huawei ascend p7 review
DESCRIPTION
The Ascend P7 is the latest offering from the Huawei's stable and comes across as a flagship device at a mid-range price. Here's a quick look at its capabilities.TRANSCRIPT
Huawei
Ascend P7
Review in pictures
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It’s slim and lightweight
It’s predecessor, the Ascend P6 was the slimmest phone last year with a 6.4mm body, and the
Ascend P7 also treads the same path with a skinny frame measuring 6.5mm
It’s also quite lightweight compared to devices of its class, weighing in at 124g
The unibody device snugly fits in one hand
Minimalist design both at the front and the back
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A cross between the iPhone 5s and Sony Xperia Z
With its chamfered metallic sides, the device looks heavily inspired from the iPhone 5s
The rear panel gets a layer of glass, which makes it resemble Sony’s Xperia Z series
There’s also a circular power button on the right side in a similar fashion to Sony’s
smartphones
The edge is also home to the slots for the micro-SIM and micro-SD cards
Due to the glossy finish at the back, the phone becomes very slippery after prolonged usage
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A crystal clear display
Adorned by a 5-inch IPS LCD display with a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels
The display is extremely vibrant and offers wide viewing angles
Thanks to ample brightness levels, it’s legible under direct sunlight as well
Corning Gorilla Glass 3 acts as a protective layer
With Glove mode, the touchscreen can be used while wearing gloves too
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Huawei's Emotion UI is loaded with features…
Runs Android 4.4 KitKat
Layered with Huawei’s
custom skin called
Emotion UI, which is in
v2.3
The homescreen is a
combination of the app
launcher and homescreen
itself
The lock screen provides
an option to quickly access
apps like the calculator and
calendar by swiping up
from the bottom, similar to
iOS’ Control Centre
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… but comes across as a mixed bag
Themes allows you to
change the look according to
your personal taste
The icons overlap with the
software keys, making it look
odd
There are numerous
granular options such as the
ability to stop notifications,
kill battery-draining apps,
and more, but it can get
confusing at times
Phone manager offers one-
touch options for boosting
the performance, cleaning
storage, etc.
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Primary shooter is a saga of highs and lows…
Sports a 13-megapixel Sony
BSI sensor at the back
Supplemented by an LED
flash to shoot in low light
Capable of recording full HD
videos
The custom camera app
features a minimal interface,
but look into the options or
modes menu and there are a
number of settings available
In terms of image quality, the
primary camera is a mixed bag
Some images were really
impressive, while others failed
to appeal
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… but the front snapper is perfect for selfie maniacs
While colours are good, images
aren’t as sharp as you’d expect
from a 13MP sensor
However, the front camera of the
Ascend P7 will definitely appease
selfie enthusiasts
The device has an 8MP BSI
camera at the front
It’s ideal for sharing selfies as well
as making video calls
With Panorama selfie, you can
also take a wide-angle image with
the front camera
The front shooter is capable of
capturing videos in 720p
resolution
Close up
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Capable hardware, but not without its hiccups
Huawei is relying on its in-house expertise for powering the Ascend P7
It’s fuelled by a an efficient quad-core HiSilicon Kirin 910T processor clocked
at 1.8GHz
Paired with a Mali-450MP4 GPU and 2GB of RAM
Churns out smooth performance for usual tasks, however we did noticed slight
lags while swiping between the homescreens
Gaming performance wasn’t smooth either, and we often noticed stutters
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Scores well on the storage department
Offers a roomy 16GB of
internal storage
Users will be able to
access a little over 11GB
Also supports memory
expansion up to 32GB
with the use of a
microSD card
With the support for USB
On-the-Go, you can
directly access your flash
drives with the Ascend P7
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Average battery life
Unlike the 3,000mAh-plus
batteries powering most
recent flagships, the Ascend
P7 draws power from a
modest 2,500mAh battery
Sadly, it’s unable to keep up
with the device and barely
manages to last an entire
day
The device lasted slightly
more than six hours in our
standard battery drain test
You can enable the Ultra
power saving mode to
prolong the battery, in case
of an emergency
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At a glance…
139.8 x 68.8 x 6.5mm
124g
5-inch display with a resolution of 1,920 x
1,080 pixels
1.8GHz quad-core HiSilicon Kirin 910T
processor
Mali-450MP4 graphics processor
2GB RAM
13-megapixel primary camera with LED
flash
8MP secondary camera
3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC and GPS
Android 4.4.2 KitKat with Emotion 2.3 UI
2,500mAh Li-Po battery
Pros and cons
Great handling
Lovely display
A selfie-centric front shooter
Slippery design
Hardware not up to the standard
of today’s flagships
An average battery
Pricing & verdict
Price:Rs 26,999
“The Huawei Ascend P7 is a capable smartphone with an impressive spec sheet. However, when we bring its pricing into the picture – Rs 26,999 – it becomes slightly difficult to recommend this device, considering the cut-throat competition. In fact, its own sibling, the Honor 6 boasts better internals with an octa-core processor and 3GB of RAM. It will also be facing tough competition from the upcoming OnePlus One and Xiaomi Mi 4, which blow it away with their specs and performance.”