Huawei Ascend P6 review
Verdict
If you want a ridiculously slim phone
to slide into your pocket and don't mind that its specs are more
typical of last year's kit, the Ascend P6 is one to consider. Its
overheating is a concern though, as are the small issues with
construction and software. Let's hope Huawei sorts them out before it
goes on sale.
Good
- Incredibly thin
- Highly customisable homescreens
- Bright and bold display
Bad
- Ridiculous port placement
- Overheats to an alarming level
- Some build quality concerns
- Unimpressive performance from quad-core processor
Huawei's take on this is evidently 'the skinnier the better', as it's given the Ascend P6 a superbly narrow 6.18mm frame. That makes it the thinnest phone on the market today. Into that body, Huawei has packed a quad-core processor, a 720p display and Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean.
It's available from July for £330 SIM-free.
Should I buy the Huawei Ascend P6?
If you want to win a specs battle against your Samsung Galaxy S4-packing friends, then no. With a 720p resolution display, 8-megapixel camera and mediocre performance from a quad-core chip, the P6 is much more akin to last year's smart phones.If specs are less important than an eye on design then the P6 has more to offer. At 6.18mm thick, it's the skinniest phone on the market. The metal design looks good too, so long as you can ignore the iPhone 4 stylings and stupid port placement.
It's not perfect though. I found it overheated easily and there were a couple of slight build quality and software issues that caused me some concern. They could be down to errors specific to my early review model, so I'll come back to these when Huawei puts the P6 on sale.
If a super-skinny body is paramount, the P6 is a fair option to consider. The Google Nexus 4, however, boasts similar specs and delivers a much more spritely performance. Its stock Android software is much more user friendly too and you can pick it up for less money.
Design and build quality
Okay, let's get it out of the way early -- the P6 looks basically like an iPhone 4 that's had an altercation with a rolling pin. The edge of the phone is a strip of brushed aluminium that may as well have been lifted straight from Apple's phone. It's broken, too, at the top corners by the same little black lines seen on the iPhone.
Have we met before? The P6 looks remarkably similar to the iPhone 4.
The bottom half of the phone has a rounded, black bottom, mercifully setting it apart from the iPhone. In fact, the bottom looks like a different phone altogether -- almost as though Huawei has glued two halves of different phones together. That's not helped by the Huawei logo on the bottom. Most of the time when I pick the phone up, I pick it up upside down, as I'm so used to the branding appearing at the top.
iPhone stylings aside, the P6 is a great piece of kit, thanks to its supreme slimness. It measures a ridiculous 6.8mm thick, making it the thinnest phone you can currently wrap your hands around. It looks almost like a 2D sliver of black when it's sitting on your desk. Hold it between your fingers and I expect that, like me, you'll be quite taken aback by how ridiculously narrow it really is.
Sony's Xperia Z is super skinny too, but it looks positively portly when compare with the P6. If a size zero phone to slide, unnoticed, into the pocket of your skinny jeans appeals then the P6 should be high up your list of candidates.
That slimness doesn't seem to have come at the expense of structural rigidity either. The solid metal back and side bar help make it feel very stable -- there's no flex in the frame at all when you give it a bit of a bend.
The metal design makes the P6 feel like a satisfyingly luxurious product, far removed from awfully plasticky phones like the G510. It looks and feels considerably more premium than the P2 as well.
It's not perfect, though. The metal back panel displays a small amount of movement when you press it in certain places. It also doesn't sit exactly flush with its surround, resulting in quite a harsh edge. Neither are exactly deal-breakers, but it does suggest that a a closer eye on quality control is needed.
The handset I reviewed was an early sample, so it's possible that the phone simply has a couple of manufacturing issues. I'll take another look at a different model closer to its launch and update this review if I'm satisfied it's been improved.
A larger problem though is the amount of heat the phone generates when in use. The slim design means the processor and other components are pushed right up against the metal back. It heats up extremely quickly when you play demanding games, and at some points actually became uncomfortably hot. I thought it was just me, until the phone gave me an actual warning that it was overheating -- something I've never seen before.
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