Information about the make, model, and alternative names of the specific device, if available.
Design
Information about the dimensions and weight of the device, presented in different units of measurement. Materials used, colors offered, certificates.
| Width Width information - refers to the horizontal side of the device in its standard orientation during use. | 68.8 mm (millimeters) 6.88 cm (centimeters) 0.23 ft (feet) 2.71 in (inches) |
| Height Height information - refers to the vertical side of the device in its standard orientation during use. | 139.8 mm (millimeters) 13.98 cm (centimeters) 0.46 ft (feet) 5.5 in (inches) |
| Thickness Information about the thickness of the device in different units of measurement. | 6.5 mm (millimeters) 0.65 cm (centimeters) 0.02 ft (feet) 0.26 in (inches) |
| Weight Information about the weight of the device in different units of measurement. | 124 g (grams) 0.27 lbs 4.37 oz (ounces) |
| Volume The approximate volume of the device, calculated based on the dimensions provided by the manufacturer. Refers to devices with the shape of a rectangular parallelepiped. | 62.52 cm³ (cubic centimeters) 3.8in³ (cubic inches) |
| Colors Information about the colors in which this device is offered for sale. | Black White Pink |
SIM card
The SIM card is used in mobile devices to store data that certifies the authenticity of mobile service subscribers.
Mobile networks
A mobile network is a radio system that allows multiple mobile devices to communicate with each other.
| GSM GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) is designed to replace the analogue mobile network (1G). For this reason, GSM is often called a 2G mobile network. It is improved by the addition of GPRS (General Packet Radio Services), and later EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) technologies. | GSM 850 MHz GSM 900 MHz GSM 1800 MHz GSM 1900 MHz |
| TD-SCDMA TD-SCDMA (Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access) is a 3G mobile network standard. It is also called UTRA/UMTS-TDD LCR. It was developed as an alternative to the W-CDMA standard in China by the Chinese Academy of Telecommunications Technology, Datang Telecom and Siemens. TD-SCDMA combines TDMA and CDMA. | TD-SCDMA 2000 MHz (L05) |
| UMTS UMTS is an abbreviation for Universal Mobile Telecommunications System. It is based on the GSM standard and belongs to 3G mobile networks. Developed by 3GPP and its biggest advantage is providing greater speed and spectral efficiency thanks to W-CDMA technology. | UMTS 850 MHz UMTS 900 MHz UMTS 1700/2100 MHz UMTS 1900 MHz UMTS 2100 MHz |
| LTE LTE (Long Term Evolution) is defined as a fourth generation (4G) technology. It is developed by 3GPP based on GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSPA to increase the capacity and speed of wireless mobile networks. The subsequent technology development is called LTE Advanced. | LTE 900 MHz LTE-TDD 2500 MHz (B41) (L05) LTE-TDD 1900 MHz (B39) (L05) LTE 800 MHz (L00) LTE 1800 MHz (L00) LTE 2100 MHz (L00) LTE 2600 MHz (L00) |
Mobile communication technologies and data transfer speeds
Communication between devices on mobile networks is carried out using technologies that provide different data transfer rates.
Operating system
An operating system is a system software that manages and coordinates the operation of hardware components in a device.
SoC (System on Chip)
A system on a chip (SoC) includes all the most important hardware components of a mobile device on one chip.
| SoC (System on Chip) A system on a chip (SoC) integrates various hardware components, such as a processor, graphics processor, memory, peripherals, interfaces, etc., as well as the software necessary for their operation. | Huawei HiSilicon V9R1 KIRIN 910T |
| Technological process Information about the technological process by which the chip is manufactured. Nanometers measure half the distance between elements in the processor. | 28 nm (nanometers) |
| Processor (CPU) The primary function of a mobile device's processor (CPU) is to interpret and execute instructions contained in software applications. | ARM Cortex-A9 |
| Processor size The size (in bits) of a processor is determined by the size (in bits) of the registers, address buses, and data buses. 64-bit processors have higher performance compared to 32-bit processors, which in turn are more powerful than 16-bit processors. | 32 bit |
| Instruction Set Architecture Instructions are commands with which the software sets/controls the operation of the processor. Information about the instruction set (ISA) that the processor can execute. | ARMv7 |
| Level 1 cache (L1) Cache memory is used by the processor to reduce access time to more frequently used data and instructions. L1 (level 1) cache is small in size and works much faster than both system memory and other cache levels. If the processor does not find the requested data in L1, it continues to look for it in the L2 cache. On some processors, this search is performed simultaneously in L1 and L2. | 32 kB + 32 kB (kilobytes) |
| Number of processor cores The processor core executes software instructions. There are processors with one, two or more cores. Having more cores increases performance by allowing multiple instructions to be executed in parallel. | 4 |
| CPU clock speed The clock speed of a processor describes its speed in terms of cycles per second. It is measured in megahertz (MHz) or gigahertz (GHz). | 1800 MHz (megahertz) |
| Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) The Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) handles calculations for various 2D/3D graphics applications. In mobile devices, it is most often used by games, consumer interfaces, video applications, etc. | ARM Mali-450 MP4 |
| Number of GPU cores Like a CPU, a GPU is made up of several working parts called cores. They handle graphics calculations for various applications. | 4 |
| Amount of random access memory (RAM) Random access memory (RAM) is used by the operating system and all installed applications. Data stored in RAM is lost after the device is turned off or restarted. | 2 GB (gigabytes) |
Built-in memory
Each mobile device has built-in (non-removable) memory with a fixed capacity.
Memory cards
Memory cards are used in mobile devices to increase the storage capacity for storing data.
Screen
The screen of a mobile device is characterized by its technology, resolution, pixel density, diagonal length, color depth, etc.
| Type/technology One of the main characteristics of the screen is the technology by which it is made and on which the quality of the information image directly depends. | LCD |
| Diagonal For mobile devices, screen size is expressed by the length of its diagonal, measured in inches. | 5 in (inches) 127 mm (millimeters) 12.7 cm (centimeters) |
| Width Approximate screen width | 2.45 in (inches) 62.26 mm (millimeters) 6.23 cm (centimeters) |
| Height Approximate screen height | 4.36 in (inches) 110.69 mm (millimeters) 11.07 cm (centimeters) |
| Aspect Ratio The ratio of the dimensions of the long side of the screen to its short side | 1.778:1 16:9 |
| Permission Screen resolution shows the number of pixels vertically and horizontally on the screen. Higher resolution means clearer image detail. | 1080 x 1920 pixels |
| Pixel Density Information about the number of pixels per centimeter or inch of the screen. Higher density allows information to be displayed on the screen with clearer detail. | 441 ppi (pixels per inch) 173 ppcm (pixels per centimeter) |
| Color depth Screen color depth reflects the total number of bits used for color components in one pixel. Information about the maximum number of colors the screen can display. | 24 bit 16777216 flowers |
| Screen area Approximate percentage of screen area occupied by the screen on the front of the device. | 71.89% (percent) |
| Other characteristics Information about other screen features and characteristics. | Capacitive Multi-touch Scratch resistance |
| Corning Gorilla Glass 3 |
Sensors
Different sensors perform different quantitative measurements and convert physical indicators into signals that a mobile device can recognize.
Main camera
The main camera of a mobile device is usually located on the back of the body and is used for taking photos and videos.
| Sensor type Digital cameras use photo sensors to take photographs. The sensor, as well as optics, are one of the main factors in the quality of the camera in a mobile device. | CMOS BSI (backside illumination) |
| Diaphragm Aperture (f-number) is the size of the aperture opening that controls the amount of light reaching the photosensor. A lower f-number means the aperture opening is larger. | f/2 |
| Focal length Focal length is the distance in millimeters from the photosensor to the optical center of the lens. The equivalent focal length is also indicated, providing the same field of view with a full frame camera. | 3.8 mm (millimeters) |
| Flash type The most common types of flashes in mobile device cameras are LED and xenon flashes. LED flashes produce softer light and, unlike brighter xenon flashes, are also used for video shooting. | LED |
| Image Resolution One of the main characteristics of mobile device cameras is their resolution, which shows the number of horizontal and vertical pixels in the image. | 4160 x 3120 pixels 12.98 MP (megapixels) |
| Video resolution Information about the maximum supported resolution when shooting video with the device. | 1920 x 1080 pixels 2.07 MP (megapixels) |
| Video - frame rate/frames per second. Information about the maximum number of frames per second (fps) supported by the device when shooting video at the maximum resolution. Some of the main standard video shooting and playback speeds are 24p, 25p, 30p, 60p. | 30fps (frames per second) |
| Characteristics Information about other software and hardware features related to the main camera and improving its functionality. | Autofocus Continuous shooting Digital image stabilization Geographical tags Panoramic photography HDR shooting Touch Focus Face recognition |
| 5-element lens |
Additional camera
Additional cameras are usually mounted above the device screen and are used mainly for video conversations, gesture recognition, etc.
Audio
Information about the type of speakers and audio technologies supported by the device.
Radio
The radio of the mobile device is a built-in FM receiver.
Location determination
Information about the navigation and location technologies supported by your device.
WiFi
Wi-Fi is a technology that provides wireless communication for transmitting data over close distances between various devices.
Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a standard for secure wireless data transfer between various devices of different types over short distances.
USB
USB (Universal Serial Bus) is an industry standard that allows different electronic devices to exchange data.
Headphone jack
This is an audio connector, also called an audio jack. The most widely used standard in mobile devices is the 3.5mm headphone jack.
Connecting devices
Information about other important connection technologies supported by your device.
Browser
A web browser is a software application for accessing and viewing information on the Internet.
| Browser Information about some of the main characteristics and standards supported by the device's browser. | HTML HTML5 CSS 3 |
Audio file formats/codecs
Mobile devices support different audio file formats and codecs, which respectively store and encode/decode digital audio data.
Video file formats/codecs
Mobile devices support different video file formats and codecs, which respectively store and encode/decode digital video data.
Battery
Mobile device batteries differ from each other in their capacity and technology. They provide the electrical charge necessary for their functioning.
| Capacity A battery's capacity indicates the maximum charge it can hold, measured in milliamp-hours. | 2500 mAh (milliamp-hours) |
| Type The type of battery is determined by its structure and, more precisely, the chemicals used. There are different types of batteries, with lithium-ion and lithium-ion polymer batteries being the most commonly used batteries in mobile devices. | Li-polymer |
| 2G talk time 2G talk time is the period of time during which the battery charge is completely discharged during a continuous conversation on a 2G network. | 22 h (hours) 1320 min (minutes) 0.9 days |
| 2G latency 2G standby time is the period of time during which the battery charge is completely discharged when the device is in stand-by mode and connected to a 2G network. | 422 h (hours) 25320 min (minutes) 17.6 days |
| 3G talk time 3G talk time is the period of time during which the battery charge is completely discharged during a continuous conversation on a 3G network. | 14 h (hours) 840 min (minutes) 0.6 days |
| 3G latency 3G standby time is the period of time during which the battery charge is completely discharged when the device is in stand-by mode and connected to a 3G network. | 422 h (hours) 25320 min (minutes) 17.6 days |
| 4G latency 4G standby time is the period of time during which the battery charge is completely discharged when the device is in stand-by mode and connected to a 4G network. | 404 h (hours) 24240 min (minutes) 16.8 days |
| Characteristics Information about some additional characteristics of the device's battery. | Fixed |
Specific Absorption Rate (SAR)
The SAR level refers to the amount of electromagnetic radiation absorbed by the human body while using a mobile device.
| Head SAR level (US) The SAR level indicates the maximum amount of electromagnetic radiation that the human body is exposed to when holding a mobile device near the ear. The maximum value used in the USA is 1.6 W/kg per 1 gram of human tissue. Mobile devices in the US are regulated by the CTIA, and the FCC conducts tests and sets their SAR values. | 0.6 W/kg (Watt per kilogram) |
| Body SAR level (US) The SAR level indicates the maximum amount of electromagnetic radiation to which the human body is exposed when holding a mobile device at hip level. The highest permissible SAR value in the USA is 1.6 W/kg per 1 gram of human tissue. This value is set by the FCC, and the CTIA monitors mobile devices' compliance with this standard. | 0.97 W/kg (Watt per kilogram) |
Reviews, technical characteristics, specifications and other important information - all this will be discussed in detail in the article. Despite the fact that this device went on sale in May 2014, even now its capabilities are sufficient to solve a wide range of tasks.
Smartphone hardware
Powerful computing resources are at the heart of the Huawei Ascend P7. Reviews from owners indicate that this gadget copes with tasks of any level of complexity. Because it is equipped with a 910T quad-core processor from HiSilicon Kirin. Each core at maximum load is capable of operating at a frequency of 1.8 GHz and is built on the Cortex-A9 architecture. It is important to understand one important point here. The 4 cores of the A7 architecture will be weaker than the A9. In turn, a similar processor with exactly the same number of computing modules on the A15 will be more productive than the A9. The Cortex-A15 architecture is still quite rare. Therefore, this processor boasts an excellent level of computing power. The CPU is complemented by a graphics adapter model 450 MP from Mali. In terms of its performance, this solution belongs to the top segment. Such hardware resources are more than enough to solve any task: from surfing websites to demanding 3D games. A smartphone can easily handle all this.
Display and cameras
Now let's look at the other components of the Huawei Ascend P7 graphics system. A review without their description will be incomplete. The display diagonal is impressive - 5 inches. Its resolution is 1920 pixels by 1080 pixels. That is, the picture on it is displayed in full HD quality. Another feature of this model is the absence of an air gap between the sensor and the display. Due to this, viewing angles are significantly increased, and the picture becomes much better. Two cameras are installed in this gadget. And both are high quality. One of them, 8 megapixels, is located on the front of the device. It allows you to make video calls on 3rd or 4th generation networks, as well as using specialized software. The second camera is already 13 megapixels, and it is located on the back cover. A special system of 5 lenses allows you to take phenomenal photos and videos. The latter are recorded in a resolution of 1920 pixels by 1080 pixels, that is, in full HD quality.
Memory subsystem
The memory subsystem of the Huawei Ascend P7 is excellently designed. Reviews from happy owners are proof of this. The RAM in this smartphone is 2 GB DDR3 standard. This is enough for comfortable and smooth operation of the device. It has 8 GB of built-in memory. Of these, about 6 GB are allocated for user needs. They are quite enough to install many programs and place 5-6 movies in MP3 quality. You can significantly increase the memory capacity by installing an external flash drive with a maximum size of 32 GB.
Ergonomics, housing and ease of use
The designers found an interesting solution when developing the Huawei Ascend P7 BLACK case. Owner reviews indicate this. The body of this all-in-one with touch input is made entirely of 3rd generation “Gorilla Eye” tempered glass. Moreover, this applies to both the front of the gadget and the back. Only along the perimeter is it framed by a metal strip. To prevent dirt and fingerprints from appearing on the surface of the glass, a special 7-layer coating has been developed that masks them. The left edge of the smartphone is without controls. All buttons are located on the right side. There are volume rockers and a button to turn off the device. The volume down key allows you to quickly take pictures. To do this, just press it twice when the smartphone is locked, and in less than 2 seconds you will see the result. At the top of the device, in addition to the previously mentioned 8 MP camera, there is also a speaker. The top edge of the gadget has a headphone jack. Below the 5-inch screen there are three touch buttons: “Menu”, “Back” and “Home”. The microphone and MicroUSB connector are located on the bottom edge of the smartphone. The device itself is currently available in two colors. In addition to the previously mentioned black, there is also a white version. The White smartphone will appeal more to the weaker half of humanity, for whom it was made.
Autonomy
This Chinese device has a 2500 milliampere/hour battery. Its resource with minimal load will last for 3 days. But with more intensive use of the smartphone - for 12 hours, and then you will have to put the device on charge. The battery is built into the case, and if it becomes unusable, it will be problematic to replace it yourself. You will have to contact a specialized service center for help.
Software
The Huawei Ascend P7 smartphone has an interesting set of software. Reviews primarily highlight the Emotion UI shell version 2.3, which was developed by the Chinese manufacturer and a special pop-up menu. Each of these components allows you to customize the gadget's interface according to the user's needs. Due to this, you can significantly increase productivity and ensure that you can control your smartphone with only one hand. Not every device with similar characteristics can achieve this.
Data exchange
This smart phone has a rich set of communication capabilities. Among them are:
- Supports all possible mobile networks today.
- Wi-Fi module capable of operating at speeds up to 150 Mbit/s.
- Bluetooth 4th generation.
- A navigation module capable of working with both GLONASS and ZhPS.
- A MicroUSB interface is provided for connecting to a PC. It is also used when charging the battery.
- A separate connector allows you to easily connect an external speaker system to your smartphone.
Ascend P7 is a flagship without five minutes, the price is the same. But we are very concerned about the question: is it worth stopping at half measures when there is enough money in your pocket (after all, I believe, a person who can pay 6500 UAH for a model and 8000 UAH for any flagship will not be a serious waste) to buy the most sophisticated model of our time? In this review we will try to answer this tricky question.
Specifications
The highlight of the Huawei Ascend P7 is the new processor developed by a division of Huawei. In the world - HiSilicon Kirin 910T. In terms of technical characteristics, it is energy efficient (28 nm process technology) and the happy owner of four Cortex-A9 cores, which replaced the outdated and power-hungry Huawei K3V2. Ideologically, Ascend P7 is a continuation of last year’s subtle and stylish hit Ascend P6. In terms of characteristics, it’s almost a copy of last year’s flagship Ascend D2: there’s a 13 MP main camera, a 5-inch FullHD display, obviously the same, because it’s just as bright, juicy and accurate, and 2 GB of RAM, and its own processor, which is the crown of the manufacturer’s line, and the price is daring for the unfamiliar Ukrainian market. Of the obvious improvements, it is worth highlighting the 8-megapixel front camera for cool selfies against the backdrop of landmarks or a large company, the latest Android 4.4.2, the presence of an NFC module (it is not clear whether it can already be considered in demand or not) and promotion in the proprietary Emotion UI shell. The negative trend affected the battery (reduced to 2500 mAh, which means autonomy has not increased) and the amount of internal memory (only 16 GB in the new model, but there is support for microSD up to 64 GB). Another weak point of this modern, expensive smartphone is the lack of support for 5 GHz Wi-Fi. Although, if you do not plan to upgrade such a part of your life as the speed of wireless Internet access at home and in the office (if it depends on you), then you don’t have to worry about this.
Case design and ergonomics
The Huawei Ascend P7 smartphone will find its fan. A strict thin case with perfect assembly, metal on the ends, tempered glass on the front and back. The thing fits perfectly in the hand, is convenient to control without the help of a second limb, looks great and will certainly appeal to fans of “square” smartphones. The front side is very reminiscent of the Ascend D2, the sides are reminiscent of the P6, and the back side is either LG G2 or nothing at all. This is all because the back of the device has a discreet ornament, which along the way masks fingerprints. The rear of the P7 is nice, although I liked the P6 better.
The location of all the buttons at the ends is typical and convenient. The same can be said about connectors. To install the cards you will need a paperclip; we decided not to repeat the option with it hidden in the case, as in its predecessor.
The speaker remained on the back side again.
The main camera of the smartphone is hidden in the upper left corner and does not bother anyone there along with the flash.
The front panel, due to the color contrast, together with the sensors, stands out strongly on the front panel.
Android control keys are touch sensitive. They can hide if the user so desires.
Huawei Ascend P7 next to Samsung Galaxy S5.
Overall: the design of the smartphone has every chance of attracting the attention and favor of the public, the ergonomics of the body are perfect, adjusted for a 5-inch display, and the materials are excellent. In our sample there was a problem with the plastic inclusion coming away from the main part of the body, but I sincerely hope that this is an issue for the pre-sale sample.
Screen
The flagships of Huawei smartphones were among the first Androids on the market to boast excessive backlight brightness. It is also worth remembering that it was Huawei that was the first to bring to the market (global, the model reached Ukraine after the flagships of Samsung and HTC) a smartphone with a FullHD display. What seemed fantastic a year and a half ago is today gradually descending into the middle class, and Huawei Ascend P7 is proof of this. Based on personal impressions, I can’t say that FullHD on a 5-inch display is a must-have; on 5 inches and HD it looks good. But this display looks great.
| Device name | White field brightness, cd/m2 | The brightness of the black field, cd/m2 | Contrast |
|---|---|---|---|
| Huawei Ascend P7 | 400.69 | 0.82 | 489:1 |
| Samsung Galaxy S5 | 370.3 | 0 | ∞ |
| HTC One M8 | 459.44 | 0.22 | 2088:1 |
| LG G2 | 336.41 | 0.4 | 840:1 |
| Sony Xperia Z1 | 400.81 | 0.75 | 534:1 |
| Samsung Galaxy Note 3 | 323.81 | 0 | ∞ |
| Huawei Ascend Mate | 454.76 | 0.58 | 791:1 |
| Huawei Ascend D2 | 310.52 | 0.30 | 1037:1 |
| Sony Xperia ZL | 394 | 0.66 | 596:1 |
| Samsung Galaxy S4 | 320 | 0 | ∞ |
| Sony Xperia T | 421 | 0.28 | 1503:1 |
| iPhone 4S | 434 | 0.53 | 818:1 |
| Huawei Ascend G700 | 494.25 | 0.51 | 969:1 |
Display calibration is good. In the settings you can traditionally find a color temperature control item, which should be slightly “warmed up”. Initially it is colder than the standard. And the “correctness” of colors begins to falter closer to the light areas of the image. If the display gets a solid “excellent” for brightness, then for calibration it gets a solid “good”. To the advantages of Huawei Ascend P7, it is also worth adding support for working with gloves - to do this, you should enable increased sensitivity in the screen settings.
Autonomy
The reduction in battery capacity compared to last year's five-inch flagship Ascend D2 did not lead to a deterioration in battery life. Due to the use of a more energy-efficient processor, it remained at the same level under high load and increased significantly when used in a less intensive mode. Those who like to stay glued to games, cameras and social networks will drain their smartphone during the intensive daylight hours. Users who are less involved with their smartphone will be able to enjoy its company for up to three days without charging. The AnTuTu test result is average by today's standards. But for a thin smartphone it’s quite good.
Sound
The only speaker on the case, although located in a bad place, is also worthy of a kind word - it is indecently loud and powerful. Older models of Huawei smartphones usually sound good in headphones, and the Ascend P7 is no exception. The sound is not as hoarse and flat as in Huawei devices of a lower class; on the contrary, it is rich, bold and quite spacious. There is no equalizer in the settings of the branded player in the smartphone interface. There are only two playback modes available: with and without “enhancer”. I wouldn’t consider this a problem; smartphone music lovers can always download their favorite player from Google Play.
Performance and Heat
The new Huawei Kirin 910T processor is comparable in performance to last year’s solutions that were used in flagship devices. Equipped with 2 GB of RAM and a FullHD display, the smartphone in tests demonstrates approximately the same performance as Sony Xperia Z, HTC One, and Samsung Galaxy S4. This is noticeably larger than the Huawei Ascend D2. Recently to the editor gg We brought a Galaxy S4 for the PocketBook CoverReader review. With a live comparison, it becomes obvious that after all the OS updates, last year's Samsung flagship has fundamentally lost in the smoothness of the interface, camera launch speed and other little things. And in them it is inferior to the Huawei Ascend P7, but only until it heats up to the point of “burning my palms,” then the Ascend P7 begins to slow down. Benchmarks are in the gallery.
The previous Huawei processor had weaknesses in graphics. The new model passed both the “heavy” 3DMark tests, Temple Run 2 at maximum settings, and Real Racing 3 without a hitch. At the same time, it dropped significantly in Epic Citadel, demonstrating 35.3 fps in the maximum available mode - High Quality. I haven't encountered any issues with insufficient graphics performance in games.
Interface
Another highlight of the model is its updated interface - Emotion UI 2.3. In fact, there are minimal changes in it. The user gets the same desktops without a separate application menu, the ability to add widgets to them, one large widget for the “home” desktop, several design themes, a bunch of transition effects and the right to create folders by simply dragging and dropping. In terms of design, the interface of Huawei smartphones is extremely similar to the interface of Lenovo, Alcatel and Meizu smartphones. But the overall impression of it is more harmonious, or something. The designers managed to achieve a harmonious combination of the diversity of application icons from Google Play by adding a background in the form of a square with rounded corners. As a result, the motley horde is the same size and shape, although the style differs slightly from Huawei's own pre-installed applications. Despite the “childish” notes inherent in all proprietary interfaces of Chinese and Korean developers, Emotion UI 2.0 ultimately looks nicer than the strict interface of Sony or HTC, the unity of which is greatly disrupted by a motley crowd of applications.
A convenient addition to the smartphone’s capabilities is the appearance of a panel with useful tools, which appears when you swipe up from the bottom on the locked screen. Modest knowledge of Chinese (in commercial samples there will be a translation, but that’s what we got for now) does not allow us to understand the contents of the top two lines, but the airy, iOS-like icons of the calendar, calculator, flashlight “mirror” and player speak for themselves. In accordance with the features of Android 4.4, a camera launch button has appeared in the lower right corner of the locked screen. If you suddenly don’t like this arrangement, in the menu with themes you can select one that returns the lock screen from the times of Android 4.1 - Taste. A curtain has been added to the notification panel; by pulling it, the user gets access to the entire list of features. And the last obvious innovation was the “simple” desktop mode - for those who buy an expensive smartphone to act as a “dialer”.
Otherwise, this is our old friend Emotion UI from the times of the first Huawei models on the Ukrainian market.
Camera
The camera interface of the Huawei Ascend P7 still retains family ties with the camera interface in bare Android, although several “smart” modes have appeared in its settings. Among them there is even a “watermark” that allows you to leave text on pictures. But for some reason there is no “background defocus”, which is now available in every smartphone running Android 4.4. And this, by the way, is one of my favorite “toys” in smartphone cameras. Right after Sony's augmented reality. By default, photos are taken in 10 MP resolution (16:9 aspect ratio), you can switch to 13 MP (4:3) in the photo settings. The video is also by default recorded in worse quality than it could - HD instead of FullHD.
Apparently, our hero got the camera from its predecessor Huawei Ascend D2. Let me remind you that it was quite good, better than some of last year’s flagships. The Ascend P7 can take great photos in the dark, in low light, and of course, on a nice clear day. It also has no problems with macro photography; it focuses quickly and shoots well. In general, I was not able to find a single case in which the smartphone coped with the shooting unworthily. These photographs were generally taken in complete darkness (in original resolution).
Below are even more examples of the Huawei Ascend P7 camera (in original resolution).
The front 8-megapixel camera deserves special mention. Thanks to anti-aliasing, which is a feature of Android, and the good quality of the camera itself, your video interlocutor will not have to observe extra bags under the eyes and other skin irregularities. The camera also perfectly captures objects at a far distance, so selfies with the Eiffel Tower or St. Vitus Cathedral in the background will turn out great. True, if it is a little dark, then there is a chance that the face will be out of focus. For starters, here are a few examples of pictures from the front camera.
Bottom line
Huawei Ascend P7 is a wonderful, fresh model with a lot of advantages. But since it belongs to the same price and semantic segment as last year’s flagships Samsung Galaxy S4, LG G2, HTC One and others, poor knowledge of the far-reaching Chinese brand Huawei in Ukraine will play a bad joke on it in our market. After all, the eyes of our buyer, to whom the Galaxy S4 was dear last year, but this year it was somehow normal, light up with an even more devilish light at the sight of the slightly lowered price of the model. And the hands themselves begin to repeat grasping movements. The same thing happens to those who a year earlier did not have enough for the One or, more recently, for the LG G2. The hope of Huawei Ascend P7 is people who categorically do not want to buy mass-produced devices and participate in the hysteria around them. The Ascend P7 is slightly inferior in performance to some of its competitors. In particular, it doesn’t match the performance of the LG G2 with its almost advanced Snapdragon 800 processor. It can’t count steps and take double pictures like the Galaxy S4, and it’s not as aluminum as the One. But this model has its own charm and undeniably strong characteristics, including camera, sound, compactness, and glove-reading screen. All that remains is for the price to drop by a couple of tens of percent to make it even more attractive or fall into the hands of a lover of “square” devices.
4 reasons to buy Huawei Ascend P7:
- slim, beautiful body with chic ergonomics;
- the screen can be used with gloves;
- excellent sound in headphones and loud speaker;
- high-quality camera;
2 reasons not to buy Huawei Ascend P7:
- performance is slightly lower than last year's flagships;
- high price compared to competitors.
The smartphone comes standard with a microUSB cable, charger and wired headset. The manufacturer also included a paperclip in the kit, with which you can access the SIM card and memory card trays.
Dimensions - 4.5
The dimensions of the Huawei Ascend P7 are one of its main advantages. Thus, the thickness of the smartphone is only 6.5 mm (8.2 mm for Sony Xperia Z2, 8.1 mm for Samsung Galaxy S5 mini and 9.35 mm for), and weight is 124 grams (163 grams for Sony Xperia Z2, 160 grams for Samsung Galaxy S5 and 160 gram for HTC One (M8)). Compared to its competitors, this smartphone looks very compact (despite its 5-inch diagonal). The main material used is tempered glass Gorilla Glass 3, which covers both the screen and the back of the cover. The bezel of the smartphone is made of aluminum. The combination of aluminum and glass is extremely successful; in our opinion, the smartphone looks stylish. Among the disadvantages of using such material, we note only some slipperiness and soiling (in the white version it is almost invisible) of the back cover, which is confirmed by user reviews.
Screen - 4.8
Display diagonal - 5 inches, screen resolution - 1920x1080 pixels, matrix type - IPS. The screen is covered with protective glass Gorilla Glass 3, there is an oleophobic coating.
The screen has natural color reproduction and good viewing angles. With this display resolution, individual pixels are indistinguishable, and images and fonts look smooth and crisp. In the sun, the display fades almost completely; information can be read, but with difficulty. But at night, the minimum brightness is perfectly enough for comfortable work with the screen.
Camera
The smartphone has a main 13 MP camera with LED flash. The camera has good detail, but it is important to understand that the quality of the images will be inferior to that of the Samsung Galaxy S5. At the presentation of Huawei Ascend P7 in Paris, the company's management talked a lot about the front 5 MP camera, ideal for selfies. So, when creating your own portraits, you can enable a special effect that enhances the photo. Its essence is to smooth out skin defects and enlarge the eyes. You can choose the intensity yourself. Note that in our opinion, setting the effect slider to five works great, but at ten your eyes will be too big, the effect will be more comical than beautiful.
Working with text - 5.0
Huawei Ascend P7 decided to abandon the standard keyboard and replaced it with pre-installed Swype. In our opinion, this is the right decision, since at the moment the Swype keyboard is one of the most functional third-party keyboards: it has support for typing with strokes, the ability to enter additional characters using a long press
Internet - 1.0
Huawei Ascend P7 has a standard browser from Android 4.0. It has a user-friendly interface and excellent speed. However, there is no automatic adjustment of text to the width of the screen when the page is enlarged, as well as a separate reading mode.
Interfaces
Huawei has a large share of equipment sales for telecom operators. Naturally, a lot of attention has been paid to wireless interfaces. Thus, the device has support for Russian LTE frequencies, dual-band Wi-Fi and NFC.
Multimedia - 4.2
The device supports most audio and video codecs, as well as audio and video formats. You can easily watch Full HD video with Ascend P7, in MKV format and with an audio track in FLAC, for example.
Battery - 2.5
The smartphone has a non-removable battery with a capacity of 2500 mAh. We tested the battery in our two standard tests: the device is capable of playing HD video at maximum brightness for 6 hours, and listening to music discharges it in 24 hours. The battery life of the Ascend P7 is quite good, they are second only to the most famous flagships (Samsung Galaxy S5) or long-lasting smartphones (Lenovo S860). Separately, we note that the device has a special energy saving mode that controls the access of applications to the Internet, as well as an increased energy saving mode. The latter is recommended to be used when there is an urgent need to preserve the device’s charge as much as possible. In this mode, you only have access to calls and SMS messages.
Performance - 2.7
The device uses a proprietary HiSilicon Kirin 910T platform with a quad-core processor operating at 1.8 GHz, a Mali-450MP graphics subsystem, and 2 GB of RAM. In our opinion, its own processor copes well with most everyday tasks and many “heavy” games, but it has one unpleasant drawback. We noticed that there was a slight stutter when scrolling through desktops in the Ascend P7. This is most likely due to the fact that the video accelerator does not have enough power to maintain smooth operation at Full HD resolution.
Memory - 5.0
The amount of internal memory in Huawei Ascend P7 is 16 GB, 11.8 GB is available to the user. Memory cards up to 128 GB are supported. Let us remind you that in Huawei smartphones you can traditionally swap the internal and external memory. This solves the problem of installing “heavy” games with a large cache size.
Peculiarities
The smartphone runs the proprietary Emotion UI 3.0 shell. In this shell, the Android interface has been completely redesigned, and almost all built-in applications have been replaced. For example, the desktops use their own launcher, which works very quickly. In addition, there is a pre-installed keyboard with additional symbols on the keys. The dialer contains Russian letters. Switches in the notification shade can be changed and redistributed.
At the presentation in Paris, among other things, company representatives noted the unique solution to combine a memory card slot and a slot for a second SIM card in one tray. The user was asked to use either two SIM cards, or one SIM card and a memory card. Let's be honest, this solution is quite fresh and interesting. Let us assume that the arrangement of these slots in two different trays is impossible due to the small thickness of the smartphone.
The flagship smartphone Huawei P7 was announced in May 2014. It has an interesting design and high-quality execution. And the characteristics of the device at the time of its official release were the highest.
Appearance and ergonomics
The Huawei P7 model stands out due to the widespread use of glass surfaces. Special 7-level glass is located not only on the front side, but also on the back. In terms of appearance, the device is reminiscent of two popular gadgets - the iPhone 4 and Xperia Z. At the same time, there is an original microscopic pattern on the back panel, which makes the overall design of the smartphone even more attractive. The truly thin body and smooth edges significantly improve ergonomics. On the side you can easily find a convenient round-shaped power button made of metal. And the aluminum frame complements the pretty picture. Due to the high-quality assembly, the gadget feels solid in the palm of your hand. Moreover, the extremely lightweight body prevents your hand from getting tired even during long-term use. Dimensions of Huawei P7: height - 140 m, width - 69 m, thickness - 6.5 mm, weight - 124 g. Color: white and black.
Display
Huawei P7 is equipped with a 5-inch screen with a classic IPS matrix. The excellent resolution (Full HD) of this display is complemented by an excellent pixel density of 445. The picture quality can be called very good, and the oleophobic coating copes well with prints. The One Glass Solution technology is especially effective, because what is happening on the display is clearly visible in the palm of your hand. But in the sun the screen behaves much worse, since the image almost completely fades. The automatic brightness adjustment is unstable, and its maximum level is clearly insufficient in certain conditions.
Hardware and performance
The flagship from Huawei has a quad-core Kirin 910T chip. This processor operates at a frequency of 1800 MHz, and the role of the GPU is taken on by the Mali-450 MP 3D accelerator. The storage capacity is 16 GB, of which the user can initially count on 11-12 GB. Memory cards up to 64 GB are supported using the MicroSD slot. 2 GB are separately allocated for RAM needs. Operating system - Android 4.4.2.
In the AnTuTu performance test, the Huawei P7 scores just over 25,000 points, which is not the most outstanding result even by 2014 standards. From a flagship device at the right price, you'd expect slightly different results. In Ice Storm Extreme, the device shows a score of 5100 points. On the other hand, in real conditions the smartphone copes well with a wide variety of games, setting the graphics level to high values. But for some reason certain difficulties arise with the processing of our own EMUI 2.3 interface. Slowdowns appear periodically, and the notification curtain opens with a noticeable delay. Obviously this is due to poor optimization.
Communication and sound
Speech is transmitted through the earpiece very well. You can almost always hear your interlocutor perfectly. At the same time, Huawei P7 consistently picks up LTE and 3G signals, and at the highest speeds. There is also an NFC module, as well as Bluetooth 4.0 and WiFi 802.11 b/g/n. The multimedia speaker is loud, differing in sound frequency.
Camera
The P7 has a 13-megapixel camera from Sony, which is great for daytime photography. When the lighting changes for the worse, the pictures come out with lower quality. Increased color rendition is often even detrimental, as realism is lost. Things are much more interesting with the front 8-megapixel camera. Using the built-in filter, you can independently improve your face, smoothing the skin or enlarging your eyes.
conclusions
Huawei P7 is a flagship-level fashion smartphone. In some respects it falls short of its famous competitors, but it has its own amazing charm. And its 20,000 starting price worked in favor of this Chinese device.
Pros:
- Appearance.
- Assembly.
- Speakers.
- Price.
- Front-camera.
- Minuses:
- Performance.
- Main camera.
Technical characteristics of Huawei P7
| General characteristics | |
|---|---|
| Model | Huawei P7, Huawei Ascend P7, P7-L00, P7-L05, P7-L07, P7-L09, P7-L10 |
| Date of announcement/start of sales | May 2014 / June 2014 |
| Dimensions | 139.8 x 68.8 x 6.5 mm. |
| Weight | 124 g. |
| Case color range | White, Black, Pink |
| Number and type of SIM cards | One SIM (Micro-SIM) or Two SIM (Micro-SIM/ Nano-SIM, dual stand-by) |
| operating system | Android OS, v4.4.2 (KitKat), upgradable to v5.1.1 (Lollipop) |
| Communication standard in 2G networks | GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 - SIM 1 & SIM 2 CDMA 800 |
| Communication standard in 3G networks | HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 CDMA2000 1xEV-DO/TD-SCDMA |
| Communication standard in 4G networks | LTE band 1(2100), 3(1800), 7(2600), 38(2600), 39(1900), 40(2300), 41(2500) |
| Display | |
| Screen type | IPS LCD, 16 million colors |
| Screen size | 5.0 inches |
| Screen resolution | 1080 x 1920 @441 ppi |
| Multitouch | yes, up to 10 simultaneous touches |
| Screen protection | Corning Gorilla Glass 3 |
| Sound | |
| 3.5mm jack | There is |
| FM radio | There is |
| Additionally | Dolby Digital Plus |
| Data transfer | |
| USB | microUSB v2.0, USB Host |
| Satellite navigation | GPS (A-GPS), GLONASS |
| WLAN | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, hotspot |
| Bluetooth | v4.0, A2DP, LE |
| Internet connection | LTE, Cat4; HSDPA, 21 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps, EDGE, GPRS |
| NFC | Yes |
| Hardware | |
| CPU | HiSilicon Kirin 910T Quad-core 1.8 GHz Cortex-A9 |
| GPU | Mali-450MP4 |
| RAM | 2GB RAM |
| Inner memory | 16 GB |
| Supported memory cards | microSD up to 64GB |
| Camera | |
| Camera | 13 MP, f/2.0, 28mm, autofocus, LED flash |
| Camera functions | Geo-tagging, touch focus, face/smile detection, panorama, HDR |
| Video recording | 1080p@30fps |
| Front-camera | 8 MP, f/2.0, 26mm |
| Battery | |
| Battery type and capacity | Li-Po 2500 mAh |
| Additionally | |
| Sensors | lighting, proximity, gyroscope, compass, fingerprint reading |
| Browser | HTML5 |
| IMAP, POP3, SMTP | |
| Other | -Google Search, Maps, Gmail, Talk -MP3/WAV/eAAC+ player -MP4/H.263/H.264 player -Organizer -Document viewer -Organizer -Voice dialing, voice commands |
| Equipment | |
| Standard equipment | smartphone, charger, USB cable, leather case |
| Prices |
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