T-Mobile Pulse


The T-Mobile Pulse is an Android-powered phone manufactured by Huawei and rebranded by T-Mobile. It is available in many markets including the UK and The Netherlands. Compared to many Android phones released at the time it was relatively low cost - originally selling for £185 in the UK, the Pulse achieved a minimum price of £19.99 + £10 top up on PAYG before being discontinued in April 2011. This made it one of the cheapest Android powered smartphones available at the time. The Pulse was also marketed as being the first Pay As You Go phone running the Android OS.

Technical specifications

The Pulse was originally released with Android 1.5 heavily customised and branded by T-Mobile. It came with its own Home screen app, as well as various non-stock applications, including Documents To Go and RoadSync from DataViz.

Official firmware

Official firmware from the manufacturer, have been independently released by
As of June 2010, T-Mobile has provided some firmware releases for the Pulse:
It is possible to root the Pulse, using software developed by the Android community. A custom recovery image is also installable.
Several custom ROMs have been created adding various features, including EXT2/3/4 file system support and Busybox preinstallation.
The firmware from the Huawei u8230 has been ported to the Pulse to remove the T-Mobile branding, as well as other changes.
On 12 May, 2.1 was released on the Modaco Forums.
On 8 October, Tom G from the Modaco Forums ported a 2.2 beta of CyanogenMod 6. Latest available version is CM6.1RC2 0.40 Beta.
The highest supported CyanogenMod version is 7; it is based on Android 2.3.7.