on the shelves before Christmas. However, while the Vision handset will be on sale for Christmas, we’ll have to wait a bit longer to see the Mediapad.

The Mediapad will cost £275 but it won’t be available until the first quarter of 2012.

Meanwhile, the Vision handset will be available in time for Christmas from Phones 4U, with more operator and retail partners to be confirmed early next year. It will be free on £25 per month contracts.

The Vision features a 3D user interface and a “carousel display”, and runs the Android 2.3 Gingerbread mobile OS. It has a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM 8255 processor.

Like a posh car, the Huawei Vision has an aluminum alloy “uni-body” that comes in rose gold, silver or charcoal, along with “a curve touch design”.

The device measures only 9.9mm at its thinnest point and weighs 121g. It supports HD 720p video recording and features a 5MP auto focus camera with LED flash. It also has Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, high-speed WiFi 802.11b/g/n internet connectivity, and a full range of messaging capabilities including SMS, MMS, Email, Push Mail and IM.

Meanwhile, Huawei’s Mediapad tablet will run Android 3.2 Honeycomb and has a 7in IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen.

The Mediapad is 10.5mm thick and weighs 390g, and will be “supported by Huawei Device’s Hispace cloud solution”. Meanwhile, the battery will last over six hours.

A 1.2GHz dual-core processor from Qualcomm will power the Mediapad and there is a front facing camera of 1.3MP. It has WiFi and HSPA+ 3G and an HDMI port. Pre-installed applications will include Facebook, Twitter, Let’s Golf and Documents to go, as well as support for Flash 10.3.

Meanwhile, the company also announced that it will launch a dedicated European design centre for its mobile device business in London as it looks to increase its market share across Europe.

The company said at the event in London that it is “transforming” its business strategy, going from “massive growth” to “quality growth”. Huawei’s new brand slogan is “Let’s simply share.” µ

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