News:Huawei releases new Emotion UI for Android 4.0 ICS

Huawei is one of the biggest phone makers in the world, but chances are if you live in the West, you haven’t heard much about its phones. And no wonder, carriers are often rebranding Huawei devices under their own names and if you ever get to see a Huawei logo it’s likely on an unlocked phone. The Chinese phone maker is working on fixing this and improving the presence of its brand with the new Ascend series of phones, and along with that it brings a brand new user interface called the Emotion UIfor Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. 

The bad news though is that the skin is available only for China in the moment and works with the Huawei Ascend P1 and P1E, with the Ascend D quad also likely to get it once it launches. It’s a pity because at least the first impression from this skin is of a clean, well executed attempt. It may not be better than stock Android, but some variety is always welcome. 

Huawei summarizes the work it’s done by saying the new Emotion UI comes with plenty of scene modes, access to the Huawei cloud, intelligent guidance, voice assistant (but only in Chinese) and personalized looks. 

You can get the Emotion UI beta for ICS straight from the official website at the source link below, if you’re in China and sporting a Huawei phone. 

source: Emui via UnwiredView 

Read more »

ZTE Athena appears in spy shots, squeezes ICS in 6.2mm package

Some posts on social network Weibo point to an ultra-thin Android phone from ZTE in the works, codenamed Athena. The device readily beats the Motorola DROID RAZR (7.1mm) and the Huawei Ascend P1 S (6.7mm), having a profile of just 6.2mm. You'll also notice the Kevlar back of the Athena that is visible in one of the leaked photos.

The ZTE Athena should also surpass those two in processing power with its (presumably dual-core) Cortex-A15 CPU. The phone will be running Android 4.0 ICS with a custom "Miflavor UI" skin on top. The built storage is said to go up to 64GB.

   

The screen on the slender droid is reported as True HD, but there's no info on the screen size. The ZTE Athena has capacitive keys under its screen.

That's all the info available on the smartphone right now, but if anything else comes up we'll keep you updated. So, what do you think - is there a point to this race for the thinnest phone or would you rather have a juicier battery instead?

Source 1 • Source 2 (in Chinese) | Via

Read more »

Huawei Ascend P1 S unveiled with a bang: the world’s thinnest smartphone

guns to CES 2012, and in the smartphone world a big gun is a thin smartphone. The Huawei Ascend P1 S is officially the world’s slimmest smartphone at the unbelievable 0.26-inches (6.68mm), easily beating the 7.1mm thick Motorola Droid Razr. 

And if you ever thought there was a gap between Chinese phone makers and first tier companies like Samsung, you’d better rethink as the Ascend P1 S has cutting-edge hardware with TI’s OMAP 4460 dual-core chip with the Cortex-A9 based processor clocked at 1.5GHz and aided by SGX 540 graphics.

The Huawei Ascend P1 S has a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 540 x 960 pixels and that resolution might be the only compromise. The handset is running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, so you’re not losing anything in terms of software. 

On the back, the Ascend P1 S has an 8 megapixel backside-illuminated (BSI) camera allowing 1080p video recording, while up front there’s a 1.3 megapixel snapper. Huawei has managed to squeeze in an 1800mAh battery, and the usual set of connectivity options.

Additionally, Huawei is announcing the younger sibling model - the Huawei Ascend P1, which is almost identical, but has a slightly thicker 0.3-inch (7.69mm) body.

The two handsets are arriving in metallic black, ceramic white and cherry-blossom pink in Europe, Asia-Pacific, North America, Australia, the Middle East and China in the second quarter of 2012.

Read more »