Upgrading the Huawei U8300

This little beauty running on Eclair is just begging to be upgraded. Out of the box, it came with build U8300 V100R001AUS C34B257SP01. Latest official build available is U8300 V100R001AUS C34B271. Interestingly, Huawei's pulled it off their website. Good thing someone made a copy and is hosting it.

To install the firmware:

1. create dload directory on SD card
2. extract UPDATA.APP from the ZIP archive and copy to dload folder
3. go to Settings --> SD card and phone storage --> Software upgrade --> SD card upgrade --> Confirm

If you're still not happy with that, you can go all the way and install a custom ROM like Adrenalin 2.3.5.

1. Root the device with z4root. It's not in the Market anymore, but Google can help you find the apk. Root process takes a while to complete.
2. Install ROM Manager and flash CM Recovery. When asked, choose Huawei Ascend.
3. Copy Adrenalin RC1 and updates to SD card.
4. Reboot into recovery mode, and do a full backup of your current ROM in case something goes wrong.
5. Do a wipe data/factory reset.
6. Install Adrenalin 2.3.5 RC1, then fix permissions.
7. Reboot the device.
8. Reboot into recovery mode, and flash Adrenalin 2.3.5 RC1 Update2, then fix permissions.
9. Reboot the device.
10. Reboot into recovery mode, and flash kernel patch (optional).
11. Clear Dalvik cache.

The only thing not working for me after the above procedure is the WiFi. Workaround is to flash back to the original firmware, then do the upgrade again. This time, RC1 , then Update1, then Update2, and it works perfectly. I guess some stuff were in Update1 that were left out in Update2.

First impressions. Screen is a bit small compared to SGS, but everything works as expected. Images and text are crisp and clear, better than I expected. System a bit sluggish, so I overclocked it to 710MHz, which seems to help a bit. Quite hard to pull down the notification area. Phone's default orientation is landscape, so apps that work in portrait mode are rotated the wrong way. Built-in camera app also has this 90-degree bug. More testing to come.