If you didn't get enough mobile news during the week, not to worry, because we've opened the firehose for the truly hardcore. This week brought hints of changes to the Droid RAZR lineup, a peek at Sense with Android 4.2 and the arrival of the Lumia 520 to Canada. These stories and more await after the break. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore all that's happening in the mobile world for this week of May 6th, 2013.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile
Some companies have mascots, but Huawei has Richard Yu. Shortly after the Ascend P2 launch yesterday, we had a chance to catch up with a rather relaxed Chairman of Huawei Device to see what he's been up to, as well as picking his brain on the design decisions of the P2, what Huawei's going to do about the "1,000-yuan ($160) phone" problem, and his side of the Honor 2 AnTuTu benchmark cheating story. Yu also consistently failed to resist the urge to tease a couple of upcoming phones as well (including the super slim P Series phone that failed to show up at MWC), so enjoy the full interview after the break.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
Just ahead of Huawei's press event, Huawei's treated us to an early viewing of its new 8.4-millimeter smartphone, the Ascend P2. With Android 4.1, a quad-core 1.5GHz processor, 13-megapixel camera and a 720p 4.7-inch Gorilla Glass 2 Infinity Edge Display, it joins the likes of the Ascend Mate and D2 in forming the Chinese manufacturer's smartphone family in 2013. And boy, it's a slender, feather-light phone with a glossy backing that come sin both black and white. Design-wise, like those leaks, it looks an awful lot like those P1 phones we first saw at CES 2012.
Its notable feature is the highest-speed LTE connection seen so far in a smartphone, up to 150Mbps with support for LTE Cat4. We also got to play with Huawei's Emotion UI again, which can draw on the 1GB of RAM housed inside. There's plenty of storage, with 16GB ready to accept your photos and music. The right side houses a volume switch and a physical camera button -- these were a bit plasticky, but has a nice matte finish. The other side is where the power button belongs, with both the headphone and micro-USB charging port found there. Huawei's focusing on battery life here as well, with a 2,420mAH cell powering the Android phone and the promise of consuming 20-percent less power, thanks to the handset's display technology.
With the aforementioned Emotion UI, there's the same clipboard animation across homescreen transitions, matching those other Ascend models. Getting into screen performance, it reflected a fair bit of ambient light. It's perhaps not the best display we've seen from Huawei -- there seems to be a space between the surface of the glass and the display itself. The hardware feels light, but feels like we were often unable to keep hold of it. The buttons have the right amount of bite, although it would have been nice to see some premium materials used for these minor details. The design also reminds us a fair bit of Panasonic's Eluga smartphone. Perhaps due to the lack of exotic color options, the phone wasn't quite as appealing as when we first got our hands on its predecessors. We'll have a hands-on video up soon. If you're in Europe you can pick this up in Q2 for €399 ($526).
Update: The video now lives after the break!
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
This one's a little puzzling. Japanese carrier Emobile has announced a new phone from Huawei, the memorably-named GL07S. The confusing part is that it looks almost identical to the black-colored Ascend P2, with the same three-line menu button differentiating it from another handset leak. It's hard to say just yet, but Huawei might be readying two devices like it did during CES, where it unveiled the P2's predecessor alongside an even thinner S model. This Japan-bound offering measures up a 8.6mm thick, which while certainly no porker, is a bit more than those promises of a 6.5mm smartphone. However, there's still enough here to intrigue us, with a quad-core 1.5GHz processor, 13-megapixel camera, 32GB of built-in storage and a 2,350mAh battery rounding out a pretty respectable spec sheet. It's also going to be an important phone for the relatively small phone network too -- it's their first LTE smartphone.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
Via: Techblog.gr (Greek)
Source: Emobile (Japanese)
As MWC draws near, it's not surprising to see an increase in leaks, and today we bring you a few more pictures of Huawei's Ascend P2, which recently made a cameo in some unofficial product shots. The 4.7-inch full HD handset is expected to feature Android 4.1.2, a quad-core 1.8 GHz processor (developed in house), 2GB of RAM, 8GB of built-in storage (plus microSD), a 13MP shooter and a 2200mAh battery. Slotting below the 5-inch Ascend D2 and 6.1-inch Ascend Mate we saw at CES, the Ascend P2 is rumored to be less than 6.45mm thick with Nexus 4-like on-screen buttons. Of course, since the FCC is unlikely to certify such a svelte device, it's likely we'll see a tweaked version of this phone if it ever makes it to the US -- then again, it looks thicker to us in the pictures. Pricing is supposedly targeting the 3,000 Yuan mark ($480), unsubsidized. Guess we'll find out more in Barcelona, right? Hit the break for a couple more images.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
Via: M.I.C. Gadget
Source: QQ Tech
