Huawei Ascend G510 review

Battery life is something that is hotly contested from device to device. When buying a smartphone, you will at least expect a whole day's moderate usage from it, which is something that seems very fair.

That said, everybody uses their phones for different things, so it can be a bit more difficult.

If you plan to make the jump up from a feature phone - where batteries can easily last a week on a charge - over to the Huawei Ascend G510, there will be a bit of a shock. There's also a more minor shock for the more experienced smartphone users.

The 1700mAh battery that Huawei has equipped the Ascend G510 with is pretty poor.

Let's put that into some perspective. For all our phone reviews, we use a standardised test in order to ensure we draw fair comparisons.

After running the test on the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini - a phone with a much brighter 4-inch screen and a smaller 1500mAh battery - we were left with an impressive 80% battery life left. However, the same test yielded 68% battery on the Huawei Ascend G510.

After taking the phone off its charge in the morning, we did manage to squeeze a day's use out of the Huawei Ascend G510.

Unfortunately, when we say a day's use, that involved a constant Wi-Fi connection, checking emails every so often, sending a couple of texts, as well as some Angry Birds and Temple Run action. Heavier usage than that will mean you might want to keep a phone charger in your desk drawer at work, or in your bag.

Connectivity

You would struggle to call the Huawei Ascend G510 lacking in the connectivity department, since the only notable omissions are 4G and an infra-red sensor. These remain the preserve of flagship devices such as the HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S4 and Sony Xperia Z.

Huawei has provided the Ascend G510 with HSDPA to 7.2Mbps and HSUPA to 5.76Mbps, as well as Wi-Fi 802.11 to b/g/n standard. It also has portable hotspot capabilities, should you need to provide your tablet or laptop with Wi-Fi when out and about.

Bluetooth is supported at 2.1 standard, so it's by no means the latest, but it is perfectly functional. Unsurprisingly, the Huawei Ascend G510 also comes with GPS and A-GPS support, as well as the far more surprising inclusion of NFC.

NFC is becoming increasingly popular among mobile manufacturers, mobile accessories and in retail outlets.

With NFC looking to become very popular over the next few years, seeing it appear on lower end devices such as the Huawei Ascend G510 is very promising, and great if you're tying yourself into a 24-month contract.

Also on offer are the previously mentioned micro USB connectivity, since it doubles up as a charging point, as well as the ability to stream wirelessly over DLNA.

Connection to a PC is done via the supplied micro USB cable. On the Huawei Ascend G510, you are prompted to select what mode you would like to connect with, from a choice of Media Device (MTP), Camera (PTP) or USB mass storage.

On many devices you won't see a real difference between Media Device and USB mass storage modes, since both enable you to drag and drop media freely between your PC and the phone. Huawei provides a decent filing system on the G510, meaning that anything you transfer can be easily accessed via the File Manager.