Dubai:
Huawei has been improving every of its flagship model that it has launched and Ascend P7 is no different.
Last year’s model – Ascend P6 – was the thinnest smartphone with 6.2mm thickness but P7 is not that thin and it is slightly thicker at 6.5mm and weighs 124 grams.
The design resembles a phone that is sandwiched between iPhone and Sony’s Xperia models, which means it feels premium and the finish is superb.
The P7 builds on the five-inch Full HD IPS capacitive touchscreen with a density of 445 pixels per inch but with much improved camera features and specs.
The display offers wide viewing angles and colours pop up while the display can also be operated with gloves on.
It is powered by Huawei’s own quad-core 1.8GHz processor and Mali-450 GPU, coupled with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage capacity. The storage can be expanded up to 64GB using microSD card and has an integrated LTE modem.
It runs on the latest Android KitKat version with Emotion user interface version 2.3 on top of that.
Both the front and the back are made of Gorilla Glass and with a metal strip on the sides like the iPhone.
The sides of the device are perfectly flat with a rounded bottom. The circular power/lock key, similar to Xperia models, on the centre of the right side is smaller than Sony.
Huawei has taken photography very seriously and has housed a 13MP single LED flash camera, taken from Sony, and is capable of recording Full HD videos while the 8MP Back Side Illuminated sensor for taking selfies.
The camera can be operated even when the screen is locked by pressing the volume down button and the whole process takes only 1.3 seconds to take a photo.
The camera takes decent snaps in proper daylight but suffers in low light. The colours are not that vibrant as taken by other smartphones in this price range. The high dynamic range (HDR) did a fair job of balancing out shadows and highlights.
The camera interface is standard and images have a maximum resolution of 4160 x 3120 pixels. It has different shooting modes — smart, beauty, HDR, panorama and normal — and capable of taking 360-degree panorama shots with live filters. The Audio Note features let users record a 10-second audio tag after taking a picture, while it has a set of stamps to add to the photos. High the ISO means that low-light pictures look grainier than on rival handsets.
The front has a special beauty shot and panorama modes. It has the best front-facing camera I have ever tested.
Both the front and the back cameras can record in Full HD at 30 frames per second and they are stored in MP4 format. Both the camera and video qualities are not spectacular.
Regarding connectivity, it has WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, DLNA, LTE, micro USB and NFC while sensors include GPS, an accelerometer, ambient light, proximity, G-sensor, digital compass and a gyroscope.
The battery power saving features has been improved in P7 with non-customizable power modes — smart, normal and ultra. It also shows how much power is left on your battery and how much time is needed to charge the battery to full. The device can last for one full day on 15 per cent of charge in ultra power saving mode.
The 2,500 non-removable battery gives 8.30 hours of video playback, 8.25 hours of internet browsing. It gives more than a day of life for moderate users but for heavy users close to 17 hours, which is pretty impressive. It is priced at Dh1,699.
