Huawei Unveils Ascend P2, the World's Fastest LTE Smartphone

Huawei today unveiled the Ascend P2, the world’s fastest 4G LTE smartphone. It is the first phone to support LTE  CAT 4 speeds up to 150Mbps. Running on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and its custom Emotion user interface, the Ascend P2 is powered by a quad-core 1.5GHz processor and 1GB RAM.

Physically, the Ascend P2 looks no different from its predecessor, the Ascend P1. The Ascend P2 is clad in a plastic chassis, which doesn’t feel as solid as the recently announced aluminum HTC One. The Ascend P2 is not thinner than the 7.69mm Ascend P1, and measures 8.4mm at its thinnest point so as to accommodate the 13-meapixel rear camera sensor. Nonetheless, the Ascend P2 is still considered slim relative to competing phones such as the LG Nexus 4 (9.1mm).

The Ascend P2 comes with a bigger display at 4.7-inch and is reinforced with Corning Gorilla Glass 2. Though it’s a minor bump (0.3-inch) in screen size from the Ascend P1, the display is one of the key features of the Ascend P2.

According to Huawei, the Ascend P2 is the first phone in the world to use HD in-cell technology for its display. This helps the Chinese company to build a design that is 30% thinner, have better viewing angles and boasts lower power consumption. 

During our hands-on with the device, we found its screen to be decent although it is quite reflective. Colors are bright and text appears sharp. It’s odd that the Ascend P2 houses a 720p display when the other handset makers are unveiling phones with 1080p displays.

Like the Sony Xperia Z, the Ascend P2 sports a 13-megapixel rear camera. Camera shutterbugs will also appreciate the fact that the Ascend P2 is one of the few phones in the market to come with a dedicated camera shutter button, which mimics the user experience on conventional cameras. The rear camera also has a special zoom feature, Super Zoom which is said to give better image quality when you zoom up to two times.

Huawei claims that consumers do not need to worry about the battery life in the Ascend P2 as it sports a 2420mAh battery, and has built-in features such as Quick Power Control and Automated Discontinuous Reception to reduce power consumption. The Ascend P2 also charges faster due to the Quick Charge feature, where it supports 2A charge. To find out how this affects the charging time, do read our article where we explore the basics of USB charging on the Apple iPad.

Huawei states that the Ascend P2 will be available globally in Q2 2013. Consumers have two options to choose from: a black and a white model. Its retail price in Europe is stated to be 399EUROS. Below is a table comparing the specs of the Huawei Ascend P2 and the Ascend P1.

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