Huawei Ascend P1 LTE review

The eight-megapixel camera takes reasonable shots in both bright and low-light conditions. Closer inspection shows a lack of detail though compared to the best cameras available. There’s a HDR mode which helps to liven up dull shots and deal with contrasting bright and dark areas. The burst mode isn’t so impressive, with one button press taking ten shots in very quick succession. It’s too quick in fact, for capturing most action, and we’d rather having a 5fps mode that lasts as long as we hold down the shutter button.

A nice balanced exposures and lots of vibrant colours, it’s a good snapper – click to enlarge

Zooming to pixel-to-pixel though shows a lack of fine detail – click to enlarge

There’s nothing really wrong with the Huawei Ascend P1 LTE. The design is pleasing, the screen, camera and internal hardware are all capable; but then there’s nothing that really stands out either. If you’re looking to sign up to an expensive 4G contract, and this handset isn’t available elsewhere, then you’re much better off getting the LTE version of the Samsung Galaxy S3.

That phone will set you back £50 extra on the 1GB data contract (£41) and £30 extra on the 3GB data contract (£46). For that you get a quad-core processor, a more powerful graphics chip, faster camera, bigger and higher-resolution screen, bigger batter, slimmer handset, NFC and 16GB of built-in memory – plus it comes complete with the recent 4.1 Jelly Bean update. If you’re enthusiastic enough about smartphones to pay for 4G then we’re sure the Samsung Galaxy S3 will suit you better.