Huawei Ascend P6 Full Review

The Huawei Ascend P6 is a surprisingly delightful smartphone! We’ve been using it for well over a week now and we can definitely say without a shadow of a doubt that this is one of Huawei’s best works. The only thing missing really is LTE connectivity but other than that they’ve managed to hit the ball out of the park. The Huawei Ascend P6 delivers a fast and fluid Android experience coupled with breakthrough design and fantastic optics. Definitely worth considering.

Before we jump into the review, let’s do a refresher on the specs.

Huawei Ascend P6 Spec Sheet

• 1.5GHz quad core Huawei K3V2 processor
• 2GB RAM
• 8GB internal storage with expandable storage via MicroSD up to 32GB
• 4.7 inch LCD display (1280 x 720 pixels) 312 ppi
• 8 megapixel rear facing camera with BSI, autofocus and LED flash
• 5 megapixel front facing camera
• HSPA+, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, WiFi hotspot, Bluetooth 3.0, NFC
• GPS with A-GPS support
• 2,000 mAh battery
• Android 4.2.2 Jellybean with Emotion UI
• SRP: Php18,990

As you can see the only thing missing really is LTE. We’re hoping that the Ascend P6 V2 will have LTE to fully round off this device and make it a true flagship competitor.

Huawei Ascend P6 Unboxing Video

For your convenience we re-embedded the unboxing video we made from our previous post below. Hope you guys like the video!

Okay let’s now jump into the review!

Fantastic Hardware

There are two big positives for the Huawei Ascend P6 that differentiates it from its competitors. First is the design and quality of the chassis. Simply put the Huawei Ascend P6 is quite probably the best looking 4.7-inch smartphone in existence today. It does away with the cheap glossy plastic that keep seeing even with smartphones twice the price of this device and goes for a mix of metal, glass, and plastic. It’s also amazingly thin and Huawei is even saying that this is actually the slimmest smartphone in the world.

If you noticed from the photos, the back plate it no removable. The SIM Card and microSD slots are actually found on the sides of the device. The pin you use to open them is the audio jack cover on the lower left side of the device. Talk about a two-in-one solution right? We strongly caution Ascend P6 owners though who like listening to music to always keep the pin in sight when you remove it to plug your earphones. Sayang baka mawala. Very easy to misplace.

Another good thing about the form factor of the Huawei Ascend P6 is that it’s quite easy to manage and use even with just one hand. The heft is just right to assure you that it won’t break easily should it fall (hoping that never happens hehe) and that it’s a premium device.

Competitive Display

The Huawei Ascend P6 sports a 4.7-inch LCD display that has 1280×720 resolution. That comes out to around 312 pixels per inch which is already comparable to the high quality and density displays from flagship devices. It’s still a notch below full HD but it’s definitely a very good and competitive screen already.

Colors come out vibrant but we did encounter some issues with the brightness. It had difficulty under direct sunlight and viewing angles could use some improvement.

Huawei’s Emotion UI is Fascinating

The second best feature about the Huawei Ascend P6 is the software. The Huawei Ascend P6 runs Huawei’s Emotion User Interface which is a flatter and more simplified version of Android (reminds us a lot of iOS)> Now we know not everyone will agree with us here since a lot of people prefer stock Android but we feel that we need to recognize and acknowledge Huawei for doing their best in trying to differentiate themselves via software.

So what’s different about Huawei Emotion UI? They did away with the App function that shows all the downloaded apps in a grid. Instead they’re all displayed on your home screen together with your widgets. In short it’s like iOS but with widgets. It’s actually similar to the Flyme UI of the Meizu quad-core smartphone that we reviewed last year.

The Emotion UI also has a variety of widgets ranging from weather, clocks, to contacts. On top of that they also have several built-in themes and icon packs. Just look for the “Theme” button on your home screen and pick from any of the ones available.

We actually ended up not installing our usual Nova Launcher anymore since we were happy with the experience the Emotion UI offered. It was a breath of fresh air from the usual Android smartphone.

Moving on to performance, the Huawei Ascend P6 scored over 14,000 on the Antutu Benchmark Test. That’s 2,000 more than what quad-core local brand smartphones offer and a few thousand lower than the flagship devices of Sony, Samsung, and HTC. It’s definitely respectable and powerful enough to deliver a near lag-free experience.

We tried some games on it and the Huawei Ascend P6 was able to handle all of them – Dead Trigger, Zombie Wood, Minion Rush, and even Riptide GP (which is a graphics hog).

The form factor also helped since the screen size was just right for gaming (not too small not too big) and the device was thin and light for easy handling.

It goes without saying that the Ascend P6 is also a good media player! It’s not as good as the big 5.5-inch devices but at least you get a thin smartphone that you can easily slide in and out of your pocket.

Over-all we’re giving the Huawei Ascend P6 two thumbs up for software. Not everyone will like the Emotion UI but we’re kinda digging it. If ever you don’t then it should be easy to download a launcher and customize it to your liking. If you’re looking for something simple and easy to use though then you don’t need to change it anymore.

Camera is surprisingly very good

Another nice surprise for us was the quality of the optics. The pictures we got were actually decent! The rear-facing 8MP shooter was able to capture a lot of detail and color. Check out the sample shots below.

Pwede na right?!

By the way, the Huawei Ascend P6 also has a 5MP front-facing camera which takes excellent self portraits or selfies. If you’re the type that loves taking those kind of pics then that’s one more reason to get the Ascend P6.

Battery life is a-okay!

Initially we were disappointed with the battery life of the Huawei Ascend P6. For some reason it drained fast. However after completely draining it and then recharging it to full, it performed much better. We got an average of 7-8 hours on a single charge and that with moderate-heavy usage already with 3G and sync on 100% of the time.

Verdict: Best Phone from Huawei To Date

The Huawei Ascend P6 is truly a delightful surprise! It delivers good optics, outstanding design, and competitive software performance for Php18,990. If you don’t mind not having LTE then go get one. It’s a solid smartphone that won’t disappoint. Perfect for people who put a premium on design but without compromising performance.

Hopefully the Huawei Ascend P6 is a sign of things to come for Huawei.