Huawei Pits P6 Against Top-End Smartphones

China's Huawei Technologies Co. is gunning for more cachet in the smartphone market, starting with souped-up specs for its new handset, the Ascend P6.

By Juro Osawa

China’s Huawei Technologies Co. is gunning for more cachet in the smartphone market, starting with souped-up specs for its new handset, the Ascend P6.

The Chinese company is more known for the network equipment it produces, and it’s not a major consumer brand. But the handset it unveiled Tuesday shows it is trying harder to become a serious contender to the plethora of brands out there: Apple Inc.’s iPhone 5, Samsung Electronics Co.’s Galaxy S4, HTC Corp.’s One LG Electronics Co. ’s Optimus G Pro and Sony Corp. ’s Xperia Z.

One standout hardware feature on the P6 is its 5-megapixel front-facing camera, which offers a higher resolution than most front-facing cameras of other smartphones currently on the market – an attempt to capture demand from people who frequently take their own photos and post them on social media. The resolution of its rear-facing camera is 8 megapixels, same as the iPhone 5.

The P6 comes with a 4.7-inch high-definition screen, and Huawei claims it is the world’s thinnest smartphone, at just 6.18 millimeters thick.

“With the P6 we truly believe we’ve achieved world-class design,” said Nick Woodley, lead designer at Huawei’s London Design Centre, on stage at the London event.

But Huawei still has a long way to go. The next question is whether the P6 or future products can stand out in comparison to better-known competitors’ flagship models. In today’s intensely competitive smartphone market, offering sophisticated design with hardware features such as high-definition screens, good cameras, and fast processors has become more of a prerequisite, rather than a differentiator.

And for most models powered by Google Inc. ’s Android operating system, including the P6, differentiation through software isn’t easy.

Huawei is initially launching the P6 in 19 countries, mainly in Europe and Asia, including China. It will sell for 449 euros ($600) in Europe, the company said. It hasn’t said whether or when it might launch the phone in the U.S.

Watch a video of the P6 launch event here.