Huawei Ascend P7: tested in humans

Can you now say what was so special about the Huawei Ascend P6? The correct answer was that it was the thinnest smartphone in the middle of last year - 6.18 mm. And he was very similar to the iPhone and devices of the Sony Xperia line at the same time.

However, the merit of P6 in another - perhaps, after the release of this particular model, Huawei began to regard it as a serious player in the smartphone market.

A year has passed - the company released a new flagship. Let's see if the P7 can surprise us? Who knows, suddenly, engineers and designers of Huawei eat their bread in vain?





Huawei Ascend P7
price: 14 500 rubles.

OS: Android 4.4.2
processor: HiSilicon Kirin 910T, 1.8 GHz (4 cores)
screen: 5``, 1920x1080, IPS
RAM: 2 GB
memory: 16 GB (+ microSD - up to 64 GB)
3G / LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, NFC
cameras: 13/8 megapixel
battery: 2500 mAh
dimensions, weight: 139.8x68.8x6.5 mm, 124 g


The developers have not abandoned the idea implemented in P6 - we are back meets mix and fusion - P7 is also similar to smartphones from Apple and Sony. Pay special attention to the power button - isn’t it a bold move? Of the noticeable differences between P6 and P7 - the location of the audio jack and microUSB (for P7 they are located on the upper and lower ends, respectively).





The filling of the device has changed, and with it the thickness of the device has increased - up to six and a half millimeters. But from this, the smartphone did not become less elegant - after all, the screen sizes have changed - now we have a 5-inch model. At P6, recall, the diagonal of the display was 4.7 inches.



The predictable step is to increase the resolution to Full HD. This did not affect other characteristics of the screen, although the brightness and color saturation of the new product are subjectively inferior to the flagships of other major brands - for example, the Galaxy S5 and HTC One M8.

True, there is a drop of tar - the brightness in the “auto” mode sometimes behaves somewhat strangely and does not change smoothly, but in jerks, which is noticeable to the naked eye.





Ascend P7 runs on Huawei's HiSilicon Kirin 910T chipset with a 1.8-GHz quad-core processor and Mali-T450 MP4 video accelerator. This chipset is inferior in performance to the Snapdragon 801, but perhaps the next generation of Kirin will be able to surpass the new, 805th, Kvalkomovsky mobile processor - at least so say in Huawei. Well, wait and see.

There are no special complaints about the speed - especially since the developer does not position this smartphone as a “flagship killer”. But periodic lags in the interface, to put it mildly, are confusing.







Wireless protocols added support for LTE and NFC. An important point - if you dare to purchase a gray model, immediately check the ability of the smartphone to work in 4G networks - some unofficial P7 modifications may not support LTE.

The latest version of the Emotion UI proprietary shell is installed on the smartphone, which is characterized by the lack of application menus - when installing programs and utilities, their icons are placed on one of the desktops - another reference to iOS. You can avoid clutter by grouping application icons into folders.







A gift for lovers of minimalism - a regime that is called “simple”. It looks like either the interface of the "grandmother", or the main screen of smartphones from Microsoft. What is good about this mode is that it is almost impossible to miss.



One of the sacrifices that had to be made to please the slim body was the battery capacity of 2500 mAh. Speaking figuratively, if you work in the office from 9 to 5, the smartphone charge is enough for you, but you have to watch the latest episode of the Games of Thrones at home.



Apparently, therefore, the developers of the firmware installed a rather flexible energy-saving utility on P7. Here you can analyze, monitor, optimize. Or immediately turn on the most-most economical mode - judging by the indicators, a smartphone in this case will be able to stretch twice as long.





Either pleasant care for the user, or recognition of the inability to optimize the system - excuse me for cynicism - the presence of the “Phone Manager” utility. There is a suspicion that the "placebo effect" is involved here, but you never know - it's better to check once a day what kind of program sucks the last juice from your processor.



In general, in Emotion UI settings - above the roof. Tired of the standard interface — choose something calmer or more solid. And you can just change the topic once a day - just for a week is enough. Want something unusual? - Change the navigation mode on the desktops (there are about a dozen). The Russian Psychotherapists Association approves.

We’ll finish the story about the P7 interface on a useful and practical note: activate the “Control Button” in the settings - some of the functions hiding under it will surely come in handy in your daily work. The button moves freely along the left or right edge of the screen and does not interfere with manipulations with the interface.



For starters, we left the most interesting thing - the built-in cameras. Another past model was able to pleasantly surprise with the quality of photos and videos. And P7, apparently, will only consolidate this success.

If in numbers, then the resolution of the main camera increased from 8 to 13 megapixels, and the front - oh, horror! - from 5 to 8 - it’s not in vain that in certain circles P7 is called a “selfie background”. Moreover, there is where to turn around - the smartphone will not only tell you where to look, but also smooth out all the flaws of the self-portrait, even after hours of rave. Well, if you are a companionable person, a selfie panorama is at your service. All fit.





In general, there are more opportunities for taking photos and videos - if compared with P6 - but the quality, in fact, if you do not take into account the increase in resolution - remains the same. The main camera, for example, works out well-lit objects well, but can save in a dark alley. If you don’t find fault with the little things, then you can evaluate the photo-video capabilities of the smartphone as “suit everyone”. Well, or many.





Useful advice: if your friend is staring and about to stick into a pole or if a real helicopter flies into your window, use the quick shooting function. It is enough to press the volume down button twice so that the smartphone exits the lock mode and immediately takes a photo - one second with a little is enough for everything. True, for the sake of speed, quality is set - so autofocus in this mode is often mistaken.



What is the bottom line? If you use the terminology of experts in the field of gadgets, then we have a "strong middle peasant." There are no special pluses, but there are also no pronounced minuses - a calm evolution without any shocks. The price of the Ascend P7 for a couple of months has dropped from 20 thousand rubles to 16 - and we are not talking about gray models, with the purchase of which you can save an additional thousand and a half. It remains to wish further success to Huawei, and you have a pleasant and deliberate purchase - I hope we have helped you in this.

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