Huawei Ascend P7: Review

The excellence of a uniquely crafted design with the edge of 4G LTE and an unparalleled camera performance. Technology with design, beauty with possibility, the HUAWEI Ascend P7 redefines the future of mobile technology.

The Ascend P7’s sleek glass back was made with a 7-layer surface treatment using a micro-pattern design that has never been seen before in a smartphone. It’s a process that increases transparency and gives it a stunningly beautiful look and feel. The result is a tactile experience with a Spin affect texture finish that takes smartphone design to a new level of craftsmanship.

The 5-inch display looked gloriously bright and crisp in our brief hands-on time with the phone and with a Full HD 1,920x1,020-pixel resolution (that equates to 445 pixels per inch) this is the perfect device for watching video and gaming with on the go.
Under the bonnet is everything needed to drive these multimedia activities too. A quad-core 1.8GHz processor with 2GB of RAM is accompanied by a much nipper graphics processor than you'd find in older Huawei phones. The P7 runs Android 4.4 KitKat and comes with 16GB of built-in memory, although that is expandable by 64GB using a micro SD card.

What we're most interested in testing on this phone, however, is the camera performance -- more specifically, the performance of the front-facing camera.

With 8 megapixel, this snapper potentially takes shots as good as the primary cameras of some other phones. We saw at Mobile World Congress earlier this year the emerging trend for putting more impressive cameras on the front of phones, and Huawei continues to lead the way here. A selfie preview window, panorama mode and beauty enhancement tools will also add to the P7's self-snapping experience.

Technical Specification:

Model: Huawei Ascend P7

Phone Type: Android Phone,Dual Sim Phone,Smart Phone

Launching time: 2014

Operating System: Android 4.4.2

SAR Value: 0.975 W/kg

CPU: Quad-core 1.8GHz

Network Access: FDD LTE: B1/B3/B7/B8/B20

UMTS: B1/ B2/B5/B8

GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz

Size: Height 139.8mm X Width 68.8mm X Depth 6.5mm

Weight (with battery): About 124g

Resolution: FHD 1920 x 1080 resolution

Colors: Black/White

G-sensor: Yes

Proximity: Yes

Ambient Light Sensor: Yes

RAM: 2 GB

ROM: 16GB

Camera: Rear Camera: 13MP AF BSI F2.0, with Flash

Front Camera: 8MP FF

Emotion UI: Supported

Audio encoding: MP3, MIDI, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AAC-LC, FLAC, WMA2-9, RA

Audio file format:MP3, MIDI, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AAC-LC, FLAC, WMA2-9, RA

Video encoding: MPEG-4, H.264, H.263, VP8, RV7-10, Xvid, WMV9

Video file format: *.3gp, *.mp4, *.m4a, *.rm, *.rmvb, *.wmv

GPS/AGPS: GPS/A-GPS/Glonass

Bluetooth: Bluetooth 4.0 with BLE

WiFi: WiFi 802.11b/g/n

USB: Micro USB 2.0

Battery: 2500mAh

Series: P Series

Price: USD 305 (Available at Amazon)

The P7 now has its USB connector at the bottom of the device, making it easier to hold the thing in front of your face when it's plugged in and charging. The headphone socket has also been shifted, now sitting right at the top of the phone instead of the ridiculous side placement Huawei employed with the previous P6. These tweaks alone make it a much more usable phone on a physical level, plus the lightness of the Ascend P7 and the slim bezel makes it feel substantially smaller in the hand than the likes of the Nexus 5 or chunky Xperia Z2.

Many Android users will be happy to see a microSD card slot on the side of the P7 to boost its theoretical maximum 16GB of built-in memory. Plus with a weight of just 124g and a thickness of 6.5mm, it's a slimmer contender than the chunkier HTC One M8 and Samsung Galaxy S5. It all looks pretty good on paper, but the Ascend P6 also promised a lot last year, with the lack of any standout features dooming it to consumer obscurity.