Wal-mart lands Huawei's first Windows Phone 8 offering

When it debuted at CES 2013 earlier this year, the Huawei W1 made a nice impression as a budget-friendly

Windows 8

smartphone.

Though other markets had already seen the device released (as the Huawei Ascend W1), U.S. customers were left wondering when Huawei would bring the phone stateside.

On Thursday, the company announced the 4-inch W1 would be sold exclusively at Walmart stores (and through the retail chain's online portal) starting this May.

While we still don't know an exact date, the narrowed release window should please price-savvy consumers in the market for a new phone.

Going all the Huawei

In addition to operating on Windows Phone 8, the W1 will use a 1.2GHz Qualcomm MSM 8230 processor to power the device.

Even though the 480x800 LCD Gorilla Glass display and the 512MB RAM aren't quite as impressive as the specs of some of the W1's competitors, those factors should be more than sufficient for most users.

That said, the 1950mAh battery should allow consumers to get quite a bit of life out of the W1 between charges, especially when factoring in the 320 hours of standby time.

Additionally, the phone will feature a 5MP rear-facing camera (capable of 720p video capturing), and a 0.3MP front-facing camera inside a 0.4-inch-thin black shell.

The W1's 1.7GB internal memory may not seem like a lot either, but a microSD slot will allow users the ability to expand to 32GB of storage.

No pricing was announced as of yet, but Walmart will offer the W1 as a pre-paid smartphone with no contract.

The Huawei W1 may not be as stellar as some of the manufacturer's other smartphone offerings (like the Ascend D2), but if it's priced as competitively as Huawei claims, there certainly could be a lot of value packed inside.