[MWC 2012] Huawei’s Ascend D Quad has been confirmed at Mobile World Congress 2012 (previously rumored to be the Ascend D1 Quad), where it is touted to be the “world’s fastest smartphone.” I am quite sure that such a claim will be debunked in the near future, but for the moment, Huawei can enjoy this lofty (albeit short lived) position thanks to the inclusion of the NVIDIA Tegra 3 chipset that boasts a quad-core setup running at 1.5GHz, although the debate continues to rage as to whether it is speedier than dual-core handsets in the market continues. With a three-button navigation setup, it points towards the availability of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich right out of the box.
Other hardware specifications include a 4.5″display at 720p resolution, and measures 8.9mm in terms of thickness, and Huawei claims that it can last up to two whole days on a 1,800mAh battery – I am assuming that this is with all the connections turned off. There is the option for a 2,500mAh battery pack, although that would mean sacrificing its thickness and weight. At the front is a 1.3-megapixel camera, while the back sports an 8-megapixel shooter. The display is said to come with 330 PPI pixel density compared to the iPhone 4S’ 3.5″ 326 PPI, while 32-bit color delivers a greater degree of realism compared to other quad-core devices with 16-bit color.
Low power consumption hardware and proprietary algorithms in the Huawei Ascend D ought to help you maximize the battery life of this puppy far more than you would have expected from a smartphone – and a quad-core one, no less.
On the audio side, there is 5.1 surround sound capability with Dolby Mobile 3.0 Plus – surely hooking this up to an appropriate audio setup would maximize its value. Connectivity options include WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0 and HSPA+, while 8GB ROM is accopanied by 1GB RAM.
It does seem from initial in-house benchmarks that the Ascend D Quad is a real performer in terms of speed – Huawei’s president claims that the GPU in the Ascend D is more than two times faster compared to the Qualcomm processor. Not only that, it is supposed to boast the best noise cancellation technology and microphone in the market for this device category. Huawei also touts that the voice quality is better than the iPhone 4S.
There will be two models – one running on 1.2GHz, while the other runs at 1.5GHz. The global launch will kick off in China first (as expected), where the US will be next followed by everywhere else around the world. Huawei hopes to ship 60 million of these puppies around the world – hopefully those will translate to sales, with the most important markets being China, US, Europe and Japan. When you contrast it with the Apple iPhone, it pales in comparison, as the entire 2011 alone saw 71 million iPhones sold – not shipped.
Does this look like the Android smartphone to beat at the moment, even when pitted against its opponents from the iOS and Windows Mobile camps? Meanwhile, enjoy the photo gallery below.
