Huawei Ascend P1 LTE review

There’s no price above as this handset isn’t available sim-free, only on contract from EE, read on for contract pricing

We were a little perplexed by the Huawei Ascend P1 LTE at Mobile World Congress back at the start of the year. We weren’t that familiar with the brand at the time, but here was a slick-looking, high-end Android handset with 4G support. Despite its allure, no 4G had been announced for the UK at that time, so we moved on to find something more relevant to our readers.

Now the Huawei Ascend P1 LTE has arrived on our shores, courtesy of EE and its newly launched 4G network. However, the specification that impressed us back in march now seems a little more humdrum. At the time, the fact it was running Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) was pretty exciting, but now it seems a little behind, with the more responsive Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) rolling out on many handsets, including the LTE (4G) version of the Samsung Galaxy S3.

The same applies to the internal specifications, where there’s a 1.5GHz dual-core processor and PowerVR SGX540 GPU. A SunSpider JavaScript score of 1,896ms is nothing to get excited about, with some of the fastest phones managing nearly half that time. In the GLBenchmark 2.5.1 Egypt HD it scored a typical 27fps.

This 38Mbit/s Speedtest was once of the best we saw, and miles ahead of the best 3G speeds

The standout feature here is of course its support for 4G. In our office we recorded average speeds of around 20Mbit/s, around ten times what we get over HSDPA on our 3G handset. Of course such figures are highly subjective, but in day-to-day use we found it possible to watch streamed TV and movies during our London commute without barely any interruption.

It looks pretty good, with a nicely-textured rear panel. This comes off to reveal the mini SIM and micro SD slots. You’ll want to use the latter as the handset only comes with 4GB of built-in storage (of which only about half is available when you first turn on the phone), adding a 32GB micro SD card will only cost around £13. Despite the removable back panel the handset as a whole feels very sturdy, with no creaking or flexing panels. It’s not super-slim, but we have no complaints at 133x65x9.9mm and weighing just 135g – then again the S3 isn’t much bigger or heavier and it has a far bigger screen.

The only port is micro USB, which uses MHL to double-up as an HDMI output

The Ascend P1 LTE has a 4.3in Super AMOLED display with a 540×960 resolution. This is probably the most common display used on mid-range handsets, with the HTC One S and the Motorola Razr i both having it, among many others. You get plenty of contrast, though the Pentile layout of the subpixels means it’s not as sharp as the resolution suggests. The usual three shortcuts are touch sensitive buttons below the display, so you don’t lose screen space to onscreen equivalents.

AMOLED displays are generally more power-friendly than LCD ones, and with a decently-sized 1,800mAh we expect a decent showing in our battery test. We’re still devising a good way to test the impact of 4G on the battery life, and will report back here once we get a result.

Huawei have made practically no changes to the Android operating system, which is no bad thing in our book as we like it just how Google intended. There’s no date for an update to Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean).

The eight-megapixel camera takes reasonable shots in both bright and low-light conditions. Closer inspection shows a lack of detail though compared to the best cameras available. There’s a HDR mode which helps to liven up dull shots and deal with contrasting bright and dark areas. The burst mode isn’t so impressive, with one button press taking ten shots in very quick succession. It’s too quick in fact, for capturing most action, and we’d rather having a 5fps mode that lasts as long as we hold down the shutter button.

A nice balanced exposures and lots of vibrant colours, it’s a good snapper – click to enlarge

Zooming to pixel-to-pixel though shows a lack of fine detail – click to enlarge

There’s nothing really wrong with the Huawei Ascend P1 LTE. The design is pleasing, the screen, camera and internal hardware are all capable; but then there’s nothing that really stands out either. If you’re looking to sign up to an expensive 4G contract, and this handset isn’t available elsewhere, then you’re much better off getting the LTE version of the Samsung Galaxy S3.

That phone will set you back £50 extra on the 1GB data contract (£41) and £30 extra on the 3GB data contract (£46). For that you get a quad-core processor, a more powerful graphics chip, faster camera, bigger and higher-resolution screen, bigger batter, slimmer handset, NFC and 16GB of built-in memory – plus it comes complete with the recent 4.1 Jelly Bean update. If you’re enthusiastic enough about smartphones to pay for 4G then we’re sure the Samsung Galaxy S3 will suit you better.