Huawei Ascend D Quad Android phone (preview)

Huawei is a brand we would normally associate with low or mid-range smartphones that attempt to offer good value for money, but the Ascend D Quad is a completely different story. Boasting a quad-core processor and a 4.5in screen with a 720p HD resolution, the Huawei Ascend D Quad will aim to compete with the best flagship Android phones on the market.

Huawei first unveiled the Ascend D Quad smartphone in February, at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) trade show in Barcelona. At the time, it was the first smartphone with a quad-core processor to officially be announced, though it has been beaten to an Australian release by the HTC One X. With Samsung's hotly-anticipated Galaxy S III set to hit Aussie shores very shortly, Huawei will certainly need to get the Ascend D Quad to market fairly quickly if it intends to compete with the big boys.

Huawei has ticked most of the boxes when it comes to specifications. Along with a quad-core processor (Huawei's own 1.5GHz K3 V2) the Ascend D Quad has a large 4.5in screen with a resolution of 1280x720. The IPS+ display has a pixels per inch (ppi) rating of 326ppi, equal with the iPhone 4S (326ppi) and ahead of the Galaxy S III (306ppi) and the One X (312ppi). That number means the Ascend D Quad should display a very high level of detail that will make individual pixels on the screen hard to distinguish.

The Huawei Ascend D Quad is just 8.9mm thick. It's certainly not as thin as the company's stylish Ascend P1 S (6.68mm) or even the Ascend P1 (7.7mm) but its comparable to most other flagship Android phones on the market. Other features include an 8-megapixel rear camera that doubles as a full HD 1080p video recorder and a front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera that can record 720p HD video.

Interestingly, Huawei claims the Ascend D Quad's 1800mAh battery will last for "up to two days" thanks to the addition of proprietary energy management software. We have grave doubts this will be the case as most smartphones struggle to push through a single day before needing a recharge. That being said, we'll give Huawei the benefit of the doubt given the Ascend D Quad is powered by the company's own processor.

The Huawei Ascend D Quad will come with the latest Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system out of the box. Google's latest software is currently running on very few smartphones, so it's great to see a smaller manufacturer like Huawei up to date on the software front.

The Huawei Ascend D Quad isn't a 4G phone, though the company will release a 4G compatible model called the Ascend D1. It has similar specifications but uses a dual-core processor and has an LTE chip.

Huawei hasn't stated if or when the Ascend D Quad will be released in Australia, though we expect it to hit Aussie shores later this year.

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