Chinese handset vendor Huawei unveiled a ridiculously thin smartphone at CES earlier this month that we absolutely fell in love with, the Ascend P1 S. At just 6.68 mm thick it earned itself the title of the world’s thinnest smartphone. Despite the svelte proportions, Huawei managed to stick a dual core 1.5 GHz processor inside that thing, along with an 1800 mAh battery. Make no mistake, the P1 S is a premium smartphone, but word on the street is that it’s just the beginning of more to come. In a report from This Week in Consumer Electronics, they say that Huawei will unveil a new portfolio of devices known as the “Diamond” series next month at Mobile World Congress that will be specifically focused on delivering high end performance. No further details were provided, but it wouldn’t surprise us to see Huawei joining the cores war and launching a smartphone that uses the quad core NVIDIA Tegra 3 chip.
The more important thing to point out here is that Huawei is really stepping up their game. Right now they’re where HTC was before they launched, coincidentally named, the Touch Diamond. That device put HTC on the map and turned people’s heads. Whereas before HTC made smartphones for operators who would then slap their brand on the device, with the Touch Diamond they put their foot down and said enough is enough. We see Huawei inching towards that same goal of making their brand something that consumers associate with quality and innovation. They certainly have the skills to get there, but unless they start focusing on radically improving the materials they use … then forget it, it’s not going to happen.
What do you think, is Huawei on track to become the next hottest company in mobile due to their cost cutting advantage or will they always be a second tier vendor?
[Via: The Verge]