Friday, September 12, 2014

Huawei Ascend P7-L00 (Dual SIM with 4G/LTE support)

Introduction

Well, this time comes in a review of a device not based on a MediaTek platform. Huawei, the Chinese multinational networking and telecommunications equipment and services company, has recently released the dual SIM variant of its flagship - Ascend P7-L00.

As a sidenote, Huawei has reached the third place in smartphone sales ranking last year. The company is also facing competition from other Chinese competitors, including Lenovo, Xiaomi and ZTE, being the first places occupied by Apple and Samsung.

Specifications

Chipset

Name:HiSilicon Kirin 910T
CPU:Quad-core 1.8 GHz ARM Cortex™-A9
GPU:ARM Mali-450 MP4
Instruction set:ARMv7

Software environment

Embedded:OS: Android 4.4.2 (KitKat) with Emotion UI 2.3

Body

Dimensions
(width x height x depth):
140 x 68.8 x 7.2 millimetres
Weigth:126 grams (battery included)
Color:Black / White / Pink / Gold

Battery

Capacity: 2500 mAh

Memory

RAM:capacity:2 GB
ROM-capacity:16 GB
Expansion slot:microSD memory card, supporting up to 64 GB

Network support

Primary phone:GSM850, GSM900, GSM1800, GSM1900, UMTS850, UMTS900, UMTS1900, UMTS2100, FDD-LTE1800 (B3), FDD-LTE2100 (B1), TDD-LTE2600 (B41)
Secondary phone:GSM850, GSM900, GSM1800, GSM1900
Data links:GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSPA, HSPA+, FDD-LTE, TDD-LTE

Display

Type:IPS-LCD capacitive touchscreen
Size:5.0 inches, FHD resolution (1080 x 1920 pixels)
Protection:Corning Gorilla glass

Camera

Main (rear):13.0 megapixels with autofocus and single LED flash
Secondary (front):8.0 megapixels

Interfaces

Bluetooth (802.15):Bluetooth 4.0 + Enhanced Data Rate
Wireless LAN / Wi-Fi (802.11):  IEEE 802.11b/g/n
USB:USB 2.0 Client, Hi-Speed (480 Mbit/s)
USB Series Micro-B (Micro-USB) connector

Satellite navigation

Built-in GPS module:Included
GPS antenna:Internal
Complementary GPS services:  A-GPS (Assisted GPS), GLONASS

Additional features

Sensors:Gravity, Proximity, Light, Gyroscope and Magnetic field sensors
Analog Radio:FM radio (87.5-108 MHz) with RDS radio receiver
Others:Dedicated LED for notification of missed calls / new messages
Dual SIM Full Active

Design and construction

Huawei P7 follows the exact same design as its predecessor - Hauwei P6, apart from the screen dimensions. It's thin, with a metallic banded edge that's extremely reminiscent of the sort of design feature Apple introduced to the world with the iPhone 4.



Once you take phone out of its high-end cardboard box, the wow factor is there. The back is definitely quite pretty. One piece of glass covers a spangly mesh effect back, where a Huawei logo proudly sits.

Although, the glass back is very slippery. Place the phone over any surface that's not totally flat and will slide off it, as there's no protruding plastic or rubber surround to give the glassy rear any grip.



The USB connector is placed at the bottom of the device, making it much easier to hold the thing in front of your face when it's plugged in and charging. The headphone socket sits right at the top of the phone.






There are no soft-buttons on the bezel anymore, taking advantage of Android's navigation bar. The volume rocker is placed on the right edge, right above the unusual power button, which is rounded.

On the back side, the 13 megapixels autofocus camera, powered by a sensor supplied by Sony, is placed right above a single LED flash.


There's a bespoke little pin in the box, for users to poke-eject the micro SIM and nano SIM / micro SD card trays from their docks.



If one values storage space over connectivity, this phone can be turned into a real single SIM device by placing a memory card in the second slot instead of the nano SIM card.

Key features

This phone sports a 5-inch display running at the full HD resolution of 1080 x 1920, with the in-house (not-Qualcomm) 1.8GHz quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM and 4G / LTE support for use with speedy SIM cards.

One of its major features is the unprecedent 8 MP front-facing facing camera, which means a huge selling point for those who enjoy taking selfies, or just after a more impressive Skype video chat experience. The images taken by this secondary camera completely shame the image quality produced by main cameras of plenty of other smartphones.

The 1080p screen is another good feature. At maximum brightness, has more than enough contrast and brightness to make text readable outdoors, even in bright sunlight, and videos appear great.

Functionality

The phone comes pre-installed with Android 4.4.2. On top of that, Huawei added its own customizations, sticking its Emotion UI, a system that removes the standard Android app drawer and replaces it with an iOS-style emphasis on the home screen.

Here are some screenshots and details of the most important features with a special detail of the dual SIM functionality.


At first, those who are used to the pure Android user interface, may be shocked by the lack of the app drawer, but it only takes a few days to get used to it and to actually like it. A couple of folders can be used to hide unwanted and unremovable apps, plus it's quite nice to know there's only one place to look for all your stuff.


The pull-down notifications tab is the other core pillar of Android, and here Huawei's fiddled just a little. There is a collection of five toggles (which can be customized) that sits at the top when you first pull down the notifications blind, with another pull on the button area revealing more controls - and useful quick access to a screen brightness slider. A separate menu lets you rearrange the order in which this appears.


The user interface modified was modified by Huawei and made to be very iOS-like.



The dialer interface with the two buttons for calling from either SIM1 or SIM2. It supports smart dialing feature which works just great.



Under the dual SIM management menu several configurations can be set. The user can enable / disable each SIM cardas in the notification bar (behind the network strength bars). In the same menu, the user has the possibility to set the default SIM card to establish data connection and to make calls / send messages.



The phone obviously supports tethering and portable hotspot feature, letting the user share mobile data connection through USB or over a wireless (Wi-Fi or even Bluetooth) network.

For some unexplained reason, the phone doesn't include the native support for storage encryption, which can still be overcome with the use of third party apps.

Last thing, but very important and not to be left unmentioned, is that the phone has two separate radios, which means both SIM cards are always active, even during phone calls. Unlike other Dual SIM smartphones, where one of the SIM cards will be unreachable when the other has a established call, with this one you'll be always available.

Final thoughts

Huawei Ascend P7 is thin, it's smooth and reliable for the most part, it has a camera that's about as good as you can reasonably expect from a phone. If you're looking for a reliable Dual SIM smartphone from a well known, then go for this one.

So, last but not least and in order to avoid questions regarding where to buy it from, just visit the sponsored shop (etotalk.com). Huawei Ascend P7-L00 is available for 389 USD.


Highs:
  • Incredibly slim and light
  • Fantastic front camera
Lows:
  • Lack of support for native storage encryption

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