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Mobile Miscellany: week of May 6th, 2013
If you didn't get enough mobile news during the week, not to worry, because we've opened the firehose for the truly hardcore. This week brought hints of changes to the Droid RAZR lineup, a peek at Sense with Android 4.2 and the arrival of the Lumia 520 to Canada. These stories and more await after the break. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore all that's happening in the mobile world for this week of May 6th, 2013.
The Engadget Interview: Huawei Device Chairman Richard Yu at MWC 2013
Some companies have mascots, but Huawei has Richard Yu. Shortly after the Ascend P2 launch yesterday, we had a chance to catch up with a rather relaxed Chairman of Huawei Device to see what he's been up to, as well as picking his brain on the design decisions of the P2, what Huawei's going to do about the "1,000-yuan ($160) phone" problem, and his side of the Honor 2 AnTuTu benchmark cheating story. Yu also consistently failed to resist the urge to tease a couple of upcoming phones as well (including the super slim P Series phone that failed to show up at MWC), so enjoy the full interview after the break.
Huawei Ascend P2 hitting Europe in Q2 for 399 euros, we go hands-on (update: video)
Just ahead of Huawei's press event, we were treated to an early viewing of its new 8.4mm-thick smartphone, the Ascend P2. With Android 4.1, a quad-core 1.5GHz processor, 13-megapixel camera and a 720p, 4.7-inch Gorilla Glass 2 Infinity Edge Display, it joins the likes of the Ascend Mate and D2 in forming the Chinese manufacturer's smartphone family in 2013. And boy, it's a slender, feather-light phone with a glossy backing that come sin both black and white. Design-wise, like those leaks, it looks an awful lot like those P1 phones we first saw at CES 2012. Its notable feature is the highest-speed LTE connection seen so far in a smartphone, up to 150 Mbps with support for LTE Cat4. We also got to play with Huawei's Emotion UI again, which can draw on the 1GB of RAM housed inside. There's plenty of storage, with 16GB ready to accept your photos and music. The right side houses a volume switch and a physical camera button -- these were a bit plasticky, but has a nice matte finish. The other side is where the power button belongs, with both the headphone and micro-USB charging port found there. Huawei's focusing on battery life here as well, with a 2,420mAh cell powering the Android phone and the promise of consuming 20 percent less power, thanks to the handset's display technology. With the aforementioned Emotion UI, there's the same clipboard animation across homescreen transitions, matching those other Ascend models. Getting into screen performance, it reflected a fair bit of ambient light. It's perhaps not the best display we've seen from Huawei -- there seems to be a space between the surface of the glass and the display itself. The hardware feels light, but feels like we were often unable to keep hold of it. The buttons have the right amount of bite, although it would have been nice to see some premium materials used for these minor details. The design also reminds us a fair bit of Panasonic's Eluga smartphone. Perhaps due to the lack of exotic color options, the phone wasn't quite as appealing as when we first got our hands on its predecessors. We'll have a hands-on video up soon. If you're in Europe, you can pick this up in Q2 for €399 ($526). Update: The video now lives after the break!
Huawei GL07S revealed for Japan, looks like the Ascend P2
This one's a little puzzling. Japanese carrier Emobile has announced a new phone from Huawei, the memorably-named GL07S. The confusing part is that it looks almost identical to the black-colored Ascend P2, with the same three-line menu button differentiating it from another handset leak. It's hard to say just yet, but Huawei might be readying two devices like it did during CES, where it unveiled the P2's predecessor alongside an even thinner S model. This Japan-bound offering measures up a 8.6mm thick, which while certainly no porker, is a bit more than those promises of a 6.5mm smartphone. However, there's still enough here to intrigue us, with a quad-core 1.5GHz processor, 13-megapixel camera, 32GB of built-in storage and a 2,350mAh battery rounding out a pretty respectable spec sheet. It's also going to be an important phone for the relatively small phone network too -- it's their first LTE smartphone.
Huawei Ascend P2 flaunts svelte profile in more leaked shots
As MWC draws near, it's not surprising to see an increase in leaks, and today we bring you a few more pictures of Huawei's Ascend P2, which recently made a cameo in some unofficial product shots. The 4.7-inch full HD handset is expected to feature Android 4.1.2, a quad-core 1.8 GHz processor (developed in house), 2GB of RAM, 8GB of built-in storage (plus microSD), a 13MP shooter and a 2200mAh battery. Slotting below the 5-inch Ascend D2 and 6.1-inch Ascend Mate we saw at CES, the Ascend P2 is rumored to be less than 6.45mm thick with Nexus 4-like on-screen buttons. Of course, since the FCC is unlikely to certify such a svelte device, it's likely we'll see a tweaked version of this phone if it ever makes it to the US -- then again, it looks thicker to us in the pictures. Pricing is supposedly targeting the 3,000 Yuan mark ($480), unsubsidized. Guess we'll find out more in Barcelona, right? Hit the break for a couple more images.
Huawei Ascend P2 product shot leaked, confirms 13MP camera in slim body
If the 170g Huawei Ascend D2 is a bit too imposing for your hands, then you may be curious to know of the Ascend P2, a previously teased smartphone that was just leaked by @evleaks. While there's no further info to go along with this image, it does show off a 13MP camera on the back of the phone, which makes us wonder how Huawei even managed to pack that into the sub-6.45mm-thick metallic body. A little digging around also showed that the company's Consumer BG CEO Richard Yu was seen fondling the P2 during a meeting back in December -- you can recognize the phone in the photo after the break. Naturally, we look forward to this successor to the Ascend P1 at Mobile World Congress next month. Richard Lai contributed to this report.
Huawei's Richard Yu confirms 8-core chip for 2H 2013, teases super slim P series phone for MWC
We never thought our day could get any better after Huawei's Consumer Business Group CEO Richard Yu became available again for our CES stage interview (there was originally a "last minute urgent conflict"), but our man was also kind enough to share a couple more scoops with us. First of all, Huawei will be joining Samsung at the octa-core Cortex-A15 party in the second half of this year, and given what Yu's told us earlier this week, our guess is that this will either be the HiSilicon K3V3 or a sister chipset, again manufactured by TSMC. The second scoop of the day was delivered fresh off the stage after the interview. Yu told us exclusively that at MWC next month, Huawei will be unveiling a super slim follow-up to the current P series Android phones. We asked if it'll be even thinner than 6.45mm (the thickness of the Alcatel One Touch Idol Ultra announced at CES), and Yu said yes. The exec added that the new phone will have a beautiful metallic body as well. Exciting times, right?
