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Huawei Readies 2 Flagship Phones To Improve Image

Las
Vegas – Huawei stepped up its campaign to burnish its image in the U.S. market with
the launch of two flagship Android smartphones, one of which is said to be the
slimmest smartphone in the U.S.

 Both are also promoted as the fastest smartphones
because of their dual-core 1.5GHz processor, and both are also the first phones
announced in the U.S. with Google’s Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) OS.

Both
models also feature 4G 21Mbps HSPA+ technology and are banded for use on the
AT&T and T-Mobile networks. Both also operate in foreign HSPA+ markets.

The
phones will be available in Europe by the end of March and could appear in the
U.S. in mid 2012, said Huawei Device chairman Richard Yu during a Monday press
conference..

 A CDMA version with 4G LTE is planned for
later this year, EVP Michael Chuang told TWICE.

The
Ascend series P1 S and P1 phones are part of the company’s efforts to transform
Huawei’s image in the U.S. as a supplier of entry-level and mid-tier phones,
said Yu.

The
two Ascend phones will be followed by a Diamond series of smartphones that will
take performance a step higher, Yu added. That series will be unveiled in
February at the Mobile World Congress.

Huawei
was able to downsize the Ascend phones through what it called innovative
injection-molding technologies and customized key components.

The
P1 S, said to be slimmer than the Motorola Razr at 0.263 inches in depth, is
the slimmest of the two Ascend models, and it’s only 2.55-inches-wide and
5.08-inches-tall. Weight is only 4.59 ounces. The Ascend P1 packs all the same
features and performance as the P1 S but in a slightly thicker chassis at 0.3
inches but with the same height and width as the P1 S.

Both
models feature 4.3-inch Super AMOLED qHD 960×540 capacitive touchscreen
surrounded by a narrow frame on the left and right sides. Both also feature a
host of advanced features such as SGX 540 graphics processor, 8-megapixel back
camera with 1080p video capture, 1.3-megapixel front camera with 720p video
capture, dual-LED flash, Bluetooth 3.0 High Speed, WiFi, DLNA certification,
MHL-HDMI connection, and Dolby Mobile 3.0 Plus to deliver 5.1 surround through
headphones.

They’re
also said to offer 40 percent lower power consumption than competing models
because of such advances as faster cellular-signal detection. They come with
1670 and 1800mAh battery, respectively, to offer up to two days of usage, said
Yu.

Advanced
camera features include BSI sensor in the rear camera for low-light picture
taking, multi-face recognition, ability to edit photos on the device,
180-degree panoramic picture-taking, and a group shot feature that takes five
pictures in rapid succession to ensure a choice of the best picture. With the
phones, users can also combine several of the best pictures taken in rapid
succession so that all people in the final shot appear their best, Chuang said.

Huawei’s
worldwide device sales grew 50 percent in calendar 2011 to $6.8 billion, with
handset shipments hitting 150 million, Yu said. Compay smartphone shipments
were up 500 percent, he added.

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