Huawei has been in the headlines recently because of devices like the upcoming successor of the 6.1 inch Ascend Mate phablet. Also being mentioned has been the Ascend P6S which had surfaced in reports sometime last month as the potential successor to the current Ascend P6. Forget about it, at least for now. It may not be the one. There are new rumours pointing to an Ascend P7. According to documents obtained by GSMArena thanks to an anonymous tipster, the Huawei Ascend P7 will be codenamed Sophia and will follow in the footsteps of the Ascend P6 as a high end device from the Chinese manufacturer.
The Ascend P7 is said to be coming in April 2014 and has an interesting spec sheet as per the leaks. A 5 inch full HD TFT LCD display. That’s a slight increase to the current 4.7″ Ascend P6. Alongside the expanded display is a custom-made quadcore HiSilicon Balong 910 chipset clocked at 1.6 GHz which is something different to what has been rumoured before i.e. an octa-core chip made by Huawei or sourced from MediaTek. 2 GB RAM and 16 GB flash memory (expandable via microSD) make up the device’s memory specifications 16 GB is an increase from the 8 GB internal storage that the P6 had as the standard even though a 16 GB version of the device is available as well. 16 and 32 GB may be the standard this time round. That Emotion UI (version 2.0) I try so hard to like is expected on board atop some Android version we are not yet sure but which is likely to be KitKat.
There is one interesting spec: the front facing camera. The same way the Ascend P6 sent shockwaves worldwide with its 5 megapixel front-facing camera, the P7 will follow in the same footsteps by offering an 8 megapixel front facing-camera. I know the latest fad in the social world currently is taking selfies but I never imagined we would get here. Thanks to that 8 MP shooter at the front of the device, selfie lovers like President Obama won’t to have to contend with some cameras when taking selfies in public. Oh wait, Huawei does not have the rosiest relations with his government and is even withdrawing its handset from that market. The main camera at the back will have 13 megapixels with LED flash following in the seemingly standard path set out by Samsung in its flagship 2013 devices and the likes of LG. As for the battery, an additional 460 mAh (to make it 2460 mAh) is what the P7 will allegedly be having, a slight increase from the 2000 mAh battery that the P6 has.
The Huawei Ascend P6 is available in Kenya through telco Safaricom and in various dealer shops and there’s no denying what a beauty that device really is. I’ve played with it a couple of times and save for my distaste for that skin (which is functional though), it is up there with the rest in my opinion. Premium build, well polished and impeccable. If what I’ve seen with the P6 is what the P6S, P7 or whatever the successor will be called is anything to go by then we’re in for a treat from the Chinese.