For the past few weeks I’ve been using a 6.1-inch Android handset with HD screen, a quad-core processor, LTE support and 13 megapixel camera. It’s packed with features and has a battery that can last for days. Here’s the best part: The Huawei Ascend Mate2 costs $299.99 without a contract and works on either AT&T or T-Mobile in the U.S.

Look at an off-contract flagship phone these days and you can expect to pay $600 or more, so the [company]Huawei[/company] Ascend Mate2 is 50 percent or more less expensive. Then again, while the phone has plenty of good features, it’s not a flagship phone if you first look at the chip powering the device. Huawei chose a 1.6 GHz [company]Qualcomm[/company] Snapdragon 400 for the Ascend Mate2, which in terms of silicon is a bit dated as the chip debuted in early 2013.

I rarely felt that the phone was lacking…