Gauntlet: iPhone 6 vs. Huawei Ascend P7

Our quest to face off the iPhone 6 against its biggest competitors in the market is still underway and the next smartphone that we’re putting up against the iPhone 6 is one of the latest devices from one of China’s biggest manufacturers – the Huawei Ascend P7.

Body

The design of the Ascend P7’s body seems like a merger of the iPhone 4/4S and a Sony Xperia Z-series phone which gives it a slightly dated design compared to the newer and sleeker design of the iPhone 6. This doesn’t mean the Ascend P7 looks bad but the iPhone 6 just slightly edges over it in this department. One thing that the Ascend P7 does have over the iPhone 6 is, in spite of its larger screen, the Ascend P7 is thinner, lighter, and only slightly larger than the iPhone.

Screen

The Ascend P7 is equipped with a slightly larger and higher resolution screen compared to the iPhone 6. The Ascend P7’s screen is 5-inches big diagonally and has a display resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels while the iPhone 6 features a 4.7-inch with a resolution of only 750 x 1334 pixels. The iPhone 6 screen is known for better color saturation and contrast but the Ascend P7’s screen is sharper and more detailed.

CPU, GPU, RAM, and Storage

The iPhone 6 wins this category in spite of the Ascend P7’s higher-clocked quad core HiSilicon Kirin 910T processor. It’s hard to beat Apple’s optimization of its A8 dual-core 64-bit processor coupled with its superior PowerVR GX6540 GPU. The iPhone 6 just performs better while the Ascend P7 has the tendency to stutter and lag even with its 2GB of RAM (the iPhone 6 only has 1GB). The only advantage the Ascend P7 has in this category is its expandable storage capacity via microSD card.

Camera

Even though both the rear and front cameras of the Ascend P7 have a higher megapixel count (13-megapixel and 8-megapixel, respectively) the iPhone 6’s camera simply performs better due to a better sensor and superior image processing. The photos and video taken with the Ascend P7 are mostly underwhelming while the iPhone 6 always takes impressive photos and video.

Battery Life

Battery life is also another area where even with its seemingly lesser specification the iPhone 6 just slightly edges out its competition due to better optimization. The processor in the Ascend P7 isn’t that great at battery/energy management which leads its 2,500mAh Li-Po battery to last slightly less than Apple’s smaller 1,810mAh Li-Po battery.

Software & Apps

While both operating systems have their own pros and cons, the iPhone 6 with iOS 8 edges out the Android-running Ascend P7 just due to the sheer number of quality apps in the App Store. While Google Play has almost caught up with the App Store most developers still develop their apps primarily for iOS which makes those versions the superior one most of the time.

Extra Features

iPhone 6 has a bunch of extra features including compatibility with the company’s new Apply Pay service, a new M8 motion sensor, and a fingerprint sensor, while the Ascend P7 doesn’t really come with any extra or special feature other than NFC.

Cost

The iPhone 6 is priced at around Php37,000 for the 16GB model which is quite pricey while the Ascend P7 is available at around Php21,000. That’s around a Php16,000 difference between the two devices and makes the Ascend P7 quite desirable for those with a limited budget.

Verdict

It’s hard to not lean towards the iPhone 6 in this matchup. It simply beats the Ascend P7 out of the water in almost every aspect. The Ascend P7 is still a notable device with lots of good points but other than a tight budget, it’s hard to find a reason to choose it over Apple’s superior device.