Huawei Ascend P7 review: Looking strong

Synthetic benchmarks

The Ascend P7 is powered by Huawei's own HiSilicon Kirin 910T chipset. The 910T utilizes four 1.8GHz Cortex-A9 cores, a Mali-450 MP GPU, 2GB of RAM, and has an integrated LTE modem. The Cortex A9 cores are already a dated piece of tech, but the quad-core setup should theoretically be quite capable of keeping Android running smoothly, even on a 1080p screen. Huawei has used a 28nm manufacturing process for the chipset and thus it runs noticeable cooler than their HiSilicon K3V2 chipset used in the Ascend P6. The Ascend P6 was notorious for easily overheating under load but this time around this has been taken care of.

With thermal performance out of the way, all that is left is to see the chipset fares in terms of performance.

Starting off with the CPU benchmarks, the Ascend P7 posted some mid-range numbers, quite expected for this processor. The single-core performance is slightly better when compared to other Cortex-A9-powered devices such as the Galaxy Note II

Benchmark Pi

Lower is better

• LG G Flex
  99
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  99
• LG G2
  99
• Sony Xperia Z1 Compact
  104
• Sony Xperia Z1
  115
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  115
• HTC One (M8)
  121
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  128
• HTC One Max
  131
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)
  132
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  132
• LG G Pro 2
  141
• LG Nexus 5
  146
• HTC One
  151
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  166
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo
  183
• Alcatel Idol X+
  211
• Huawei Ascend P7
  271
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  305
• Alcatel One Touch Hero
  308
• Huawei Ascend Mate
  347
• Huawei Ascend P6
  348
• LG Optimus G
  353
• Sony Xperia C
  374
• Motorola Moto G
  392
• Sony Xperia M
  400
• LG Nexus 4
  431
• Samsung Galaxy Core LTE
  466
• Nokia X
  676

The Ascend P7 posted excellent results on the multi-core GeekBench 3 cross-platform benchmark. The score might not be among the best of the best, but the Ascend P7 manages to beat most of the quad-core Krait and Krait 300 performers, which is quite impressive.

Geekbench 3

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S5
  3011
• Sony Xperia Z1 Compact
  2968
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  2937
• Alcatel Idol X+
  2842
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  2670
• Sony Xperia Z1
  2638
• LG G Pro 2
  2585
• Apple iPhone 5s
  2561
• LG Nexus 5
  2453
• HTC One (M8)
  2367
• LG G Flex
  2254
• LG G2
  2243
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo
  2172
• HTC One
  1972
• Huawei Ascend P7
  1895
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  1869
• LG Optimus G
  1465
• Alcatel One Touch Hero
  1321
• Huawei Ascend P6
  1315
• LG Nexus 4
  1288
• Motorola Moto G
  1120
• Sony Xperia C
  1079
• Oppo R819
  1047
• HTC One mini
  887
• Samsung Galaxy Core LTE
  647
• Samsung Galaxy Ace 3
  564
• Nokia X
  421

Quadrant and AnTuTu are compound benchmarks which also take into account RAM and GPU performance. Quadrant's score is rather unimpressive, while AnTuTu's numbers are quite good, once again on par with the quad-core Krait and Krait 300 smartphones.

Quadrant

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S5
  25044
• HTC One (M8)
  25035
• Sony Xperia Z1 Compact
  21618
• LG G Flex
  20521
• Alcatel Idol X+
  20420
• Sony Xperia Z1
  20388
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  20052
• LG G Pro 2
  20010
• LG G2
  19815
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  18177
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)
  12446
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  12376
• LG Optimus G Pro
  12105
• HTC One
  11746
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo
  11404
• LG Nexus 5
  8844
• Huawei Ascend P7
  7781
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  7153
• HTC One mini
  6048
• Sony Xperia V
  5816
• HTC Desire 600 dual sim
  5053
• Samsung Galaxy Express
  4998
• Sony Xperia C
  4941
• Sony Xperia L
  4279
• Sony Xperia M
  4147
• Samsung Galaxy Core
  3240
• Nokia X
  2880

AnTuTu 4

Higher is better

• HTC One (M8)
  37009
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  36018
• LG G Flex
  35831
• LG G2
  35444
• Sony Xperia Z1 Compact
  34527
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo
  32162
• Alcatel Idol X+
  31717
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  31109
• Sony Xperia Z1
  30850
• LG G Pro 2
  29603
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  29185
• Samsung Galaxy S4
  27613
• HTC One
  26389
• Huawei Ascend P7
  25812
• LG Nexus 5
  25097
• Motorola Moto G
  17214
• LG Optimus G
  16943
• Huawei Ascend Mate
  15714
• Alcatel One Touch Hero
  15667
• Oppo Find 5
  15167
• Sony Xperia C
  13948
• Samsung Galaxy Core LTE
  13109
• Sony Xperia M
  9902
• Nokia X
  7514

The graphics benchmark results didn't come out that hot though. The GFXBench tests - both off-screen and on-screen variants - reflected some very poor performance.

GFX Benchmark 2.7 T-Rex (1080p off-screen)

Higher is better

• HTC One (M8)
  28.4
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  27.8
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  26.3
• LG Nexus 5
  23
• Sony Xperia Z1
  23
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  23
• Apple iPhone 5s
  23
• LG G Pro 2
  22.9
• Sony Xperia Z1 Compact
  22
• LG G Flex
  22
• LG G2
  22
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  17.1
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)
  17.1
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo
  15
• Huawei Ascend P7
  12.3
• Alcatel Idol X+
  10.9
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  6.4

GFX Benchmark 2.7 T-Rex (1080p on-screen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 5s
  37
• Sony Xperia Z1 Compact
  34
• LG G Flex
  33
• HTC One (M8)
  30.1
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  28.1
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  26.7
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo
  25
• LG G Pro 2
  24.1
• LG Nexus 5
  24
• LG G2
  23.1
• Huawei Ascend P7
  12.4
• Alcatel Idol X+
  10.6

Web browsing shows the Huawei Ascend P7 does OK on the JavaScript SunSpider test and very good on the compound BrowserMark benchmark.

SunSpider

Lower is better

• Samsung Galaxy S5
  379
• Apple iPhone 5s
  403
• LG G Pro 2
  536
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo
  568
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  587
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  750
• HTC One (M8)
  780
• LG Nexus 5
  827
• Sony Xperia Z1
  845
• Sony Xperia Z1 Compact
  855
• LG G2
  908
• Alcatel Idol X+
  931
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  1046
• HTC One
  1174
• Huawei Ascend P7
  1307
• Motorola Moto G
  1308
• Sony Xperia Z
  1336
• Oppo R819
  1423
• HTC Butterfly
  1433
• Alcatel One Touch Hero
  1646
• Samsung Galaxy Core LTE
  1680
• Huawei Ascend Mate
  1741
• Sony Xperia M
  1867
• Nokia X
  2363
• Huawei Ascend P6
  3858

BrowserMark 2

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 5s
  3549
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  3529
• HTC One (M8)
  3213
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo
  3172
• LG G Pro 2
  3048
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  3041
• LG Nexus 5
  2745
• LG G2
  2718
• Sony Xperia Z1 Compact
  2600
• Alcatel Idol X+
  2534
• Huawei Ascend P7
  2472
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  2438
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  2419
• Sony Xperia Z1
  2398
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  2314
• HTC One
  2262
• Alcatel One Touch Hero
  2096
• Sony Xperia Z
  2093
• LG Optimus G
  2048
• Sony Xperia C
  1984
• Sony Xperia L
  1809
• Nokia X
  1729
• Sony Xperia M
  1642
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  1247
• Samsung Galaxy Core LTE
  1100
• Huawei Ascend P6
  974
• Samsung Galaxy S III mini
  714

So, the Kirin 910T chipset turned out quite capable, even exceeding our initial expectations. The Huawei Ascend P7 turned out to be not the underperformer we've been ready to meet, but a snappy and capable device. The chipset, though based on an old technology, is still performing very well in gaming, heavy workflow and web browsing.