What is the Huawei Ascend P6
The Huawei Ascend P6 is the world’s slimmest smartphone at just 6.18mm thick. It is the latest flagship phone from the Chinese manufacturer and is looking to challenge the Google Nexus 4 for the mantle of the best smartphone on the market at a wallet-friendly price point.
The P6 is a handset that treads the line between and mid-market and high-end handset, with a 1.5GHz quad-core processor lining up alongside a 4.7-inch 720p display and an 8-megapixel rear-mounted camera.
Set to hit retailers in August around the £300 marker, can the Huawei Ascend P6 really rival the Nexus 4? We’ve gone hands-on to find out.
Huawei Ascend P6 Design
The Huawei Ascend P6 design is about more than just the svelte 6.18mm thickness, and is a notable improvement over the manufacturer’s past offerings. Formally specialising in cheap handsets which were a little lacking in design appeal, the P6 marks a step forward in Huawei creating a handset that is the complete package.
A 4.7-inch metal handset that benefits from its world’s slimmest thickness, the P6 feels great in the hand, with the brushed metal components offering no unwanted bend or flex.
Strangely, despite being just 6.18mm thick the Ascend P6 does not feel unnervingly slight. In fact it feels like a solid, well-constructed handset that could stand up to the rigours of daily usage with little sign of wear or tear.
There is a nagging familiarity about the phone that is impossible to escape, however. The Huawei Ascend P6 design has more than an air of the iPhone 5 about it. Although considerably bigger than its Apple branded rival, its metal edging and brushed aluminium rear smell of more than a smidge of iPhone influence. The P6 is just 120g in weight, and as such feels pleasingly light in the hand. This weight is spread out across the handset’s full size creating a well-balanced, comfortable and appealing phone.
Huawei Ascend P6 Screen
The Huawei Ascend P6 screen is a 4.7-inch 720p HD offering. As such it is a notable step back from the eye-popping 1080p Full HD likes found on the Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One. That doesn’t mean it isn’t impressive in its own right, however.
The P6 screen is sharp, vibrant and proved highly responsive during our hands-on with the newly announced handset.
Capable of offering stunning image playback, text and stills were equally strong with the handset not falling into any graining or pixelisation pitfalls. What’s more, colours were rich and clear with a broad pallet ensuring transitions between similar hues were detailed and gradual.
The Huawei Ascend P6 screen performed well under changing, yellowed artificial lighting, although we need to test the device in a broader range of environments to fully pass judgement on its light management credentials.
Huawei Ascend P6 Performance
From first impressions, the performance of the Huawei Ascend P6 is strong. Apps load and close promptly with little fuss or fanfare and menu transitions are fluid and elegant.
Behind this is the P6’s 1.5GHz quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM. A pairing more akin to an out-and-out smartphone powerhouse, elements of the Ascend P6’s spec and performance push the handset well beyond its mid-market price point and the phones it will be surrounded with on retailer’s stores. It is a step on from the Huawei Ascend P2 unveiled earlier this year.
Although it features just 8GB of internal storage, the P6 supports expandable memory via microSD. This option is hidden away neatly under a key accessed slot on the handset’s side.
Running Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, the P6 overlays the familiar Android OS with the latest rendition of its Emotion UI. Bringing a fluid front to Android, the Emotion UI is easy to navigate and offers a visually appealing, natural and intuitive interface to the phone. We will require more time with the phone to fully explore all of the Emotion UI features.
Huawei Ascend P6 Camera
The Huawei Ascend P6 camera collection is one of the more impressive on a handset with a price point rounding the £300 mark.With an 8-megapixel snapper lining up on the rear, a second, 5-megapixel camera features on the P6’s fore.
Huawei has built more than your average point-and-shoot snapper into the Ascend P6, it has added a number of elements more akin to a designated compact, including a 4cm macro focal length and an f/2.0 aperture. In testing the macro capabilities proved accurate and precise although the time needed to focus could be better.
Shutter speeds seem more than acceptable and the camera’s handling of challenging lighting conditions were impressive. We must stress, however, that we need to spend considerable more time with the Ascend P6 testing its cameras to
The Huawei Ascend P6’s forward facing camera felt a little disappointing in first use for what a 5-megapixel snapper brings to mind. With less defined edges, images viewed back on the handset’s screen lacked the colour management of the rear-mounted offering.
Beauty Shot mode, a feature said to produce more flattering pictures of your face, requires further testing but on first use and theory comes across as little more than a gimmick in the realms of the Dual Shot mode found on the Samsung Galaxy S4.
Huawei Ascend P6: First Impressions
The Huawei Ascend P6 is a strong handset from what remains one of the lesser known global manufacturers. The P6 is a sign that the manufacturer is finally putting as much effort into its handsets’ design as it is the spec and low price point. If marketed correctly, the Huawei Ascend P6 could be the device to send Huawei into the mainstream. It won’t be troubling the Samsung Galaxy S4 or HTC One just yet though.
