Hands on: Huawei Ascend D Quad review

Huawei Ascend D
The Huawei Ascend D has a 1.5GHz quad-core processor

The Huawei Ascend D series smartphone has been shown at MWC 2012, and speed is the name of its game.

In a marketplace that's getting more crowded than a mid-August commuter train in Stratford, Huawei has its work cut out.

Differentiation is now seen as the key to success in the smartphone world and, like Fujitsu, Huawei has opted to fight on power, rather than looks.

But, picking up the D Series for the first time, you're struck how similar it is to the Samsung Galaxy S2 and Samsung Galaxy Nexus. The handset itself is light, weighing about the same as the Nexus, and is clad in a thin black plastic covering, which does little to impress.

Huawei ascend d

The power comes in the form of the Texas Instruments based OMAP4460 1.5GHz quad-core processor and it does its job. The phone feels slick when navigating Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, especially when using the camera.

You're able to get really trigger happy and the image capture and processing is done in the blink of an eye. But more on that later.

We're not sold on the need for a quad-core handset at this moment in time, and we'd rather see significant gain in screen size, battery life and quality of the camera.

However, the quad-core CPU really makes a difference here. Just like the tangible feeling of immediacy and responsiveness you get from the Tegra 3 Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime over dual-core tablets.

Huawei ascend d

In the press conference, Huawei's Richard Yu stated than the quad-core processor at the heart of the Ascend D Series was between 30% and 50% faster than Tegra 3, though there seems no real-world difference in use.

One of the Ascend D Series' big stories is power consumption, and Huawei promises days of battery life. Longevity is impossible to test on a unit which is security tagged and minded by heavies, but one of the key boasts was power efficiency through cool-processing.

However, from our time with the D Series, we're very skeptical. The handset felt uncomfortably warm in our hands as we loaded web pages and video, more so than any other smartphone we've seen. We'll only know when the full review units debut in April.

Huawei ascend d

Picture quality was a key part of Huawei's announcement, and the 8MP sensor treads water with most of today's handsets, but is no world-beater. The picture quality was good, even in low light, and thanks to the processor, we were able to quickly focus and shoot.

The quality of the shots was average, with noise visible on close inspection, and weren't as good as the iPhone 4S with its excellent built-in 8MP snapper.

Huawei ascend d

Huawei is to be applauded for packing a 1280 x 720 4.5-inch screen into such a small phone, and no space is wasted.

We'd have liked to have seen an AMOLED display, which really sets the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and Nokia Lumia apart, yet the picture was vibrant, thanks to Huawei packing in a few more pixels per inch (330 to be precise rather than 326 on the iPhone 4S). But we'd forgo that for the vibrant mind-rainbows produced by the Nexus.

The Huawei Ascend D Series release date is April 2012 in Europe.

Huawei ascend d

Latest in Huawei Phones
Holding the Huawei Mate XT in-hand
I thought the tri-folding Huawei Mate XT was a gimmick, but then I held it
The Huawei Mate X6 on a pink background
The Huawei Mate X6 looks like a huge step forward for foldable phone photography, and I’m annoyed that I probably won’t be able to get one
The Huawei Mate XT and PS5 Pro side-by-side
Huawei's tri-fold phone is so expensive you could buy four PS5 Pros for the same price
Huawei Mate XT
Huawei posts the first official image of the tri-fold Mate XT, and reveals storage options
Samsung's tri-folding display technology unveiled at the SID Display Week 2021 online event
Huawei finally confirms the name of its tri-fold smartphone in new teaser video
Samsung's tri-folding display technology unveiled at the SID Display Week 2021 online event
Huawei sets the date for its tri-foldable phone launch, with a 10-inch display and high price rumored
Latest in News
Pebble smartwatch countdown
Pebble confirms its smartwatch announcement is just hours away
Logo of YouTube Shorts
Is YouTube auto-playing Shorts when you open the app? Well, you’re not alone - here’s how to fix it
Google DeepMind panel discussion
“More sovereignty and protection” - Google goes all-in on UK AI with data residency, upskilling projects, and startup investments
Nintendo Switch 2
Nintendo Switch 2 expected to have AI upscaling and I can't wait to finally play Tears of the Kingdom with upgraded graphics
PowerColor Red Devil AMD RX 9070 XT graphics card shown side-on
Your next GPU could be from AMD, not Nvidia, if Team Red’s success with PC gamers continues
Intel Lunar Lake concept
Intel's Panther Lake processors won't arrive until Q1 2026 - corroborates previous delay rumors despite former Intel CEO's promise of 2025 launch