Huawei Ascend P7 review: Looking strong

Display

The Huawei Ascend P7 introduces a brand new IPS display of 1080p resolution. This works out to an excellent pixel density of 455ppi, which is among the best in the 1080p class.

Huawei Ascend P7 1080p IPS display

The display offers really wide viewing angles with minimum color distortion. The colors are great, the blacks are quite deep and the contrast is excellent too. We are very pleased with Huawei's latest display and image quality.

The screen glass is reflective and the sunlight legibility, while not great, is still decent and you won't have much trouble operating even under direct sunlight.

Sunlight contrast ratio

• Nokia 808 PureView
  4.698
• Apple iPhone 5
  3.997
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  3.997
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  3.549
• Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III
  3.419
• Nokia Lumia 925
  3.402
• Samsung I9505 Galaxy S4
  3.352
• Samsung Omnia W
  3.301
• Samsung Galaxy S
  3.155
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  3.127
• Samsung Galaxy S4 zoom
  3.118
• Nokia N9
  3.069
• Samsung Galaxy Note
  2.970
• Sony Xperia Z1
  2.950
• HTC One S
  2.901
• BlackBerry Q10
  2.856
• Samsung Galaxy S II
  2.832
• Samsung Galaxy S II Plus
  2.801
• BlackBerry Z30
  2.790
• Huawei Ascend P1
  2.655
• Sony Xperia ZR
  2.672
• Nokia Lumia 900
  2.562
• HTC One Max
  2.537
• Nokia Lumia 720
  2.512
• HTC One
  2.504
• Sony Xperia Z
  2.462
• Samsung Galaxy S III mini
  2.422
• HTC One (M8)
  2.371
• Motorola RAZR i
  2.366
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  2.307
• Oppo Find 7a
  2.279
• Apple iPhone 4S
  2.269
• HTC Desire 600 dual sim
  2.262
• LG Nexus 5
  2.228
• HTC One X
  2.158
• Nokia N8
  2.144
• Oppo Find 5
  2.088
• BlackBerry Z10
  2.051
• Apple iPhone 4
  2.016
• HTC One mini
  2.003
• Huawei Ascend P7
  1.992
• LG G2
  1.976
• Sony Ericsson Xperia ray
  1.955
• Samsung Galaxy Camera
  1.938
• LG G Pro 2
  1.922
• HTC Butterfly
  1.873
• Huawei Ascend P6
  1.865
• Sony Xperia V
  1.792
• Sony Xperia U
  1.758
• Meizu MX3
  1.754
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  1.691
• HTC One V
  1.685
• BlackBerry Q5
  1.682
• LG Optimus Vu
  1.680
• LG Optimus GJ
  1.666
• HTC Desire V
  1.646
• Samsung Galaxy Ace 3
  1.622
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  1.578
• Samsung Galaxy Core
  1.563
• LG Optimus G Pro
  1.552
• LG Optimus 3D
  1.542
• Samsung Galaxy Core LTE
  1.542
• Nokia Asha 302
  1.537
• Sony Xperia M
  1.473
• Nokia Lumia 610
  1.432
• Samsung Galaxy Grand Neo
  1.393
• Gigabyte GSmart G1355
  1.361
• Samsung Galaxy Grand
  1.321
• HTC Desire C
  1.300
• Nokia Asha 501
  1.270
• LG Optimus L7
  1.269
• LG Optimus L9
  1.227
• Meizu MX
  1.221
• Sony Xperia E dual
  1.203
• Samsung Galaxy Pocket
  1.180
• Sony Xperia tipo
  1.166
• Samsung Galaxy mini 2
  1.114

The Huawei Ascend P7 also offers the rare option to adjust the screen's color temperature. It's a slider that gives you control on whether the screen has a cooler or warmer (blue vs. amber) tint.

Huawei Ascend P7 uses standard RGB matrix

The Smart Backlight is also available - it assures the automatic brightness control doesn't do rapid jumps when adjusting the illumination level. If switched on, the Ascend P& will calculate the next light transition point in a bright lighting environment and maintain a gradient brightness variation.

Finally, Huawei Ascend P7 also supports Gloves Mode - once enabled you can operate the screen with gloves, but this mode will also reduce the battery life.

Hardware overview

Above the screen is what must be the highest resolution front-facing camera yet - an 8MP shooter with a Back Side Illuminated sensor, face enhancement and dedicated panorama mode. The earpiece and a couple of sensors are also around.

A peek above the Ascend P7's display

The sides are still flat with a nice metallic feel to them. The right side has been redesigned slightly, the power button is now round and has moved between the volume rocker and the card slots. The top slot is for microSD cards, while the bottom one accepts microSIMs. There is nothing on the left.

Huawei Ascend P7 right and left sides

Another change is that the 3.5mm audio jack has moved to the top and is no longer plugged by an eject tool. That tool was quite helpful as it was needed to open both card slots and protected the audio jack from dust.

The secondary microphone for noise cancellation and stereo video recording is right next to the audio jack.

Ascend P7's top

Across at the bottom lie the primary microphone and the microUSB port used for charging, PC connections or USB OTG.

A detailed look at the bottom

The 13 megapixel camera lens is placed in the top left corner of phone's back. The single-LED flash is next to it too. The aluminum loudspeaker grille is in the bottom left corner.

You can launch the rear camera while the screen is locked and immediately take a picture by double-clicking the volume down key. The whole process from launch to snapping a picture is done lightning fast at 1.3s. We've tried it by ourselves a few times and it is indeed quite handy, but you should point the phone right where you want to shoot and then hit the shortcut. Also we noticed sometimes the camera fails to focus because of the super-fast capturing. Hopefully Huawei will tweak this feature further before the official launch.

Huawei Ascend P7 at the back

Battery life test

Huawei Ascend P7 comes with a 2,500 mAh non-removable Li-Po battery. It is officially quoted at up to 14 hours of 3G talk-time or 422 hours of 3G stand-by.

We ran our traditional battery test and the results are in. The Ascend P7 pulled an overall rating of 53 hours. The 53-hour rating means the Ascend P7 will last two and a little over two days on a full charge with an hour each of calling, browsing and watching video daily.

For a more detailed breakdown of the Huawei Ascend P7 battery performance check out our blogpost.

Our proprietary score also includes a standby battery draw test, which is not featured in our battery test scorecard but is calculated in the total endurance rating.

Our battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you want to learn more about it.