Huawei Mercury

Huawei Mercury

Trickle-down economics is alive and well, especially when it comes to the prepaid market, where no-contract carriers like Cricket can offer phones like the Huawei Mercury. The Mercury first wheeled into our CNET offices as the Huawei Honor, and the Mercury keeps most of the Honor's attributes, like the 4-inch display, 1.4GHz processor, and 8-megapixel camera with HD video capture. The Mercury is a quite decent Android phone in its own right, perhaps with a few issues here and there, but on Cricket, it knocks out the rest of the lineup to become the carrier's most advanced smartphone. The Mercury costs $249.99 at full retail, but at the time of this review, you can buy it online $179.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate and a $20 Web discount. Unlike the Honor we tested in white, the Mercury is like many of today's smartphones: black and glossy. From the rounded corners and straight edges to the curved back, its surfaces are smudge banks for sure--the shiny black plastic build material picks up finger grease in ways that'll make you want to invest in a tub of Purell. The phone's build looks solid enough, but the plasticky character and seams don't make you feel like you're holding a premium device.