Cricket Wireless’s first Android phone, the Kyocera Zio, was one of the cheapest models around when it launched earlier this year (at $249) and the low-cost carrier just announced a new phone that lowers the entry point.

The Huawei Ascend (which I belive is the U8230) is an entry-level Android 2.1 phone that Cricket will sell for $149 without a contract starting this October. The Ascend features a 3.5 inch HVGA display, 528 MHz Qualcomm MSM 7200A processor, and 3 megapixel camera.

The specs match those of the first-generation HTC G1, but it’s hard to complain about a new smartphone that only costs $149 and does not require a contract. Cricket also offers one of the cheapest smartphone plans, which runs $55 for unlimited talk, text, and web.

It is nice to see Cricket offer Android phones this cheap off contract, but I still wish more carriers would roll out tiered data plans to bring down the total cost of ownership.

Does the Ascend look like something you could recommend to a friend? What other features would you like to see in a low-cost Android phone?