As far as unlocked LTE smartphones go, the Huawei SnapTo is one of the best deals we've seen yet. For $179.99, it's completely compatible with both AT&T's and T-Mobile's LTE networks, as well as 3G networks abroad, making it a great first phone for a kid, or a travel phone for roaming. While performance falls a bit short of our Editors' Choice, the Alcatel One Touch Idol 3, it's hard to argue with the value here.

Design

The SnapTo is a pretty generic-looking device. It's a rounded rectangle, with a removable, textured, black plastic back. But the plastic used here is a step above some of the too-flexible plastics used by, say, Blu and Verykool. I prefer the molded-polycarbonate feel of the unibody Moto E, but at least here you're getting a removable battery.

At 5.68 by 2.86 by 0.36 inches (HWD) and 5.26 ounces, the SnapTo is wider than the competing Moto E and Moto G. But it's still a one-handed phone, unlike the 5.5-inch Idol 3. The SnapTo's 5-inch, 1,280-by-720-pixel screen gets the job done, but it doesn't pop. A big part of the problem is that the plastic covering on the screen shows fingerprint grease very visibly, especially outdoors. It's perfectly usable, though.

Networking, Call Quality, and Android
The SnapTo has quad-band (850/900/1800/1900MHz) GSM/EDGE, quad-band (850/AWS/1900/2100) 3G, and LTE bands 2/4/5/12/17. That means it will work very well on both T-Mobile's and AT&T's networks in the U.S., as well as on 3G networks abroad. We tested the SnapTo with an AT&T SIM and got strong signal, with LTE speeds around 10Mbps down. 

Call quality here is generally solid, although I could have done with a bit more volume. There was no scratchiness, and noise cancellation in the earpiece worked very well, but one of my three test calls was a bit too quiet. Transmissions through the mic sound great, with built-in noise cancellation killing even aggressive outdoor background noise. The speakerphone is good for indoor or in-car use, but too quiet for outdoor calls.

Battery life, at 5 hours and 6 minutes of streaming over LTE, was pretty average. Bring an external battery if you plan to have a long day, or go with a battery beast like the Blu Studio Energy.

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For software, the phone is running the outdated Android 4.4.4 (KitKat) with Huawei's "Emotion UI" skin, which has one incredibly annoying aspect for longtime Android users: the app tray is gone. App icons march across home screens like the SnapTo was an iPhone with widgets. If the icon isn't on one of your home screens, you don't have the app. I get the point that this is supposed to be simpler than the standard Android approach, but it can be really disconcerting, and you'll end up making a lot of folders. 

Of the built-in 8GB of storage, 4.1GB is usable. Some of that gets taken up by bloatware such as the "Route 66 Navigate" app and a town-sim game, but no worries, they're deletable. The microSD card slot under the back cover had no problem with a 64GB SanDisk card.

The SnapTo has a quad-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor, which is par for the course with a lot of entry-level Android smartphones nowadays. That provides enough power for basic Web browsing and apps, but falls short on action games. Asphalt 8, for instance, was jerky and hard to control. Benchmarks didn't reveal any surprises: this is a low-cost, relatively low-power phone. The high-intensity GFXBenchmark Manhattan graphics benchmark ran out of memory halfway through, so it's a good thing there's a free-memory indicator on the multitasking screen.

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The phone is equipped with a 5-megapixel camera on the back and a 2-megapixel camera on the front. With good outdoor light, the main camera works very well; pictures are colorful and nicely balanced. (The HDR mode does nothing, though.) As the light level drops, photos get softer. The front camera takes overexposed shots with outdoor light, and blurry shots in low light. Both cameras take good 720p video at 30 frames per second outdoors, but frame rates drop as the light gets lower.

Media playback is fine with headphones, but the back-ported speaker is really tinny. The SnapTo doesn't have any custom media apps; it relies on Google's Gallery, Google Play music, and anything you download. Playback of 1080p HD MPEG4 and DivX movies went just fine, although some of my sample videos had no preview icons.

Comparisons and Conclusions
I'm aware that a lot of this review is a little negative. But the SnapTo's value can't be seen independent of its price, and $179 for a solid, reliable LTE phone is a very good price indeed. LTE is critical on a smartphone nowadays; even beyond the increased download and upload speeds over 3G, the lower latency makes everything on the Internet feel much, much faster.

The SnapTo sits right between the Moto E LTE ($149) and the Alcatel Idol 3 ($250) on the price scale. The Moto E may appear to run a bit faster, but that's because it has a lower-resolution screen, and its camera is even less capable than the SnapTo's. The Idol 3, meanwhile, is the best value: For $250, you get a slightly faster processor, a much better camera, more storage, and a 1080p screen. That means the Idol 3 remains our Editors' Choice, although frequent travelers looking for a roaming device, or parents looking for a smaller device for a teen, might be quite satisfied with the SnapTo instead.