Huawei’s Ascend P6 goes very slim

Dubai

The striking feature of Huawei’s new smartphone – Ascend P6 – is its thinness. It is just 6.18mm and is one of the thinnest in the market. The stylish unibody design with aluminum chassis and the aluminum rim around the phone’s sides resemble Apple’s design.

The 4.7-inch IPS+ touchscreen is powered by 1.5 GHz homegrown quad-core processor and 2GB RAM. It runs on latest Android Jelly Bean software and backed by Huawei’s Emotion 1.6 user interface.

The display with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels at 312 pixels per inch is not the best in class and that is a big drawback for the beautifully crafted phone. There many phones in the mid-range segment that offers Full HD. It weighs just 120 grams.

Apple’s iPhone 5 has 326 pixels per inch while Nokia’s Lumia 920 has 332 pixels per inch density and the same pixel resolution as Z10. Samsung’s Galaxy S3 has a pixel density of 306ppi and S4’s 441 pixel density.

Out of the 8GB of onboard memory storage, only 4.16GB is available for users. It is too low compared to a smartphone standard but users can expand it up to 32GB using microSD card slot on the right side of the device.

Both the microSIM and microSD slots are hidden behind by a steel flap and can be opened by a tool found on the P6’s body.

The apps drawer is divided into four folders with all the major pre-installed applications: tools, management, Google apps and social.

The pre-installed game — Riptide GP — runs smoothly on this device, but the graphic rich Real Racing 3 and Iron Man 3 is playable but stutters.

The glove mode feature enables users to use the phone with gloves and it works fine.

Photos taken by the 8MP autofocus camera is decent for the price and it offers HDR, Panorama, smile capture, object tracking, and geotagging. Images are bright and not washed out in bright light. At the same time, the camera takes decent snaps even in low light but with a degree of noise and faded colours. There are few basic shooting modes and no fancy ones. Press on the shutter button for long time switches the camera to Burst Mode.

The front-facing HD camera offers 5MP, offering the best quality video calls and it is the best in the market.

In the HTML 5 browser support test — html5test.com — P6 scored 410 points compared to HTC One’s 433 points and Samsung Galaxy S4’s 468 points. It is better than iPhone 5’s 386 points and Lumia 920’s 320 points.

The mono speakers at the back produce good sound. The Dolby Digital Plus enhances the quality of the sound for music and videos.

Playing videos on P6 offer razor sharp images. It can support MKV, DivX and Xvid formats.

Regarding connectivity, it has WiFi, 3G and Bluetooth.

The non- removable 2,000mAh battery is a letdown. During my test, playing HD videos, listening to music, surfing emails with WiFi on, the battery lasted for just over eight hours. On normal use, the battery can last for more than 14 hours. But with built-in battery-saver function, it can prolong to around one full day. It is priced at Dh1599.