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CNET Editors' Take
February 26, 2012 7:52 AM PST
Mobile World Congress kicks off with a bang as Huawei unveiled its first quad-core ICS handset, called the Ascend D Quad.
Richard Yu, chairman of Huawei devices, introducing the Ascend D Quad at Mobile World Congress 2012.
(Credit: Marguerite Reardon/CNET)
Surprise, surprise. It turns out the first quad-core smartphones to be announced at Mobile World Congress aren't powered by Nvidia's vaunted Tegra 3 chip. Instead, Huawei's D Quad line will feature quad-core silicon specially made by Huawei called the K3V2.
Huawei Chairman Richard Yu took the stage at the MWC show in Barcelona, Spain, to tout the impressive abilities of the company's flagship model, the Ascend D Quad. Other internal hardware includes a big 4.5-inch 720p HD screen, Dolby 5.1 surround sound audio, plus an 8-megapixel rear- and 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera.
Other handsets in the line include the Ascend Quad XL and Ascend D1. The Quad XL will have a massive 2,500mAh battery, but the same specs as the D Quad. The D1, on the other hand, will be powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core CPU and 1,670mAh battery.
Huawei Ascend D Quad
Sadly, the GSM devices won't be 4G at launch, but Huawei plans to add a fast data connection by the third or fourth quarter of this year. All three phones will have Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.
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Yu also said that the Ascend D Quad is much faster, too- 20 percent to 30 percent faster, in fact, than one running the Tegra 3. That's a bold statement. We'll have to wait a while before testing this boast since the phone is expected to ship in April. No price yet, but the Ascend Quad D will be sold in Europe, North and South America, plus the Middle East.
