Well, what do we have here? Okay, let's scrap the faux surprise. The recently confirmed Ascend P6 has landed, and Huawei hopes it will stir interest in the hearts of mobile users. Debuting across Europe, China and Australia in late June / early August with a €449 ($600) price tag, it's asking you to take it seriously, and that's what we'll do.
The mobile market is a fickle place, so it doesn't matter where you are right now; it's all about where you're going. Huawei? Well, it's definitely got its sights set on an upward trajectory. The Ascend P6 is the latest rung on the ladder, intended to elevate the company to mobile greatness. But, with competition stiffer than ever, can it really call a device with a 1.5GHz quad-core processor, 720p display and 8-megapixel camera a flagship? (For its P-series at least?) Huawei's certainly giving it a try, and it's hoping that beauty, not brawn, will win the day.
That size difference is important; crammed into that more diminutive form, it not only offers a greater ppi (312), but also turns an otherwise middle-spec phablet into a much more mass-market device. The specifications are still fairly modest, but the hardware they come in -- plus a few other notable inclusions -- means that this is a completely different proposition than the Mate altogether.
There's a black brushed-metal finish on the rear (there are white and pink versions also) with drilled speaker holes at the bottom, and a brushed-metal band around the edges of the device. The Ascend P6 instantly feels good, solid and, dare we say it, delightful. The chamfered edges that lead into the Gorilla Glass display prove that not only can Huawei do detail, it can also do it very well. Next to Samsung's Galaxy S 4, for example, it makes the Korean flagship look and feel shamefully thrown together. Even the dapper HTC One gets a good run for its money in terms of hands free access, fit and finish. Yes, it's fair to say that Huawei has proven that a well-built phone isn't as much a matter of means as it is intention.
It's not all solid, smooth lines. That metal band is broken up by the occasional port. The micro-USB connection sits at the top, just off-center. The right-hand side houses the power / standby button and volume rocker, plus microSD and micro-SIM card trays. If there was a small negative, it's that these buttons do jiggle slightly in place. Not terribly so, but enough to indicate there's room for a tighter fit. The back cover isn't removable -- hence the trays -- but Huawei has done a good job at keeping them flush with the edges. One related design note -- of mixed success -- is the 3.5mm headphone jack located at the bottom of the left-hand side. You'd be forgiven for missing it, first of all, as it's tightly plugged up. In fact, at first glance, the small circular protrusion looks like an unusual design feature, like a rivet added on at the end to conceal a functional cavity. It's only when you inspect it a little further that you sense something else is going on.
We tinkered around with this curiosity for a few moments, before wondering if the Ascend P6 perhaps came with a stylus, as this small silver disc could have easily been the top end of one. But a little fingernail pulling and gentle wriggling actually revealed the truth: it's a small, concealed pin to help eject the SIM and memory card trays. Genius. Weird genius. The positive being that you never need to worry about whether you have a paperclip or similar nearby, should you wish to remove your SIM (not that paperclips usually work that well). The negative, however, is that every time you want to use your headphones, you have to remove -- and potentially lose -- the pin. In our experience, getting the thing out wasn't exactly a smooth process either. Still, it's a nice idea, and the sort of ingenuity we're loathe to discourage.
One thing we would encourage? More internal storage. We're sorry guys, but 8GB really isn't enough these days, especially when barely any of that (less than 4GB) is accessible. Yes, there is the option to expand (by a further 32GB), but that's more a common courtesy rather than a reasonable solution. So, if you've liked what you've heard so far, then be sure to add a memory card to your shopping list, like, now. The memory issue is compounded by the -- albeit pleasantly surprising -- inclusion of a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. Those self-portraits are about to get a serious upgrade, which is all the more reason to get your storage set from the get-go. We'll cover the cameras (including the 8-megapixel main shooter) in more detail later.
Rounding out the hardware side of things are a few significant omissions. First, there's no LTE. It's simply not happening. So if that's a dealbreaker, stop reading now. If it's not -- and there's category 14 HSPA+ (up to 21 Mbps) to keep things moving -- then you'll likely be expecting some returns elsewhere -- such as in the longevity of the non-removable 2,000mAh battery. Again, more on that later. If you got this far and were wondering about NFC, then suffice to say, it's not here either, but you're okay with DLNA sharing and Dolby Digital audio instead, right?
At 4.7 inches across, with a resolution of 1,280 x 720, the Ascend P6 might not be in the (increasingly less) exclusive 1080p club, but the 720p "in-cell" LCD does a good enough job that you likely won't mind. Compared to some of the larger flagships (heck, for some, 4.7 inches is almost "mini"), the P6's display might seem average -- but it really does feel perfectly sized. You can reach your way across it comfortably, and thanks to a minimal bezel, the phone should sit snugly in most hands. We did find that the touchscreen was occasionally less responsive to our pokes and gestures from time to time. Pinching out from the home screen to bring up the zoomed-out view sometimes took two or three attempts to register. Likewise we sometimes found ourselves prodding more than once to get it to realize that we were trying to open an app. There is a "gloves" mode, which increases sensitivity, and we noticed the problem occurred less frequently when this was activated, so you may prefer to keep this switched on.
When you're not thumbing at it, the Ascend's LCD looks bright and crisp, with excellent viewing angles. The screen is dimmer when gazed at from anything other than straight on, and you'll definitely want to keep the brightness set to no less than 50 percent for outdoor viewing. Do that and colors will remain solid and blacks dark, making photo and video viewing on the device a pleasant experience. Also, we noticed that the screen displayed a pleasing resilience to fingerprints -- definitely a plus point.
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