Neat and sturdy design, good cameras front and back
Sub-HD screen, processor not as powerful as it could be, headphone jack oddly placed
A step down from Huawei's new flagship the Ascend P7 is the Ascend G6, a solidly capable 4G-capable smartphone at a solidly mid-range price. But considering the attractive pricing of the P7, should it have been even cheaper?
Chassis & screen
Style-wise it takes its cues from the P7, with a sleek, flat casing that's rounded on the bottom edge and sports metallic banding around three sides. This time however it's lost the glass backing in favour of rubberised plastic -- no bad thing in our opinion, since it feels warm to the touch, unlike the P7's chilly glass. It still looks like a premium handset though, and although it's slightly thicker than its cousin, it's just slightly smaller and lighter overall. Oddly, the headphone jack is placed at the bottom edge. Yes, you can simply put the phone upside down in your pocket while you're listening but it still feels a bit weird.
The screen is where you first notice the big difference between the P7 and the G6. Dropping out of the HD range the 4.5-inch display offers a resolution of 960x540 pixels (245ppi). It's not bad by any means, but it doesn't pop the way the quality HD screens do -- basically, once you've switched it on it starts to betray its sub-midrange true colours.
Software and processor
Like the P7 it's running the Huawei Emotion user interface but it looks slightly different, possibly because it's using Android 4.3 Jelly Bean rather than the very latest Android 4.4 KitKat. The apps section has been dispensed with in favour of placing all your apps on the home screen and there's a 'Simple Home' setting, which cuts out a lot of the clutter than can build up on Android screens.
The quad-core processor is clocked at 1.2GHz and backed by 1GB RAM. That's a solidly mid-range set of specifications and while it doesn't disappoint, it won't knock your socks off either. Apps opened without any obvious sign of lag and we were able to play HD games like Real Racing 3 without any problems, but it lacked the pace of higher performers. It delivered an AnTuTu benchmark score of 18,026, which is similar to what you get with lower-performing quad-core devices like the Moto G or HTC One Mini 2.
Photography
The 8-megapixel camera comes with LED flash and autofocus, plus a decent range of modes including touch focus, face detection and panorama. Picture quality is pretty good -- decently sharp and detailed, although perhaps colours have a tendency to look a little washed out.
Just after we sang the praises of the OnePlus One's 8-megapixel front camera, remarking that few manufacturers were taking this element seriously, Huawei has stepped up to the mark with a 5-megapixel snapper on the front. Great for selfies, and offering a better class of video calling too.
There's just 4GB of memory on board, which is a bit measly, though you can top it up by another 32GB via microSD card.
The 2,000mAh battery held up pretty well, delivering a good day and a half of fairly heavy use.
Conclusion
The Huawei Ascend G6 is a solidly built and solidly performing mid-range handset. But in an market increasingly crowded with precocious performers it's barely holding its own, especially against newbies like the OnePlus One which delivers a considerably higher price for not much more cash.
Software: Google Android 4.3 Jelly Bean
Processor: Quad core 1.2GHz
Memory slot: Yes
Display: 4.5in IPS LCD, 960x540 pixels
Connectivity: Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0
Ports: microUSB, 3.5mm headphone jack
Camera: 8 megapixel, LED flash, autofocus, 5 megapixel front-facing camera
Video playback: MPEG-4, H.264, H.263, VP8, RV7-10, Xvid, WMV9
Audio playback: MP3, MIDI, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AAC-LC, FLAC, WMA2-9, RA
Radio: Yes
Battery: 2000mAh
Size: 130x65x7.5mm
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
