Huawei reckons the Ascend D Quad is the world’s fastest smart phone. Hear that Samsung? Hear that HTC? Them’s fightin’ words! But with a K3V2 quad-core 1.5GHz processor, it may well be onto something.
In a presentation at Mobile World Congress, Huawei chairman Richard Yu compared the Ascend D to the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and Asus Transformer Prime tablet. Suffice to say the D Quad came out on top, claiming to be twice as fast as the competition. We’ll have to wait for a review sample to see whether that claim stands up, but it does look a mighty impressive phone.
There’s a 4.5-inch screen that’s 720p HD, so that’s a resolution of 720×1,280 pixels. It runs Android Ice Cream Sandwich, so will have features like face unlock, as well as a cool Tron-style theme.
It’s no slouch image-wise either. On the back is an 8-megapixel camera, with a 1.3-megapixel front-facer. Videos come in 1080p HD. For audio, you get Dolby 5.1 surround sound and Audience earSmart voice technology to make your calls clearer.
The battery is 1,800mAh, which should give 30 per cent more juice compared to other high-end smart phones. Again, that’s according to Huawei, so we’ll have to wait for a full review to see if it can compensate for its grunty processor. That’s on the standard D Quad, but there’s also a model called the Ascend D Quad XL that will ship with a 2,500mAh battery, which should give you two to three days’ use.
The D Quad is 8.9mm thick — not quite as slim as some, but still impressive.
It’s promised to reach the UK in April, with a price yet to be announced. If Huawei’s other phones are to go by, expect it to be very reasonable considering the firepower on offer.
We’ll be on hand bringing you all the news direct from Mobile World Congress as it happens, so stay tuned to mwc.cnet.co.uk for a hands-on with this hand cannon.
What do you make of the Ascend D Quad? Can it take on the might of Samsung and Apple? Let me know in the comments below, or on our Facebook page.