Prepaid carrier Cricket Communications today announced the exclusive United States availability of the Huawei Mercury. The Mercury will sell for $249.99 at Cricket branded retail stores, dealers online.

The Mercury is an Android smartphone that is powered by a 1.4 GHz processor, and features a 4-inch touchscreen, 8 megapixel camera, front-facing VGA camera, 2GB of Internal Memory, Wi-Fi and Stereo Bluetooth.  

The Mercury also offers users hotspot functionality for up to 5 devices.

 “We’ve been able to establish ourselves as a player in this market by providing affordable smartphones, and we’re building on that foundation with devices for the high-tier market now,” said Jiangao Cui, President of Huawei Device USA. “This particular device, the Huawei Mercury, is an opportunity for us to offer a quality high-end device to the U.S. market that can deliver rich multi-media content including music, video and gaming applications seamlessly.”

The Huawei Mercury joins Cricket’s growing smartphone lineup and is available on Cricket’s $55 per month smartphone service plan that includes unlimited talk and long distance, caller ID, voicemail, call waiting, 3-way calling, call forwarding, unlimited text, picture and video messaging, 3G mobile data and email.

Cricket currently boasts an estimated 5.8 million customers on its 3G network. Cricket is offered by Leap Wireless International, Inc., headquartered in San Diego, Calif.