Huawei today unveiled the Ascend P7, its latest top-end Android smartphone. At the company’s launch event in Paris, the new handset was revealed with a full HD 5-inch display, 1.8 GHz quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM.
The device is 6.5mm thick, which makes it “one of the slimmest” 4G LTE smartphones on the market, according to Huawei. It also comes with a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera, powered by Sony’s fourth generation BSI sensor, and an 8-megapixel shooter on the front. It’s capable of capturing 1080p video, but there’s no word on whether that stretches to 4K recording.
It weighs only 124 grams and comes with 16GB of onboard storage, alongside a 32GB MicroSD card slot. Huawei’s latest flagship also supports LTE connectivity and runs on Android version 4.4.2 (KitKat), albeit with the company’s exclusive Emotion UI skin layered on top. Based on the app icons alone, it’s clear Huawei has taken a few design cues from iOS 7.
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Underneath the hood, you’ll find a 2,500 mAh battery powering all of its various components. Huawei has also integrated a “super power-saving mode” that means, with less than 10 percent of its total battery life, the device can still last another 24 hours on standby.
The Ascend P6 will be sold in the following markets for €449: China, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Serbia, Greece, Norway, Hungary, Denmark, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Austria, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the UAE.
A release date wasn’t disclosed, but Huawei confirmed it would be coming to other markets in the future. Based on its specs and price-tag though, it’s clear the Ascend P7 was envisioned as a more affordable premium smartphone. With Samsung, HTC, Sony and other Android OEMs competing at the high-end, this could give them a valuable point of differentiation.
The new flagship succeeds the Ascend P6, which Huawei claimed to be the world’s slimmest Android smartphone at the time. At just 6.2mm it was certainly skinny, and in our early hands-on we were impressed by its refined industrial design and high-resolution front-facing camera.
Most recently, the Chinese smartphone maker attended Mobile World Congress to launch the 4G-enabled Ascend G6 smartphone and TalkBand B1 fitness tracker, as well as its Android-based MediaPad X1 and M1 tablets.
Featured image credit: Aaron Tam/AFP/Getty Images
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