Huawei Ascend P7 Pro Reviews

A good camera and gorgeous design, but the average performance and below-par battery life leave it trailing the competition

Huawei has produced a stunning smartphone in the Ascend P7 and this is couple with good value for money with that non-flagship price tag. There's some decent hardware on offer here, particularly the camera but the P7 is let down by software performance issues.

A decent phone with a good camera that's spoiled by poor battery life and middling performance

For a long time, Huawei has been one of those "other" phone manufacturers. Never mind its rapidly growing global market share among smartphones, or its increasingly impressive feature sets; breaking into mind-share has proved far more difficult than actually breaking into the market itself.Times in the smartphone world are changing, however. Lumia is no longer Nokia; BlackBerry has a legacy but is struggling to find its future; and exactly what Lenovo can do with Motorola Mobility remains to be seen. Sidelining Huawei out of hand, simply because it's a relatively unfamiliar name, will no longer fly. The Ascend P7 is an excellent example of why that's the case. True, its design feels derivative - I wish Huawei would turn what's clearly a capable hardware team to pushing its own unique aesthetic - but it's an ambitious phone unafraid to take big steps over and above the device that came before it. I find that pretty admirable, and even though not all of the features quite hit the spot, there's a lot to like about the new Huawei flagship. What the company - and the Ascend P7 specifically - needs now is for a US carrier to take a chance on it for their shelves.

The Ascend P7 is a great-looking handset with a premium feel and a nice specs sheet. Its eye-catching chassis design also makes it one of the thinnest and lightest Android 5-inchers out there, and an ambassador of Huawei's engineering prowess. The phone is a nice upgrade over its predecessor, as it offers a good 1080p display, and improves on the weakest spots of the P6, like the camera quality, and the 3D gaming performance. Given the processing prowess, and the 450 EUR or USD introductory price, you are able to grab a number of other cool handsets as alternatives, such as last year's Samsung flagship, the Galaxy S4, or the Alcatel One Touch Idol X+. They both offer specs similar to the Ascend P7, but don't have its svelte, premium design. The HTC One will fit your need for better outer appearance, but its 4 MP camera leaves something to be desired in the detail department, plus the phone has a smaller display. If you stand the Ascend P7 against the seasonal flagships, like the Galaxy S5, Xperia Z2, HTC One M8, or Oppo find 7a, the svelte handset can keep its own in most departments, save for the processing power, but those competitors are more expensive, too. Thus, if you are looking for a decent performer with great slim design, and very good screen, call and audio quality, the Ascend P7 should rank high on your list of desirables.