Huawei Ascend P1 Review
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The camera interface is pretty simple, yet packed with features like HDR shots, face detection and Group mode, as well as a number of scene presets. It sports a rich number of pic and video effects, and a very entertaining face distortion regime, where you can choose from six warping effects to apply on your friends' faces.
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Camera interface | |||
The pictures from the 8MP module with dual LED flash are nothing breathtaking, but it came out as a decent camera nonetheless, especially when we consider the zero shutter lag and Burst shot modes made possible by the Android ICS camera API and the fast dual-core processor.
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Outdoor samples taken with the Huawei Ascend P1 | ||
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Strong | Medium | Low light | Darkness with flash |
Indoor samples | |||
The 1080p video capture looks again a bit bland in terms of color representation, but it takes in a decent level of detail and is recorded with smooth 30fps, plus you get a somewhat nervous continuous autofocus.
Huawei Ascend P1 Sample Video:
Huawei Ascend P1 Indoor Sample Video:
Multimedia:
As we said, the music player is stock ICS with some equalizers and sound modes, and Huawei only added Music+, provided that you want to run your music from categorized folders with some fancier visualizations.
The handset features the Dolby Mobile technology, which works in loudspeaker mode as well, but since the unit itself is pretty average in terms of sound output, it doesn't do much good unless you plug in a pair of quality headphones.
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The music player | |||
The video player doesn't cover DivX/Xvid files out of the box, only runs them with software acceleration, so you'd have to hit the Play Store for those. MPEG-4s play up to 1080p without a hitch. Google's own Movie Studio app is provided to take care of video editing, if needed.
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Video player | |
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Huawei Ascend P1
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- Review 7/10
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18 Comments
1. kshell1 posted on 01 Jun 2012, 06:18 8 1
If priced correctly it could be a device worth the look for some people. Not for me I target the highest end phones.
2. Nathan_ingx posted on 01 Jun 2012, 07:28 2 1
The back still looks Chinese-y...no offence!!
But it looks sleek none the less.
6. kshell1 posted on 01 Jun 2012, 08:15 7 1
Considering it looks nothing like the iphone it must really be a rip off >.>
13. nicholassss posted on 14 Jun 2012, 10:10 0 1
the average american probably wont be able to pronounce it. IF they ever blow up stateside everyone will be saying "howie" I'm sure.
7. JayRaj posted on 01 Jun 2012, 13:18 1 3
Just 7 for such a device?! I've seriously started doubting u guys' rating...
9. bobsen posted on 01 Jun 2012, 13:50 1 1
Thanks for the review. Were all the photos taken with default settings? I would like to see some photos with the saturation turned up.
10. slaggyb posted on 01 Jun 2012, 20:49 1 1
This is a very capable phone for power users and it got stock ICS with a pentaband 3G frequency how many phones currently in the market can boast of that? Apart from the limited internal memory and a high price of 500bucks this indeed is a well buit and equipped phone....Good job Huawei atleast when your newer and higher end phones with HD resolution are released later on this year it be able to compete with the likes of the SAMSUNG GALAXY S iii and the HTC ONE X....
11. Utipod posted on 02 Jun 2012, 07:13 0 1
How long before Apple sues them for building a rectangle?
12. groupsacc posted on 02 Jun 2012, 19:36 0 0
Better not say anything bad about this device, allotta chinese around here
15. avivaus posted on 22 Jun 2012, 02:37 0 0
is the ascend p1 have OTG?
and it is flash supported?
16. TechnoViel posted on 12 Jul 2012, 08:56 0 0
Nice Review, nice phone - if the price drops I'll surely consider it for a buy!
One question: I see the mcro-SD slot is externally accessible... can you change the SD card without shutting down the phone? USB OTG would also be nice to know...
@avivaus: Flash ist still available, but Adobe is withdrawing the app from the play store (I think July 15th - so very soon!) and will not support Android 4.1 / Jelly Bean. But this apply to any Android phone!
17. eekiguy posted on 26 Jul 2012, 02:38 0 0
TechnoViel @ I cant get OTG working on my P1 with the cable i have, but the SD slot is good enough, dont like to keep a cable in my pocket anyw.
I feel some of the US reviews are way to negative on Huawei, i dont know if its cos of high pricing in US or they just dont like Chinese phone brands giving other big players a though competition.
The P1 is a great phone for this price, in China for about 315-375USD, i dont see any other phone come near this price tag with its specs.
Did a search and found it for 369USD + shipping from hotmid:
http://hotmid.com/huawei-ascend-p1-4-3-inch-super-amoled-android-4-0-mobile-phone.html
18. TechnoViel posted on 26 Jul 2012, 07:31 0 0
@eekiguy: Thanks for your reply. What a pity about OTG, but you're right, the microSD slot partly makes up for that. I might start using microSD cards in my camaera, so I can bump these into the phone and send some shots home ;-)
Here in Europe it's still at ~385 EUR, that's >450USD :-(
Still a very nice phone :)
(I'm planning to review it against Xperia P and One S on www.technoviel.de, but wait for confirmation on the test units)
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