Huawei's second Windows Phone handset, the W2, went on sale in China last week through online retailer JD.com, priced at ¥999 (£104 / $164 €121). The handset has been rumoured since the beginning of the year, but had it first official public appearance at the GSMA's Mobile Expo Asia event.

Key specifications include 4.3 inch WVGA screen, dual core 1.4GHz processor, 512MB RAM, 8GB of internal memory, 5MP camera, dimensions of 134 x 66.7 x 9.9mm, and a 1700 mAh battery. The variant being sold through JD.com is a variant for China Mobile, with support for TD-SCDMA (Chinese 3G) connectivity.

The ¥999 price point makes it one of the cheapest Windows Phone 8 devices currently available and the presence of 512MB RAM mark it out as a low specification Windows Phone device.

Within the Windows Phone world it will be competing against the similarly specified and priced Nokia Lumia 520T (China Mobile variant of the standard Lumia 520), but more generally it will be competing against a variety of low cost Android devices, primarily from Chinese manufacturers. That's a tough position to be in, especially with availability limited to a single retailer.

Huawei has not disclosed whether the device will be distributed outside of China, but it is possible that, like the Huawei Ascend W1 it could get a limited release with select operators. IDC recently estimated that Huawei sold 200,000 Ascend W1 units in the last quarter. The release of the W2 should help Huawei build on that number in the second half of 2013.

Via: UnwiredView