Huawei Ascend G700 [Review]

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Huawei introduced its much awaited Ascend G700 smartphone last month in Pakistan and that too at a very attractive price, i.e. Rs. 25,500.

Just like its sibling, G610, Ascend G700 is also a Dual-SIM smartphone. It comes with a premium design that packs pretty nice hardware in it.

Before we go ahead, just to mention, we had posted the un-boxing & hands-on video of Ascend G700 last week, which you probably would like to have a look at before reading this review.

Also have a look at Ascend G610‘s if you haven’t already — because we will be comparing them both in below review.

Design & Build Quality:

Ascend G700 is fully made of plastic, but it doesn’t feel cheap. The frame of the phone is also made of plastic but it gives a premium metallic look.

Ascend G700 measures 142.5 x 72.8 x 8.95 mm and weighs 157 grams.

It features very similar design to other Huawei smartphones launched this year. This white version of Ascend G700 specifically reminds me of Ascend P1; though Ascend G700 has a removable back.

top-shot
On the front of Ascend G700 there is big 5-inch (Pure Black) IPS LCD with 720p resolution (293ppi). Though it doesn’t feature Gorilla Glass protection but in our tests (putting keys & phone in same pocket, rubbing them gently on the screen) it didn’t catch any scratches. So I guess it’s safe to use it without any protector but a protector would be an added value for sure.

touch-keys
Above the screen there is ear-speaker grille in the middle with Huawei logo beneath it. 1.3-megapixel camera on the left and light sensor with LED notifications light on the right. The regular 3 touch keys are placed below the screen.

The power/unlock keys is placed on the right and volume rocker is on the left.

3.5mm jack is on the top and the bottom features microphone and micro-USB port.

3.5mm
An 8-megapixel camera with noise cancellation mic on top and LED flash light on bottom are located on the back.

The speaker grille is on left bottom. We have got the white version of the phone, the black version is totally black, but white one has a silver-white back and matching volume rocker.

back

Removing the back plate reveals two slots for normal (Mini) SIM cards and micro-SD Card slot in between them, along with Battery compartment.

The good news is if you have micro-SIMs you don’t need any adapter as the slots can take them too.

sims-slot

The overall build quality and design looks very premium, we haven’t checked but the plastic seems to be durable and can survive any accidental drops.

Operating System & EMUI:

Ascend G700 was announced last year, so it doesn’t come with a latest version of Android or EMUI. Just like its younger brother G610, this phone runs on Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean OS with EMUI 1.6 on top of it.

emui

You might already know about EMUI, but to give new readers an idea; EMUI has no app drawer, which means all your apps on the homescreens are organized in folders. You can also add widgets, change transitions and some other gimmicky stuff.

It would take pro users a while to get used to this interface, but for newbies it is very easy & user friendly. Just in case if you don’t like you can always install any other launcher that will replace EMUI.

This version of EMUI doesn’t feature Huawei toggles, which are now replaced with stock and you can’t edit them. Also the permission and power manager apps are missing, those were first introduced with Huawei Mate (EMUI 1.5).

Other settings include Scheduled power off/on, SIM card management, SD card as internal storage and ability to move applications to the memory card.

An online manual of this phone states that it support USB OTG, but the device we had for review didn’t offer this feature. May be rooting and editing some system files could enable it, but it will void the phone warranty so we won’t recommend it.

Hardware & Performance:

Ascend G700 is packed with MediaTek MT6589 quad-core processor, PowerVR SGX 544MP GPU and 2GB of RAM. These specifications are not the best or latest but considering the low price of this phone, you can’t get this any better.

The phone is equipped with 8GB internal memory (6GB user available) and can take a micro-SD card upto 32GB. You can also use the SD card as primary storage.

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The performance of this phone is somewhat similar to G610, but the additional RAM comes handy during multitasking.

You won’t feel any lag while scrolling through homescreens, browsing websites, running multiple applications at the same time.

You can also play all the resource hungry 3D games, though graphics rendering won’t be good as high end devices but the experience is lag free.

games-huawei
You can watch 1080p videos, make VoIP calls and do video conferencing via Skype. The loudspeaker quality of this phone is also a little better and louder as compared to previous models.

Regular calls and texting is also flawless with good signal reception as well as the Wireless connectivity. If you have some trouble with Wi-Fi, make sure your router is using channels between 1-9.

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Battery Performance:

Ascend G700 is packed with a 2150mAh battery which seems to be quite adequate for average users. In our battery tests you can easily spend a day on this phone with heavy usage, which includes continuous use of Wi-Fi, Taking 10-15 camera shots with flash light, Texting and playing resource hungry games for at least 3 hours.

battery

The battery takes almost 2.5 hours to charge and with a careful usage you can even extend it to 2 or 3 days. (Just make sure to kill background apps and adjust screen brightness to the minimum).

Camera & Video:

Ascend G700 is equipped with a primary 8-megapixel BSI camera, which helps to capture more light and produce better images in the unfavourable lighting conditions.

The camera is also equipped with LED flash, which doubles as an emergency light you can use from dedicated torch application.

camera

The camera handles varying colors, textures and different light sources very well. Its interface is the same as G610 but image processing is much faster and you can quickly take the next image.

You can play with different in-built filters and effects to enhance your photos or you can edit them later and apply some Instagram like effects.

The default aspect ratio is 16:9 which takes 6-megapixels shots but you can change it to the most common 4:3 ratio to get 8-megapixel photos.

The average file size of 8-megapixel photos is around 2MB.

camera-g700

The primary camera can also record full HD 1080p videos (16:9) @ 30fps. The quality of the video also remains good. To record videos you have switch to video mode from the top right button and start the recording. There are not much settings to play with as compared to the still camera and you can’t take images while recording video.

The front facing 1.3-megapixel camera is a major improvement from G610 and produces sharp images, the quality during video calls is also satisfactory. You can also record 720p videos from the front camera.

Here are some of the sample images taken with the primary camera:

IMG_20140213_121625
Single bulb room light, without flash
IMG_20140208_143459
HDR mode in daylight
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Daylight close-up
IMG_20140220_165328
Candle light only
IMG_20140213_134049
Daylight shot


Pricing & Availability:

This phone is available for a price of Rs. 25,500 all over Pakistan with one year warranty of Airlink Communication.

Currently Ascend G700 is sold in two colors; full black & with white back. The white one is our favorite and we recommend it to you as compared to full black.

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Final Words:

Huawei Ascend G700 offers premium features at a very affordable price, the build quality is excellent and it packs pretty nice hardware.

As compared to other smartphones in this price range it has almost double the specifications. For example Samsung & HTC are selling Dual-Core smartphones with 512MB of RAM in this price range, whereas Huawei is offering Quad-Core processor with a whopping 2GB of RAM.

Ascend G610 was the most popular Huawei phone in Pakistan to date, but I guess soon G700 will cross the mark.

Huawei G610 (left) vs Huawei G700 (right)
Huawei G610 (left) vs Huawei G700 (right)

Huawei phones are getting popular because company has understood the needs of Pakistani market, where people demand smartphones with decent hardware at an affordable price.

It merits mentioning here that Huawei also produced a localized TVC for this phone.

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Do share your opinion in the comments section below and if you have any questions regarding this phone feel free to ask us.


  • Motorola Moto G is available at a price tag of Rs. ~23,000 which is less than Huawei G700. Moto G offers Corning Gorilla Glass 3, Snapdragon 400 with a GPU of Adreno 305 which is far better than the MediaTek chipset. The most important thing is you get Kitkat 4.4.2 which provides much smoother performance even with 512MB Ram, whereas Moto G has 1GB of RAM.
    The downside of Moto G is that it has no SD Card slot plus its battery is non-removable but on the other hand it outperforms Huawei’s G700 in all other respects plus the price is also less and after all Moto G is a Google’s phone

    • As I have used both devices, I can assure you that Huawei G700 actually beats Moto G in all departments; the only drawback is that Moto G is on KitKat and will get future updates, where as G700 is on 4.2 and there is no information available about any updates.

          • your “Kayoun” mobile has created serious threats in Pakistani markets for Brand Names… people compare every thing including Price and Performance..

            • That would be a stupid thing to compare QMobile with Samsung, HTC or even LG. Lets hope that Nokia puts an attractive price tag on Nokia X and within months QMobile will be out of the equation.

              • I am not comparing specs but talking about market situation… Nokia X is nothing but a half baked Android device without Play Store… i don’t expect much from this instead Lumia is fine enough… Qmobile and Voice have made smartphones reachable to masses which was difficult for them ….

                • Its true that Q and Voice have broadened the market but by compromising on quality. We all know that Nokia is the best manufacturer when it comes to quality. PlayStore isn’t a big deal, XDAdevs have already made it work and soon you will see custom ROMS.

                  • Compromising over quality is done only in low and mid range devices whereas high end devices are good enough and many of my friends are using them since last few months with comfort…
                    yes Nokia X is rooted but official support and services are of much importance… hardware of X is of entry level..and it can’t be considered as important to be Challenger…
                    At the end.. it is all about some one’s preferences…

                  • Haha, Do you realize the fact that Nokia and QMobile/Micromax phones are made by the same factory? Foxconn.

                    • Its not a factory, its a company with “different” factories; where they manufacture “different” devices of “different” quality to be sold on “different” prices in “different” markets.

        • Z3 comes with 1 GB RAM where as G700 have 2 GB RAM. So you can understand the performance difference of both devices based on RAM difference. You can compare any two mobiles by visiting our website.

      • I was trying to make the same point. Now a days, software upgrade is more potent as opposed to hardware. Furthermore, KitKat requires far less power than Jellybeans (even 512MB is sufficient for KitKat). What is the use of so much extra RAM if you are never going to use it.
        I have 8GB of RAM in my RAM just because I run Virtual machines but a normal user would never require more than 4GB on a laptop (just supporting my point)
        Moto G can run Asphalt 8 and other resource hungry games that higher end devices can run so running after numbers ONLY won’t help.

  • am using this phone.. its just Awesome Guys! too good in performance & display! better then moto G!

  • Someone G700 User told me it’s Earphone Voice is too low apart it’s perfect on all aspects.

  • It does not have the latest and greatest Android Kitkat whereas Moto G has 4.4.2. Its quadrant benchmark gives around 4000 whereas Moto G has a score of 8000. You can easily comprehend that huawei is trying to sell a less powerful chipset at a higher price. “Old wine in new bottle”

  • qmobile is not to compare Huawei bcoz Huawei is an international brand and qmobile is re-branded they’re making money from poor people of Pakistan,

  • I’ve been using this phone since last 22 days ….its awesomely working fine…… not a single issue face till now and most important thing is battery time is too much good…

    Previously i was used Samsung Galaxy Grand Duos since last 10 months…..and very much annoyed by its Processing, slow operations and its battery time…..Samsung set need to be reboot after every second day to get rid of its slowness.

    Any way i recommended this handset to all who use to Sims all day along with WiFi.
    its perfect handset with plus point of 2GB Ram in this Price.

  • I think this price for Huawei G700 is bit higher, I am using Gfive G9 President and its wonderful in just 15k, it almost does everything for me from browsing to HD video playing, gaming and pictures, It has 1 GB ram with same quadcore processor and large display of 5.7 inches is an extra advantage..

  • I happen to buy this Huawei G700. Simply non sense. Don’t fall
    for its dual sim. One sim will be off if you are using other sim.

    Samsung is the best where in dual sim, call be forwarded to
    your in use sim. I used Galaxy s Duos for quite some time and had no issue what
    so ever. Customer care service was outstanding.

    While distributor and “SO CALLED CUSTOMER CARE” Airlink
    communication in Gulberg for Huawei is too rude to bear.

    Huawei advertisement is misleading and customer care is
    mistreating later.

    Soon I will switch back to Samsung.

  • can you pls tell me the camera performance in night and indoor .I am planning to buy this set but confused because of indoor camera result.previously I had y511 its camera result in night was pathetic .pls reply

  • My phone display light is not white its off white? Is it with all g 700 or I need to check

  • Review is great and very informative I must say .. can u put some pictures captured from front camera as well if possible. thankyou

    • bhai agar apko achi bettry timing wala phone chahiye toh g700 le le aur wese toh s3 ki bhi bettry timing achi hai wese zyada attractive aur good looks phone to g700 hai aur dual sim bhi hai

  • want to sell My Mobile have these Specs are ,10.5 months warranty ,All Accessories are packed and orginal event not open,Black Color, Battery timig 3 to 4 days with less usage, not much use after opening, no scratch , condition 1010.Serius Buyers Just Call no SMS.Price Negotiatable. my cell number 03338543972.

  • Koi b bahi iss company ka cell purchase na kray ma ne g700 purchase iske power ic ma problem a gai or power ic Lahore Islamabad Karachi kahen se nai mila
    Main ne mate 7 liya after 3 month isle touch ma problem a gyi
    Sab se BRI problem iska koi b part of ic market ma nai ha koi b problem honey ki sorat ma apka set bekar ha


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