Huawei Ascend D1

Solid performance ; (Mostly) vanilla Android UI ; High-definition IPS display

Video capture is choppy ; Limited onboard storage ; Thick for its form factor

Huawei's first quad-core device is sufficiently fast and powerful, but will likely be quickly forgotten amidst a sea of strong competition.

Bright display, High performance SoC, MicroSD slot, Good manufacturing quality, Low heat dissipation, A solidly constructed device with a well balanced and bright display speak in favor of the Ascend D1 Quad XL. Huawei has combined all the necessary...

Short battery life, Permanently integrated battery, Only one model (low memory capacity), Meager front camera, When it comes to the battery life Huawei still have to do their homework. Perhaps it could be possible to stem the exorbitant appetite of the...

Good specs, nice screen and amazing battery life

Old version of Android, strictly ok camera and build quality

The Ascend D1 does quite a few things right but at the same time falters in areas it shouldn’t have. For example, not providing Jelly Bean 4.1 out of the box at the end of 2012 is not really excusable. On the other hand the screen and one-handed usage...

Overall, though, the Huawei could well be a serious contender in the mid to high end of the phone market, particularly if Huawei representatives' claims that it's likely to undercut comparative handsets by some 20% turn out to be true.

4.5in display ; Only 8.9mm thick ; Likely to be competitively priced

No word on Jelly Bean update ; No info on AU release

The Huawei Ascend D1 may not be a flagship model smartphone, but it has very impressive specifications. The crowning feature is a large 4.5in screen with a resolution of 1280x720. There's no word on an Australian release just yet.