Classy looks, fast processor, fine screen, good camera
Not really distinctive enough, not cheap
Huawei's latest 4G phone update is slim, light, with a fine screen and an above average camera. But is that enough to distinguish it from the midrange herd?
It's on sale now for around £400.
Design
Unsurprisingly, the P2 is an evolution of last year's Ascend P1, with an increased spec and then some. For a start, it's bigger, stretching the 4.3-inch touchscreen to 4.7-inch and bumping up the resolution to 1,280x720 pixels. Nice and sharp it is too, with 315ppi nudging in just behind the iPhone 5's smaller display. It's an LCD IPS screen rather than the P1's Amoled, which arguably has more accurate colours, even if it doesn't appear quite as vibrant. It's fast and sensitive too -- even more so if you switch on the "Gloves mode" setting.
It's extremely thin at just a very narrow sliver over 8mm and has a power/sleep button and dedicated camera shutter on one side, as well as a SIM card slot behind a plastic cover. You can't remove the back, so there's no place for a microSD memory card and no option to carry a spare battery. Still, the largish 2,420mAh model does a pretty good job, easily lasting through a full day of heavy use. Memory-wise you're stuck with the 16GB it comes with, and only 12GB of that is actually accessible -- there's no expansion slot.
Not good for any media hoarders.
Features and performance
The quad-core processor is clocked at 1.5GHz and backed by 1GB RAM, which is pretty much what you'd expect for a phone in this price range. It's certainly fast, whipping up the apps with nary a pause for thought. HD movies played seamlessly too and HD games like Riptide GP held no stuttering terrors. But our AnTuTu performance benchmark test only got as high as 15,586, which puts it firmly behind the Samsung Galaxy S4 (25,394) and the ASUS Padfone 2 (21,684).
It's running the Android 4.1 version of Jelly Bean, so not quite the very latest 4.2 version, but not missing much. It also has Huawei's Emotion user interface that skims the look of standard Android with some new, friendly-looking icons and a few original widgets. It's not a huge difference, just enough to make it distinctive, but not enough to get in the way. Apps are grouped in sections though there isn't a single repository where you can find them all together, which some may find irritating.
Photography and battery life
The 13-megapixel camera has a higher spec than usual for this price range, which tends to be cluttered with 5-to-8-megapixel snappers. It has autofocus and an LED flash as well as a range of features including touch focus and red eye reduction, as well as panorama and HDR settings.
Pictures are sharp with accurate colours and a range of detail -- it's one of the better cameras you'll find in this price range.
It will also record video at 1,080p at 30fps and there's a decent 1.3-megapixel camera on the front for video calls.
Power-wise the largish 2,420mAh battery held up pretty well and comfortably delivered around a day and a half of steady use.
Conclusion
The Huawei Ascend P2 is a decent midrange Android smartphone with a fine screen, impressive camera and pretty good processor. It may not have the kudos Samsung or Sony but it certainly isn't outclassed by them.
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Software: Google Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
Processor: Quad-core 1.5GHz Memory slot: Yes
Memory slot: No
Display: 4.7in IPS, TFT, LCD, 16m colours, 1280x720 pixels
Connectivity: Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0
Ports: microUSB, 3.5mm headphone jack
Camera: 13 megapixel, autofocus; 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera
Video playback: H.263,H.264,MPEG-4,RV8-10,WMV9,VP8
Audio playback: MP3,MIDI,AMR-NB,AMR-WB,AAC,AAC+,eAAC+,AC3,WMA2-9,RA,PCM,OGG
Radio: Yes
Battery: 2,420mAh
Size: 136x68x6mm
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
