The Ascend P1 is a brave new step for
Huawei, a company that has been quietly making budget smartphones for years and
has produced some impressive network-branded phones for Orange in the past.
Price: $440
Website: www.clove.com
Ratings: 2/5
Huawei
Ascend P1
The P1 packs all the smartphone essentials
you expect for the price tag - a 4.3-inch screen, an 8-megapixel camera, a
1.5GHz dual-core processor and Android 4.0 out of the box. It’s even got the
neat option of being able to choose your operating system skin on startup - you
don’t have to opt for the standard Huawei one if you don’t like it. So far, so
good.
The bad news is that the Huawei Ascend PI
still looks like a budget phone and hasn’t upped the build quality or design to
make you feel as though you’re holding a smartphone comparable to an iPhone 4S
or Sony Xperia S.
The shiny exterior looks rather cheap and
the camera bulges out of the admittedly-slim 7.6mm body. The Gorilla Glass
screen and 256 pixel-per-inch density display are plus points but it’s
something that we take as a given for the price tag, and cheaper rivals boast
similar screens, notably the stylish HTC One, at a 252 pixel-per-inch density.
We needed to enhance the brightness to view videos in bright daylight, but the
results were good and the screen is actually the best feature of the Huawei
Ascend P1.
More money
The 4GB of internal memory is below par -
we expect 8GB as a minimum and 16GB on hero smartphones. You will need to
budget for a microSD card to enjoy music and movies, taking the real price of
the Huawei Ascend PI over the $450 mark, and into direct competition with the
big boys.
The extras, which include Dolby 3.0
technology for theatre-style sound, are few and make little difference to the
core proposition of a large-screen competent-but-under-specified smartphone.
The camera is average in daylight but fails
to impress in low light, despite the large flash. HDR is a nice extra and the
close-up focus is very fast, but we found the loud shutter click annoying and a
hangover of lower-end smartphones.
The
camera is average in daylight but fails to impress in low light, despite the
large flash.
Playing demanding games and apps is easy
with the Huawei Ascend PI, and flicking between apps and menus is equally
impressive - Android 4.0 doesn’t pose any stress for the power under the
bonnet. Video and music playback are great but we found the body lacked grip
when holding for long periods and sometimes slipped slightly when taking calls.
Disappointing:
We expected to get a lot more for the money
We’re surprised by the lack of HDMI-out,
though there is wireless DLNA technology for streaming to DLNA music and TV
gadgets.
Overall, we really expected more for the
money. The Huawei Ascend PI is a capable enough smartphone, but it’s missing
some key extras, not to mention the kind of classic design that Apple and Sony
manage for the same price tag or less. Tellingly, there’s a Huawei Ascend P1 XL
just around the corner, too...
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Pros
·
Decent processor
·
Android 4.0
·
Slim
Cons
·
Budget build quality
·
Minimal storage
·
Average camera
Dimensions
·
Height: 129mm
·
Width: 64.8mm
·
Depth: 7.6mm
·
Screen size: 4.3-inch
·
Weight: 110g
Specification
·
Supplier: www.clove.com
·
OS: Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)
·
Processor: TI OMAP 4460
1.5GHz
·
RAM: 1GB
·
Storage: 4GB
·
Expansion: microSD
·
Rear camera: 8MP
·
Front camera: 3.2MP
·
Screen type: Super
AMOLED
·
Screen resolution: 960x540
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