Huawei has sold more than 1 million Ascend W1 handsets

We don’t normally credit Huawei as a significant Windows Phone player, but it seems the Chinese low-cost handset maker may be having some influence on the small Windows Phone market.
Speaking to Pocket-lint, Kevin Ho, president of Huawei’s handset product line, confirmed the company sold more than 1 million of their Ascend W1 Windows Phones in USA and Europe.
The low-cost smartphone was released in January, and hit Europe around March this year.
Despite the achievement however he did note selling Windows Phones was not easy.
"Compared to Android, Windows Phone is difficult to sell. Most people like Android, they are familiar with Android, but they need time to accept Windows Phone and make it familiar."
If Huawei doubles or trebles the numbers they may start taking market share from Nokia, but Ho said the company had no such intentions.
"We do not want to fight with Nokia. We want to work together with Nokia and Microsoft to build a better Windows Phone platform," Ho said.
Huawei has just announced the Ascend W2, which disappointingly had similar low-end specs to the W1, but given the relative success the company had with their approach  their response was somewhat understandable.
Do our readers think we have been underrating the company and their potential impact? Let us know below.

Huawei launches ‘Ascend Mate

Chinese communications giant Huawei, on Tuesday, launched its 6.1-inch Ascend Mate smartphone in India with a price tag of Rs.24,900.

The company said it planned to invest about Rs.175 crore to build the brand in the country as well as expand its retail presence.

“We will invest about 8-10 per cent of our mobile devices revenue in India. In 2012, our India revenue was $300 million. The spend would be mainly in strengthening our retail presence and brand building exercise,” Huawei President (India Device Business Development) Victor Shan said.

Huawei is targeting to sell about 10 lakh smartphones in the country by the end of this year.

The Ascend Mate, launched globally, runs on Android 4.1 JellyBean operating system. It has 1.5 gigahertz quad core HiSilicon processor and 16 core graphic processing chipset.

It features a display with 1280x720p resolution that can be used while wearing gloves. The phone has an 8 megapixel rear camera and 1 megapixel front camera. It comes with a 4050 mAh battery and boasts of up to two days of ordinary usage on a single charge.

The company has started selling its mobile devices in partnership with retail stores such as Croma, Ezone and online websites such as Flipkart, Snapdeal and Shopclues.

The Huawei Ascend P6:brief review

The Huawei Ascend P6 is teasing once again and this time a new photo is showing in Twitter, evleaks leaked a picture not so long ago and their one looks very similar to the one we are showing below. This is all adding up now and previous sources seem to be correct in the designs.
Normally, when we get to see leaked images of upcoming smartphones we just show people them and the shrug them off until the official announcement, but this time we will not shrug this one off because past leaked images looks like the one posted on Huawei’s Twitter.

On June 18 the Huawei Ascend P6 will be announced at the official launch and until then we have to speculate the specs this phone will come with.
We visited GSM Arena and they have been tipped off about the official specs, which includes a 2000 mAh Li-Po battery, 5MP front-facing camera, 720p video recording, 2- megapixel camera, Bluetooth v3.0 and wireless 802.11a standard is not supported.
Other specs include quad-core 1.5 GHz K3V2+ Huawei CPU, Intel XMM6260 modem, 8GB of expandable internal storage, 2GB of RAM, 4.7-inch display and will run on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean operating system.
It has also been said that the P6 could feature a temperature sensor and will weigh in at 120 grams and the size will be 132.7 x 65.5 x 6.5mm.
Huawei U9200 Ascend P1 Unlocked Phone - US Warranty - Black

Huawei Ascend Y accesories

Cellular does very well as a carrier, it's offer smartphones at very affordable prices. The Huawei Ascend Y Android handset costs only a penny in 3G areas, and $29.99 in markets with 4G. And yes, you can consider price this Android 2.3 Gingerbread phone's most compelling feature. Beyond the outdated version of Android, the Ascend Y is 3G-only, and comes with basic hardware features, including a mediocre camera without a flash, a slower processor, and a smaller battery. The low-end feature set is intentional; smartphones cost a lot to make, and budget models like this lower the barrier for entry that faces those on tight budgets.
However, that doesn't mean the Ascend Y beats out its fellows. For instance, the much more developed LG Splendor costs the same up-front price on a Web special at the time of this review. Samsung's Galaxy Axiom is also a good deal, and is 4G-enabled.

For Huawei Ascend Y M866 H866C Hybrid Hard Rubber Case Black Black With Stand
 Design and build
To Huawei's credit, their designers do put thought into their products, and as a result, the Ascend Y is pretty easy on the eye. It's black with rounded corners, some contouring on the face, and a dark gray, metallic strip on the back panel. At just 4.6 inches tall by 2.4 inches wide and 0.46-inch thick, it's a compact phone that's both palmable and pocketable. A soft-touch finish on the back cover makes it comfortable to hold and adds a little class to an otherwise plain backing.

Huawei keeps things simple and accessible on the Ascend Y, an Android 2.3 Gingerbread smartphone.

(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)

The 4.4-ounce weight isn't as light as some phones, but in this case, the added gravity keeps the Ascend Y from looking and feeling too cheap.
There's a 3.5-inch HVGA touch screen with a pixel resolution of 480x320. The screen is extremely small by today's standards, but even a few months ago, top phones like the iPhone 4S, sported this size. A third-party app like SwiftKey or Swype might help out those who find the virtual keyboard too small to type on. I have relatively smaller fingertips, and was able to compose e-mail and texts with the normal number of errors. The screen quality itself is totally adequate, but colors may not look as bright and edges may not look as sharp as on more premium phone models.
Below the screen, you'll navigate with three touch-sensitive buttons. The power button and standard 3.5-millimeter headset jack are on top. On the left sits a rather short volume rocker; you'll plug your Micro-USB charger into the port on the bottom. The flash-less camera lens on the Ascend Y's B-side and micro-SD card slot beneath the back cover round out the simple hardware features.
For Huawei Ascend Y M866 H866C Hybrid Hard Rubber Case Black Black With Stand Unfortunately, you have to pop the battery to swap in a larger card than the 2GB one that Huawei includes. The Ascend Y can hold up to 32GB in external storage.
OS and apps
Android 2.3 Gingerbread brings with it support for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS, plus all the tried-and-true Android features, including support for multiple social and e-mail accounts, multiple home pages, and access to a slew of Google services from the phone, voice navigation included.
Huawei adds its own custom layer on top of Gingerbread, enabling useful features like a lock screen that can snap open the camera, text messages, or the phone log. There's also access to quick settings from the notifications window, and the Huawei look and feel in the app tray.

A smaller handset, the Ascend Y is compact, with a 3.5-inch screen.

Cameras
Don't expect much from the Ascend Y's 3.2-megapixel camera and you may not be disappointed. It'll capture license plate numbers and help you remember where you parked, but you won't be turning a photo into a mug or an 8x10 wall print.