The Huawei Ascend P2, to give it its full title, is not surprisingly an evolved version of last year’s P1, but has a number of eye-catching additions and updates to really stake its claim as a rival to the biggest players in the already populated smartphones market.
Sleek design, smart interface and a top of the range camera make it a highly desirable hand set and at an estimated £400 (or £25 per month on contract) an extremely tempting alternative
So how does it shape up and can it stand up to its rivals who seem to be dominating the market right now?
Bigger display puts it up there with the iPhone 5
First up, it’s got a bigger screen than the P1, now stretching to 4.7-inch and bumping up the resolution to 1,280 x 720 pixels. It’s sharper too, with 315ppi nudging in just behind the iPhone 5’s smaller display.
The LCD IPS screen rather than the P1’s Amoled, means colours appear brighter and clearer.
Size isn’t everything
As most of its rivals have gone large with their phones in recent years, Huawei have kept their handset at a very manageable size.
It’s just over 8mm thick, maintaining a sleek feel about it with a power/sleep button and dedicated camera shutter on one side, as well as a SIM card slot behind a plastic cover.
Long term memory loss for music fans
One downfall is the fact that the P2 comes as a 16GB version only, with only 12GB of that being accessible.
With no memory expansion slot and no room for a micro SD memory card this isn’t great news for those to like to hoard music and pictures and means the phone falls well behind the likes of the iPhone 5, which can offer a massive 64GB of memory and even the Nokia 920.
Download speed makes it quick off the mark
The quad-core processor is clocked at 1.5GHz and backed by 1GB RAM, pretty standard for a phone in this price range. Its speed is evident as you download the apps at a rate of knots and playing games and downloading are a joy.
There’s certainly no noticeable difference in speed between this phone and its counterparts from Apple, Samsung and Nokia – if anything it seems quicker.
The camera is a real picture for a phone in this price range
The 13-megapixel camera has a higher spec than most other phones at this price range, which tend to favour the 5-to-8-megapixel snappers.
It has autofocus and an LED flash as well as a range of features including touch focus, red eye reduction and panorama and HDR settings.
My take and Opinion
If you are already an owner of an iPhone, Samsung Galaxy or Nokia Lumia, you may not find this latest piece of kit enough to lure you away from the “big boys.” But a fine screen, impressive camera and top of the range processor means the Ascend P2 is certainly not overshadowed by its better known competitors – watch this space.
Also see: IPhone 5s Release date and rumored new features
This article was researched and submitted by Matthew Crist of PCB Layout.
Nice post obasi thanks for sharing
I am extremely impressed with this well researched and nice info. i even twitted your article
That was very helpful guest, love the way you went extra mile to express your likeness for the article
I think this is a very good phone but but at a price of 400 pounds, it doesn’t have a real edge over a phone like Samsung galaxy S4 which is almost the same price and galaxy S4 is a better phone imo
Yeah sure, the amount appears very ridiculous from the look, but it is always better to hear the opinion of the others who might have used the device. as that will validate how good or bad it is at the current price
Huawai has to improve and sell the devices in all over India..
This is very true gopal, you gotta improve your tech idea to compete competitively in today’s populated market
Hello Obasi,
Ahhhh… The huawei still hasn’t gotten close to the iphones, even as their last update which is the iphone 5 was a flop :) . But i think this huawei looks good as per the speed and the camera.
Nice review Obasi and do have a lovely week ahead…
Thanks for those points Babanature , I shared exactly same feelings after going through the guest article myself, i was like wow! huawei Ascend P2 contending with Iphone 5? That may sound a bit ridiculous but doesn’t stop the fact that huawei is going to places with their latest smart phones