Join the newsletter! Sign in with LinkedIn Sign in with Facebook. Show Comments. Security Watch. Best NBN Plans. Best Mobile Plans. Share this review: Twitter Facebook. Thanks to its use of in-plane switching , it offers great viewing angles and a bright screen.
Its high resolution and non-PenTile BGR matrix prevented us from seeing even the tiniest of pixels, giving us the opportunity to better enjoy what we were viewing; on the other hand, however, colors on the display were slightly undersaturated, especially when compared with the One X and Galaxy S III side by side.
Fortunately, direct sunlight wasn't a bother provided we had the brightness turned almost all the way up. Movies still proved to be an enjoyable experience nonetheless, and we doubt anyone aside from the devout display aficionado will take issue with it. When it comes to Android firmware, Huawei seems to go by one of two general rules: it either sticks to its custom Emotion UI skin or it goes as close to vanilla as you can expect from a respectable manufacturer.
Purists are going to love the fact that the company chose the latter path for its flagship model, but it's not a perfect duplicate of the stock Ice Cream Sandwich we came to know and appreciate on devices like the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.
The app launcher, most of the core apps and the home pages are virtually identical, but Huawei made a few tweaks to the lock screen and threw in its traditional 3D Home launcher and icon themes. Let's discuss a few of Huawei's changes. The usual lock screen provided you don't choose a security lock option offers a circle of quick access shortcuts that point you to the camera, phone logs and messages in addition to the standard swipe-to-unlock gesture found on most Android devices.
This interface will look slightly different if you switch from 2D unlock to 3D unlock, but the buttons remain the same -- and unfortunately we haven't found a way to change them to match our preferences. Essentially, 3D Home is a separate launcher that gives your Android interface a different look and style from the stock experience. On the home pages, you'll find a set of special Huawei widgets that attempt to appear as though they're jutting out from off the screen -- if you've ever tried drawing three-dimensional cubes on a regular notepad when bored at school, you'll know what we mean -- but they don't necessarily bring any new functionality to the phone.
Going into the app menu you'll immediately notice a difference between this and the vanilla ICS style: each page is arranged into a 4x4 grid, rather than 5x4, and you cannot access widgets here you'll need to long-press the home screen to look through them. At the bottom of each panel you can find two buttons: settings on the right and home on the left an unnecessary feature, since a capacitive home key is ever-present just underneath the display.
While we applaud Huawei's efforts to offer choice in its UX, we don't see any advantage in using 3D Home. At least it's easy to switch back and forth if you want to compare the two launchers. If you like to switch up the look of your icons and home screen every once in a while, the ability to choose themes is another way to do so. Three are available: the stock Android theme is used by default, whereas Breeze and Dawn are offered to give your home pages and app launcher more of a Huawei-esque look, complete with blocky and cartoonish icons.
Oddly, the phone doesn't save your wallpaper preference when you switch themes. The 8MP camera encased within the D1 Quad XL is Huawei's best effort to date, but we're not sure that's a very difficult achievement to reach, given that it has excelled in the budget phone category for years.
The shutter button, gallery access and camcorder toggle switch are on the right sidebar, while the front-facing cam toggle and flash options are on the top-left. The left sidebar is hidden from view until you need it -- it slides out and offers shooting modes, effects and settings. There are plenty of settings to please the amateur mobile photog: it features a low-light mode, HDR, burst and smile shots, panorama, effects, ISO, white balance, red eye reduction and a set of adjustments for exposure, contrast, saturation and brightness.
Most of them work exactly the way you would expect, but there are a couple that leave much to be desired. The first of which is the low-light capability, which we had high expectations for given the XL's inclusion of a BSI backside-illuminated sensor. We compared several low-light images from the XL with those we took side by side on the Galaxy S III, and we were taken aback by the difference: the GSIII did a much better job scooping up errant light, eliminating unnecessary noise and enhancing nighttime shots than the XL.
We've highlighted one example below, and have included plenty of comparison shots between the two devices in our sample galleries. LED flash, on the other hand, is sufficiently bright and helped the camera do a good job of capturing color.
Like the Ascend P1, a true macro mode is nonexistent here. We don't think you'll miss it too much, however, since we were able to keep a solid focus on objects up to 5cm, which is pretty close to what the Galaxy S III can do in a dedicated macro focus. While we're on the subject of specific settings, panorama shots were perfectly fine, but they're restricted to a radius of roughly 90 degrees.
If you're looking to capture an entire vista, this means you'll need to take multiple panoramic photos to achieve that effect. HDR performance depended on various scenarios.
We noticed that the images tended to favor less exposure, which resulted in great shots in cloudy weather and lower-light conditions they turned out better than the same shots on a Galaxy S III but conversely made daylight pictures look darker than they should be. In terms of everyday situations, the XL camera almost lives up to the standards set by the Galaxy S III and the One X, but we can't say that it beats either device in any specific scenario.
Images are sufficiently detailed and the camera does a pretty good job of capturing natural light and the dynamic range, but we noticed that some colors appeared washed out in direct sunlight. While simple tasks could be executed swiftly, such as swiping through the app drawer and transitioning back to home screen, the overall experience seemed to chug more slowly along.
Especially in 3G Home mode, getting around didn't seem as zippy. Opening the camera which took an average of 2. It also took a while to open up and quit graphics-intensive games like Riptide GP , and I didn't see as high a frame rate during gameplay. It also took a few moments to restart the camera's shutter button. In addition, my overall experience with the phone was riddled with software hiccups. As previously mentioned, the Ookla app couldn't connect to the network at all, there were times when the native browser would simply quit, the calendar widget would often display the wrong month despite my changing the settings, and the weather widget wouldn't match its animations to the corresponding time of day.
The handset's 2,mAh battery lasted our battery drain tests for video playback for 9. Anecdotally, however, it was disappointing. The reserves would drain quickly even on standby, and a minute conversation would drain the battery about 10 percent.
It would also need a few charging sessions to make it through the workday. Conclusion While I give Huawei points for audacity in claiming that the Ascend D1 Quad XL is the fastest smartphone in the world, the device unfortunately fails to live up to the talk. Not only is its performance subpar, but it faces one huge quad-core competitor: the LG Nexus 4. Just like the Quad XL, the Nexus 4 comes unlocked, but at a significantly more affordable price. The Nexus also has a more recent version of the Android OS and offers smoother performance.
Frankly, if you're looking for a quad-core unlocked phone, there's no reason to get the Quad XL when the Nexus 4 is available. Lynn La. While its processor may sound impressive, the Huawei Ascend D1 Quad XL is a mediocre phone in a sea of excellent quad-core alternatives.
If you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a commission. Learn more. And the arrival of the Huawei Ascend D Quad finally puts the company centre stage.
Largely similar in terms of specs to many of the other quad core handsets debuting here at MWC , the Ascend D Quad packs in a quad-core processor, an 8-megapixel camera and a p screen.
Where Tegra 3 has quad-core graphics, the 1. It will lack the low power companion core of Tegra 3, though, so it will be interesting to see how battery life holds up. The obvious area that is improved by better graphics is gaming and so we fired up a couple of titles preloaded onto the demo devices. Guerilla Bob and Samurai Vengeance both looked incredible and played amazingly smoothly, though in fairness both those games look pretty good on existing dual-core handsets.
Helping to really bump up the gaming visuals is the HD screen. A simple striped pattern on the nicely rounded back looks and feels great and the whole handset sits surprisingly well in the hand.
It is big, and at x 64 x 8.
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