Huawei Ascend P6 is revealed as 'world's thinnest smartphone'

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Huawei has revealed what it reckons is the world’s thinnest smartphone. The Android-running Ascend P6 is just 6.18mm thick and will arrive packing a 1.5GHz Huawei-made quad-core processor with 2GB of RAM, all crammed into a premium brushed aluminium body.

The Ascend P6 has a 4.7in 720p LCD screen along with 8GB of storage (which can be supplemented with microSD) and an 8MP rear-facing camera that supports 1080p video recording. Not content with being a bit of a looker itself, it wants to make you look sexy too: its front-facing 5MP cam with a ‘beauty shot’ mode that reduces wrinkles and blends skin tones to digitally roll back the years. Fans of 4G and NFC will be disappointed at the lack of either cutting-edge feature, however – unfortunate compromises given that both are now standard in Android flagships.

Its sizeable 2,000mAH battery should be big enough to keep it ticking along all day, and begs the question – where the hell did Huawei put it?

Huawei has skinned the stock Android 4.2 interface with its colourful ‘Emotion UI’, which provides practically endless theming options (there are over 1000 available from Huawei) as well as tweaks including the ability to shake the handset to change the wallpaper and a virtual Dolby surround sound feature in the music player. Huawei’s CEO Richard Yu reckons Emotion offers “hundreds of improvements” over stock Android, although if it is better, it would be the first time in history that a manufacturer skin trumped Google’s own Android experience – so we’re somewhat sceptical.

Huawei’s also going big guns on distribution: the Ascend P6 will hit Europe on all major networks in July, costing just €449 or (so we’ve heard) as little as £350 SIM-free in the UK. Pretty tempting next to the likes of the HTC One, iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S4, which all tip the scales at closer to £600. Check out our hands-on review of the Ascend P6 and stay tuned for our full review.

The 120g Ascend P6 has a 4.7in 720p LCD screen along with an 8MP rear-facing camera that supports 1080p video recording. There’s also a front-facing 5MP cam with a ‘beauty shot’ mode to reduce wrinkles and blend skin tone to make you look your best when chatting with your significant other.

Huawei has skinned over stock Android with its colourful emotion UI which provides comprehensive theming options as well as tweaks which include the ability to shake the handset to change the wallpaper and a virtual Dolby surround sound feature in the music player. A 2,000mAH battery should also keep it ticking along enough to last a day.

The Huawei Ascend P6 will hit Europe on all major networks in July, with specific pricing details yet to be revealed. Stay tuned for our hands-on review of the Ascend P6 which is set to land later this afternoon.

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Esat has been a gadget fan ever since his tiny four-year-old brain was captivated by a sound-activated dancing sunflower. From there it was a natural progression to a Sega Mega Drive, a brief obsession with hedgehogs, and a love for all things tech. After 7 years as a writer and deputy editor for Stuff, Esat ventured out into the corporate world, spending three years as Editor of Microsoft's European News Centre. Now a freelance writer, his appetite for shiny gadgets has no bounds. Oh, and like all good human beings, he's very fond of cats.