LAS VEGAS: Huawei has shown that it will be aggressively pushing into the high-end smartphone market with the launch of its Ascend range.

The PS 1 is set to be the firm's flagship smartphone in 2012, and initial impressions were very positive considering that Huawei has traditionally been known for making budget handsets.

Huawei is playing up the fact that the PS 1 is the thinnest smartphone to date, and with a thickness of 6.68mm it looks sleek and is comfortable to hold.

In an effort to be taken seriously as a high-end handset provider Huawei has used a number of premium components. Construction appears solid - with a metallic frame running around the edge of the device. The chassis also packs in a 4.3in Super Amoled Gorilla Glass display that delivers a sharp, clear picture and will no doubt force Samsung to up its game.

The firm has chosen to go with a 1.5GHz dual-core Texas Instruments processor rather than an Nvidia-based chip, but the processor inside the PS 1 is based on the familiar ARM Cortex A9 design. With 1GB of RAM also included, we found the device delivered an extremely smooth experience. The handset also benefits from having a stock version of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and so there is no overlay to drain battery and slow the device down.

We liked the addition of the HDMI ports and the 8-megapixel rear camera with 1080p recording and facial recognition capabilities.

Another area that Huawei is confident it will be able to differentiate in its device is the battery performance. The 1670 mAh battery is touted to give 30 per cent better performance than other high-end devices and it will be interesting to see just how long the handset lasts when compared to other handsets with similar specifications.

The only real disappointing features appear to be the 4GB of built in storage and the lack of pricing details. The latter could be a sticking point especially as Huawei is largely unknown to UK consumers and has no pedigree in the high-end market. However, if the firm is looking to make an impact in western markets we expect it to launch devices with a competitive price when it starts shipping in April.

Chinese manufacturer Huawei hit London on Monday night for the launch of its upcoming Vision smartphone and MediaPad tablet. Although the MediaPad is not due out in the UK until the first quarter 2012, we managed to get our hands on one of the devices at the launch party.

The MediaPad is a 7in tablet running Android Honeycomb 3.2. It has a unibody design, measuring 10.5mm thick and weighing in at 390g, and features a 1280x800 screen, which Huawei claims as full HD.

The tablet had a very similar look and feel to the HTC Flyer and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7in version. Compared to holding the 600g iPad, it’s noticeably lighter, and we’ve always found 7in tablets much easier to type on in portrait mode while holding the device.

There wasn’t much lag when switching between landscape and portrait modes, however we didn’t find the MediaPad touchscreen as responsive as some other tablet models, especially the iPad. It was also slower to load pages than other models we’ve used, although the 3G connection could have had some part in this.

There’s a 5-megapixel camera on the rear, and a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera for video calling. Video playback was smooth, although those purchasing a tablet mostly for watching video or TV would be better opting for a 10in model.

The MediaPad runs a 1.2Ghz Qualcomm processor, which Huawei said makes it fantastic for gaming. Certainly Angry Birds seemed to run well on the device.

Huawei claims that the battery will last for more than six hours. It will also have Wi-Fi, HSPA+ 3G and an HDMI port. The MediaPad will be priced at £330 in the UK.

As the MediaPad is very similar to the Samsung Galaxy Tab, we asked Huawei if it was concerned that Apple would start legal proceedings against the firm for copying the look and feel of the iPad.

However, the spokesman said that Huawei was not concerned about that at all. He dismissed the Apple patent as being based on just one diagram, adding that he felt Samsung would be the eventual winner in the legal battle.

When we asked Huawei what the key differentiators were between its tablet and other existing models, it cited Honeycomb 3.2 and the full HD video feature. However, the 7in Acer Iconia Tab A100 already runs Android 3.2. The 1280x800 resolution is unique to the MediaPad among 7in tablets, although among 10in models it’s common.

Huawei is aiming the MediaPad at women, as it says that the current 10in models are favoured by men and so feels there’s a gap in the market for a device that females can fit in their handbags. However, Huawei declined to share any sales targets for the tablet, so it’s difficult to ascertain how successful the firm thinks this will be.

Overall we’d say the price point of the tablet could see it fall between the gaps. Current tablet buyers seem to be after one thing – the Apple brand, and will dig deep for an iPad. However, the £300+ price tag will put it out of reach of the bargain hunters, after the cheaper models to just try out this tablet fad. 

We’ll have a full review of the MediaPad up soon.

V3 got some hands-on time with the Huawei Vision smartphone, which was launched last night as the firm tries to grow its brand and presence in the market.

To start with the phone will be available from Phones 4U on a £25 per month contract which includes the handset for free. Huawei said that the Vision will be available in time for Christmas.

The phone has quite a sleek design with a unibody aluminium shell in keeping with rivals such as HTC. Three colours will be available: silver, rose gold or charcoal.

In design, the Vision is reminiscent of the Nexus S smartphone from Google with a similar shape and a curved screen, although the curve is not as noticeable.

We found the Vision comfortable to hold with its rounded shape. It's a nice size and weight coming in at 9.9mm and 121g.

For what will be a budget phone, the specs are quite reasonable. You get a Qualcomm Snapdragon 1GHz processor, 512MB of RAM and 2GB of internal storage. The storage can be expanded via the microSD card slot. We found performance to be good, and a respectable effort for a non-high-end phone.

It almost goes without saying that the Vision will come with connectivity such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 3G, but there is no near field communication technology.

The Vision runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread like a lot of smartphones, but Huawei has added its own touch. The home panels can be viewed in a 3D carousel which can be controlled by normal swipe gestures or a scrolling bar.

We like the different approach and the carousel looks good and works well. If you leave the screen on one home panel you get animations of the widgets on that panel. Another addition is the ability to change the widgets on the fly and group apps in folders.

Pre-loaded apps will include Angry Birds, Asphalt 6: Adrenaline, Order & Chaos and
Guerilla Bob HD.

The screen is a decent 3.7in which is a good middle-of-the-road size. We found the screen nice and bright with good clarity. The one problem we did find was a lack of responsiveness, where a button push sometimes took a couple of attempts.

It was far too dark at the event to test the camera properly so we'll leave that for the full review. The specs are reasonable for a budget phone with a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera that is capable of recording video in 720p resolution.

Another thing we didn't have time to test was the battery. It's rated at 1,400mAh, which is a little lower than we normally find in smartphones but we'll reserve judgement until we test it properly.

Overall the phone could be successful if marketed correctly, and could be one of the best budget-friendly phones around. We look forward to getting the Vision in for a full test and review.