Huawei's Ascend P6 is Engineered for the Pocket of Your Skinny Jeans - Kind Of

Huawei, the Chinese phone maker and technically the world's largest telecoms equipment maker (though it's ranked 6^th in the smartphone world), looks poised to take on some of the leading smartphone designers with its new handset, dubbed the Ascend P6. At an elegant event in London Tuesday night, Huawei announced its flagship device, with has some special features that might mark Huawei's newly confident entry in to other world markets.

The phone, which is already being called an iPhone challenger, is probably most remarkable for its thinness. Huawei's previously announced phone, the Ascend P2 is thinner than a pencil at 8.4 mm thick. The company has now pinched that down on the Ascend P6 to a mere 6.18 mm, making it the world's slimmest smartphone, according to Huawei. Compared to the competition's flagships, the Ascend P6 makes the iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S4 look positively stocky at 7.6 mm and 7.9 mm, respectively.

The Huawei Ascend P6 weighs only 120g, but packs a 1.5GHz quad-core processor and 2GB RAM into its chassis. The smartphone comes with 8GM storage, but it can be expanded by up to 32GB with a microSD slot. Huawei has their flagship phone running Google's Android 4.2.2, with the latest version of Huawei's Emotion UI, which on first look resembles the iPhone's main screen, on top. The Emotion UI comes with goodies like profiles, customizable notification menus, widgets, customization options, as well as some new additions like panorama shots and facial recognition photography

The device has a competitive, if not premium 4.7-inch high definition display with a top resolution of 720p. Similarly comparable but not world-leading, is the Ascend P6's 8-megapixel main camera which is capable of recording video at 1080p (if not displaying it), though the company has interestingly beefed up the front-facing camera to a best-of-class 5-megapixel sensor, which Huawei is promoting as "perfect for 'selfies.'" It could also come in handy for video chatting.

There are some drawbacks and awkward elements of the phone's design, though. First, the Ascend P6 is not currently available in a LTE version unlike the Ascend P2, though according to the Wall Street Journal, an LTE version of the new phone will be launched in October. Also unlike the Ascend P2, the Ascend P6's battery is on the low-capacity side, offering only 2,000 mAh. This was probably necessary to get such a slim profile for the Huawei's flagship, but a couple extra millimeters of slimness is probably not worth losing the P2's much more competitive and practical 2,420 mAh battery.

Then there's the headphone plug which Huawei inexplicably put on the left side of the phone, meaning that as soon as you try to use the device for music or hands-free calling, it loses its easily-pocketable edge over other devices because you'll have a headphone jack sticking out awkwardly sideways, adding extra width to the device. Most smartphone manufacturers have settle don the fact by now that the top of the device (or at least the bottom) is probably the best place for a headphone plug.

The biggest drawback in the way of this smartphone's success is probably the Huawei name itself. Unknown to most, many of whom probably would be unsure of its correct pronunciation, the company has issues of trust to overcome, both in the consumer "brand-recognition" sense and in the sense of national security and personal privacy. Cyber security questions have been raised about Huawei's leadership and ties to the Chinese government. For now, Huawei is focusing on getting their flagship phone in retailers' showrooms and getting people just to check out their offering. "Buy or not buy, we want consumers to try our phones," said Chief Marketing Officer for Huawei Device Co. LTD, Shao Yang to the Wall Street Journal.

Right now, only select markets will be able to check out the Ascend P6 in the near term. The company is launching the Ascend P6 in China in June and Western Europe on Vodaphone, Telefonica, Orange, H3G, O2, Carphone Warehouse, TalkTalk, Media Markt &Saturn, TIM, and online through Amazon and CDiscount in July.

Check back with us for more updates about Huawei's offerings, as well as other smartphones, accessories, and tech news.