The forgotten smartphone: Huawei Ascend P6
In this edition of ‘The forgotten smartphone’ we discuss the Huawei Ascend P6. This smartphone received the designation ‘The most important smartphone of 2013’ from the manufacturer. And we knew that. The Huawei Ascend P6 had everything it took to become very popular. I was also very impressed with the P6 four years ago.
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Huawei Ascend P6
In 2013, Huawei was mainly known for the antennas and equipment for mobile networks from various carriers. It is not surprising that many consumers in 2013 were hesitant about the new, thin smartphone; the Huawei Ascend P6. In 2012, the company released several smartphones, such as the Huawei Ascend D Quad, but these did not catch on very well. Various Windows Mobile devices were also released from the Chinese manufacturer.
HuaWHO?
Huawei did very good business with the P series. The Huawei P30 Pro, P20 and Huawei P10 was a successful acquisition and the Ascend P7, P8 and P9 also performed very well. Still, the Ascend P6 was not for everyone equally interesting to consider. I was working in a telecom shop when the P6 came out, the phone was shining under the spotlights and to be fair, it looked really good. But many people did not dare to burn their hands on a ‘phone from China’. Didn’t that image disappear pretty quickly and how many people do you still hear saying that?
Thinnest smartphone
In July 2013, I had the opportunity to review the Huawei Ascend P6 for GSM Helpdesk. It was the thinnest smartphone in the world with a thickness of 6.18 millimeters. In addition, with a weight of 120 grams, it was a nice light device. There was a 4.7 inch HD display and a 5 megapixel front camera, something that was very high for the time. The device was rounded at the bottom, which gave a good grip and the back was made of brushed metal.
The rounded bottom was inspired by a curling page of a book. It was striking that the pin for the SIM card holder was located at the bottom of the device. This was also the 3.5 millimeter socket for the connection. Then make sure you don’t lose the pin when you use your headset.
Macro photos
It was striking that the Micro-USB port was placed on the top of the Huawei Ascend P6. Not exactly practical if you wanted to place it (quite popular at the time) in a dock. On the back we also saw the 8 megapixel camera. And I was very pleased with that. Taking macro photos in particular was a so-called Unique selling point of the Ascend P6.
With the macro function you could take pictures of a subject at a distance of 4 centimeters. The camera even clearly outperformed the Galaxy S III. Huawei also bet on the beauty mode with the front camera. This removed imperfections in the face and we know it from the Huawei devices that are still being released. The results are usually not really of useful quality.
Emotion UI
The earlier versions of EMUI (Emotion UI) were much more reminiscent of the iPhone than now. It almost looked like a copy. For example, icons of newly downloaded apps were provided with a blue strip, something that was clearly copied from Apple. The design was also not very unique, but in my eyes it was very successful. There was 2GB of RAM and a 1.5GHz quad-core processor.
android and prices
The Huawei Ascend P6 also had some points of interest, apart from the Micro-USB port. For example, the device became very hot during long, intensive use. This was due to the small thickness and the metal housing that conducts the heat correctly. The Huawei Ascend P6 came on the market in mid-2013 with Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean and Emotion UI 1.6. Later, the phone got another update to Android 4.4 Kitkat with EMUI 3.0. The price of the device was 449 euros at launch. Huawei has won several awards with the Ascend P6, including the EISA Award 2013.
Huawei Ascend P6 summarized in five points:
- Taking the most beautiful macro photos
- First really successful Huawei
- 5 megapixel front camera
- Many recognizable things from Apple iOS
- The beginning of the great success
