Huawei's latest entry to the budget smartphone market is the Ascend Y300. It could be yours for just £69 on pay-as-you-go with a top up. See also Group test: What's the best smartphone?

The Huawei Ascend Y300 is certainly not an ugly smartphone but it's definitely a no frills approach. This oblong block of black plastic and glass looks like the text book definition of a basic smartphone. Take a look at: What's the best Android phone you can buy in 2013?

Build quality is good and although there's a removable rear cover which is made of thin bendy plastic but we didn't really expect any more.

The Ascend Y300 is the first budget smartphone we've reviews running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean on a dual-core processor.

Benchmark results were average for this kind of handset but importantly we didn't experience the kind of annoying and persistent lag which makes budget devices so unattractive. Of course, it's not a flawless and silky smooth performance but it's good enough.

The combination of a reasonably good 4in display and a 5Mp rear facing camera means the Y300 is punching above its weigh in key areas.

The VGA front camera and 2GB of available internal storage aren't so impressive. There's a microSD card slot but you can't store apps here since the device is running Jelly Bean.

Speaking of Jelly Bean, we like Huawei's Emotion user interface which is highly customisable with multiple lockscreens, themes, profiles and even screen transitions to choose from.

We're not so keen on the lack of an app menu though; instead apps are all placed on the homescreen panels just like the iPhone.

Battery life is a plus point with a possible two days with medium to light use.

The Huawei Ascend Y300 is a no frills smartphone with little to get excited about. However, it does the basics well on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean with great battery life at an incredibly low price point.

It's one of the best budget smartphone choices around so we give it four stars and a recommended award.