Huawei Ascend Y210D - Is Gingerbread still viable in 2013?

I have written about phones and recommend phones that run on Android 2.3.x (Gingerbread) since June 2012. At that time the cheapest Android 4.0.x device in the market was Php6,300. Since, than, the price of an entry level smartphone has gone down to Php3,990. The reason I stopped recommending Android 2.3.x devices is software compatibility. Android 2.3.x cannot run the latest version of Google App's, are incompatible the Google Chrome browser and the same is true for third party apps. Either the app is incompatible or the Gingerbread compatible versions won't be fully featured.    

With the newly released Huawei's Ascend Y210D, it makes we wonder whether I should reconsider the decision to exclude Gingerbread devices from the list. Huawei is after all the third largest smartphone manufacturer in the world, behind Samsung and Apple, so if they are still releasing Gingerbread phones, maybe the operating system is not as dead as I think it it.

The Huawei Ascend Y210D is one of the cheapest Android smartphones in the market at Php2,990. While I cannot say that it is the cheapest Android smartphone in the market, given the number of grey market "China" Android phones, it certainly appears to be the cheapest from a major manufacturer. 

The Huawei Ascend Y210D specifications are as follows:

• Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
• Dual SIM, dual standby
• 3.5-inch HVGA (320 x 480)  display 
• 1 GHz Qualcomm MSM7225A-0-AB processor
• 256 MB RAM
• 512 MB of internal storage expandable via a MicroSD card
• 2 MP fixed focus camera
• WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
• Bluetooth 2.1 
• GPS with AGPS support
• 1700mAh battery

The cheapest phone in our latest entry level smartphone guides are the Cherry Mobile Flare and Cherry Mobile Burst which are priced at Php3,990 and come with 4-inch WVGA (480 x 800) displays, dual core processors, 4 GB of internal storage and Android 4.0.4 on board. The Cherry Mobile offerings do seem to be worth the additional 1K. Php1,000 is a fair bit of money, but still it does not seem to be worth the savings. 

Would be interested to hear your thoughts.