The Huawei Ascend PI has a great
screen and ample performance, but it’s not all pretty considering the price
Micro SD card expansion
The Huawei’s internal storage is pretty
feeble, even in comparison to budget models. It’s just as well that the company
provided a micro SD card expansion slot at the side of the phone that supports
up to 32GB memory cards
Custom themed launchers
Possibly the lower internal storage is due
to the amount of pre-installed apps and additional themes that you can select
to adjust the launcher. However, this does give the handset an edge in terms of
customisation out of the box
Lightweight profile
The Huawei is pretty much like a paper
Aeroplane in terms of its weight but this is more down to the choice of plastic
material used rather than a design touch. Considering its price we believe it
should have been better
The
Huawei is pretty much like a paper Aeroplane in terms of its weight but this is
more down to the choice of plastic material used rather than a design touch
Super AMOLED
The screen resolution is below the HD
standard of the other products. However, there is no denying that the screen
has a mouth-watering vibrancy that invites you to use the handset an
The Huawei Ascend PI sports a similarly
sized profile to the Sony, but its plastic finish, while stylish in black,
attracts fingerprints quickly and feels a little flimsy given the high-end
asking price.
However, it does provide some saving graces
in the form of a micro SD card expansion slot which is easily accessible at the
side of the phone. Mind you, the memory card expansion will be required almost
immediately due to a feeble internal storage effort.
On a positive note, by utilising the
phone's fast-boot option you can gain access to the OS within 4-5 seconds from
an off state, which is quite impressive. Huawei has also done a great job of
customising the Android 4.0.3 OS with a range of different themes. It’s then
that you start noticing the vibrancy of the Super AMOLED display, which despite
lacking the HD screen resolution of the others products, still makes it look
extremely good with mouth-watering colours. This screen is only bettered by the
Samsung.
Not only is the Ul good, Huawei has also
provided a solid range of apps, including a handy backup utility which allows
you to back up data and the phone’s internal apps to an SD card. However, the
highlights have to be the music and video players, which are boosted by an
excellent Dolby profile and make a vast improvement in terms of the device’s
audio output. The only downside was the bundled Polaris Office, which,
strangely, when typing in landscape would not display the letters onscreen.
Not
only is the Ul good, Huawei has also provided a solid range of apps, including
a handy backup utility which allows you to back up data and the phone’s
internal apps to an SD card
To make matters worse, in portrait mode,
the Spacebar floats just above the over touch sensitive Home button and we were
constantly catching the latter as we typed. This is a real shame because in a
few of the benchmarks we ran, the Huawei outperformed the Sony. Plus, as
devices go, the performance was no slouch and it could handle browsing,
streaming and playing games without barely breaking a sweat.
Battery life was also much better than the
HTC and Sony from a video playback point of view. Only the camera results were
less impressive. Granted shots were not terrible but the camera’s features and
image quality were not in the same league as the other products, which was
disappointing.
Head to head
Design
The phone has a similar profile to the
Sony, but after picking the handset up, the lightweight feel is more to do with
the cheaper grade of plastic rather than a design choice. It does, however,
include handy access to the micro SD card slot.
General performance
A capable performer only let down by the
minor bug in one of the supplied apps. In Vellamo it scored 1382 to the Sony’s
1620 and Samsung’s 1979. While in CF Bench it notched 6212 to the Sony’s 6051
and Samsung’s 13688.
Features
The Super AMOLED display may lack HD
resolution but it still looks fantastic. Huawei has also done a good job with
the Ul and supplied apps. Its camera is possibly the weakest link and pales
against the other products, unfortunately.
Battery life
Battery life was second behind the Samsung
with 76 per cent remaining from a full charge. But, in general heavy use it
does drain quickly, but for most purposes it managed to outperform its main
rival.
Verdict
The Huawei Ascend PI offers some positives,
but its build quality, and a few teething issues, don’t justify its price.
Information
Price: $593.3
More information: www.huawei.com
Technical specs
Operating system........Android 4.0.3
Processor...........................Tl
OMAP 4460: dual-core 1.5 GHz Cortex-A9
Memory..............................1GB
RAM, 4GB ROM; micro SD card expansion up to 32GB
Dimensions......................127.4 x
64.8 x 7.7 mm
Weight..................................110
g
Display..................................4.3-inch
Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 540 x 960 pixels
Connectivity....................Wi-Fi 802.11
b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS, HSDPA, 21 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps
Camera...............................8-MP
rear (dual-LED flash), 1.3- MP front, 1080p @30fps video
|
Samsung Galaxy S III
While it’s a no brainer that on paper quad-based
devices are always going to outperform a dual-core alternative in benchmark
tests, we still wanted to see if the extra specifications warranted the
additional asking price. Because, in the real world, all of the products
in this group test could easily run the same apps, stream content and play
videos back without too much of a drain on their resources.
To be honest, if the Samsung was not in the
group, and the Sony’s battery life was better, the Xperia U would have stood a
good chance of winning over the more expensive HTC, proving that a dual-core
processor was more than enough.
Don’t get us wrong, the HTC was good but it
had problems with the lack of memory card expansion and average battery life,
which made us question if the extra £130 price tag was warranted given that all
you will get is faster CPU/graphics performance, but was lumbered with the
above issues.
The Huawei was also a capable performer but
its build quality and feeble storage effort ruled it out of
the race, especially as you pay a £60
premium over the Sony, which offers a better camera and a HD screen out of the
box.
However, in the end we picked the more
expensive Samsung. We didn’t reached this conclusion because it boasted the
fastest speed, but because it’s a great all-round Android smartphone that
provides ample storage and expansion facilities, respectable battery life and
an excellent Ul, regardless if it’s running a quad-based CPU or not. It’s the
best phone we’ve ever seen.
|
|
HTC One X
|
Sony Xperia U
|
Samsung Galaxy S III
|
Huawei Ascend P1
|
|
Processor
|
Nvidia
Tegra 3: Quad-core 1.5 GHz
|
Qualcomm
MSM8260 Snapdragon: Dual-core 1.5 GHz
|
Exynos
4412 Quad: Quad-core 1.4 GHz Cortex-A9
|
TI
OMAP 4460: Dual-core 1.5 GHz Cortext-A9
|
|
Memory
|
1GB
RAM, 32GB storage (no expansion)
|
1GB
RAM, 32GB storage (no expansion)
|
1GB
RAM, 16GB storage, 50GB Dropbox; micro SD card expansion
|
1GB
RAM, 4GB ROM; micro SD card expansion up to 32GB
|
|
Camera
|
8-MP
rear (LED flash), 1.3-MP front camera, 1080p @24fps video recording
|
12-MP
rear (LED flash), 1.3-MP front camera, 1080p @30fps video recording
|
8-MP
rear (LED flash), 1.9-MP front camera, 1080p @30fps video recording
|
8-MP
rear (dual-LED flash), 1.3-MP front, 1080p @30fps video recording
|
|
Platform
|
Android
4.0.4
|
Android
4.0.4
|
Android
4.0.4
|
Android
4.0.3
|
|
Display
resolution
|
4.7-inch
Super IPS LCD2 capacitive touchscreen, 720 x 1,280 pixels
|
4.3-inch
LED-backlit LCD, 720 x 1,280 pixels
|
4.8-inch
Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 720 x 1,280 pixels
|
4.3-inch
Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 540 x 960 pixels
|
|
Weight
|
130g
|
144g
|
133g
|
nog
|
|
Dimensions
|
134.4
x 69.9 x 8.9 mm
|
128
x 64 x 10.6 mm
|
136.6
x 70.6 x 8.6 mm
|
127.4x64.8x7.7
mm
|
|
Connectivity
|
Wi-Fi
802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, HSDPA, 21 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps
|
Wi-Fi
802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1, GPS, HSDPA, 14.4 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.8 Mbps
|
Wi-Fi
802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, HSDPA 21Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps
|
Wi-Fi
802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS, HSDPA, 21 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps
|
|
Overall
score
|
4
|
4
|
5
|
3
|
