Nearly a week ago I received the Huawei Ascend P6, currently the worlds thinnest device. Since then I have stress tested the phone to deliver my verdict. Huawei describe the P6 as –

– Slender and beautiful – the Huawei Ascend P6 is just 6.18mm thin
– Incredibly strong – it’s built with an aluminium alloy frame & back cover
– Packed with tech – ­including a lightning fast 1.5 Ghz Quad core processor, and huge 4.7” HD screen all – making P6 ideal for entertainment (like Movies and Catch up TV) as well as over 700,000 apps from Google Play.
-Premium camera experience – P6’s 8 Megapixel camera with Flash, shoots in low light, shoots close ups and is packed with tech to make it simple to use
-It’s all about you – P6 is a social networker’s dream. It has a sensational 5 Megapixel camera on the front – which is ideal for the group shots and video calls you, your family and your friends have to be in.
Huge 2,000 mAh battery with Huawei’s Power Management to optimise battery life

The P6 is insanely thin. Look at the photos below.

The right hand side has the power and volume buttons, sim card and micro SD card trays. The left side just features the headphone socket.

The headphone socket normally is covered with a pull out metallic button, which has the pin to open the sim and memory card trays, but if you listen to music and take this button bit out, you will lose it, so it is best just to leave it out and store it in the phone box.

The bottom of the device just has the microphone. The top has the micro USB slot, which also does USB OTG.

So, then you read the user manual, all 107 pages, and start setting up the Ascend P6. The user manual reveals a specification sheet off the charts. It just does so much.

So what were the first impressions. Well within 30 minutes I had my first software force close. This was only trying to add 4 new apps, and do a quick setup so that I could go out shopping with it. When I returned back home, I continued to install the remainder of my 90 or so apps.

So, within the next 2 hours, I had 5 software force closes, 1 random reboot, and a reboot I did as I could not access the notification bar to clear the received notifications. The phone screen in bright sunlight is difficult to see. The phone is use gets a little warm. I tried to use Google Maps and Google Navigation. Nothing was happening. Even though the phone said GPS fix had occurred. At this point I was ready to throw the phone in the bin. Then suddenly after 2 hours, the GPS just started to work. I wonder if I had done something wrong with location settings? In the car with outdoor profile selected, Google Navigation running, bluetooth on and connected to my car, the phone got too hot and stopped charging. This is a safety measure implemented by Huawei to prevent overheating. After a while it started charging again. Soon the notification led turned green to indicate fully charged but battery meter said 93%. Clearly with all the few issues I have been having, the phone probably needs a software update which I am sure will come soon.

Despite the camera specification, the camera is just average. Low light or indoors photos are noisy but then so are most smartphone cameras. The camera is fine for social network sharing but as a comparison to the Nokia Lumia 925, the 925 produces better shots than the P6 is every way possible. But here’s the strange part. Adjust the camera settings from 8 to 6mp and the photos are much better. In fact some were quite good.

The P6 comes with its own launcher, which has over 160 customisable options. I quite like it. It also removes the app tray, and just uses home screens. Genius idea and very iPhone like. It also has a permissions manager, and at first when you get these notifications that an app is carrying out a push message, it is rather a surprise, but actually it is a good security feature. You can then allow or deny access. In fact, for every app you can control whether it is allowed to connect to the internet, or access other aspects of the phone. Neat again. The P6 has built in profiles, editable too. The launcher has themes. Each theme from the locks creen to the icons to the wallpaper and sounds are customisable. I could go on and on. The list of tweaks and options is like a battleship.

Then there is the screen which is rather pleasant at 720p. The sound through the rear speaker is above average. Sound through the headphones is rather metallic, but audio components do improve with burn in. And thats what happened with the P6. After 5 hours of listening to music, the sound was marginally better. Not HTC One quality but passable. Audio via bluetooth is poor.

In the box was the usual affair, phone, booklets, usb lead, UK plug AND a silicone case. What a surprise!

I get software force closes daily. Since Google + received an update, opening the app causes a force close. Again, hopefully with a software update these problems will hopefully be fixed.

The P6 has loads of positives and maybe if it received a software update, this might improve matters. For some people this phone is might ideal. At just over £300, you do get a striking piece of hardware, expandable memory with the micro SD card, average camera and sound via headphones, above average loudspeaker and a silicone case.