Huawei launched the Ascend G510, the company’s latest mid-range Android smartphone in India earlier this month. We brought you the unboxing and the benchmarks of the device recently, here we have the complete review of the device. t has a 4.5-inch (854 x 480 pixels) capacitive touch screen IPS display and is powered by a 1.2 GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8225 processor. Huawei uses the same Snapdragon S4 chip in several devices including the Ascend G330D, G600 and the Ascend Y300. It runs on Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) with Emotion UI on top.
Unboxing
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFeDEJ78GM0
Box Contents
- Huawei Ascend G510 handset
- Earphones
- USB cable
- 2-pin Charger
- Quick start guide
- 1750 mAh Battery
Hardware
The 4.5-inch IPS display with a resolution of 854 by 480 pixels and a pixel density of 217 ppi is decent. Since the display is glossy, it is a fingerprint magnet. The screen is bright and has good viewing angles.
Even though the design of the phone is similar to the Ascend Y300 that we reviewed recently, there are slight changes in the placement of the front-facing camera and the ear piece. Otherwise this looks similar even in the design. There is a VGA front-facing camera above the display on the left. The ear piece is on the top just below the edge, below that there is a Huawei branding. On the other side there is a LED notification light, which is not prominetly visible if it’s not glowing. Next to it are the proximity and ambient light sensors.
There are the usual capacitive touch button below the display for back, home and menu.
There is a tiny microphone hole on the bottom.
The Power button, Volume rocker and the micro USB slot are present on the left side.
The 3.5mm audio jack is on the top.
There is 5-megapixel auto focus camera on the back with LED Flash. It also has a secondary microphone next to the flash for better audio while recording videos and for noise cancellation during calls. The larger speaker grill is on the other side. There is a Huawei branding below the camera.
The back has nice textured feel that offers a better grip. The phone is just 9.9mm thick. The design of the phone is similar to the Y300.
The phone has support for DTS audio, hence there is a DTS logo on the back.
When you open the plastic back cover you get to see the battery and the respective slots below that. The back cover completely covers the phone even on the sides so it might take some time to figure out how to open the back cover.
It uses a full-sized SIM card that slides in from the bottom. There is a memory card slot on the side that accepts micro SD cards up to 32GB.
Camera
The camera UI is simple similar to the Y300. The 5-megapixel shooter takes decent shots in daylight, but it is average in low-light. You can use the LED flash, but the low-light images are below par even with the Flash. Unlike the Ascend Y300, this doesn’t have any problem to focus macro shots when you touch. There are different Scene modes (Negative, Solarize, Posterize, Aqua, Mono and Sepia) and option to change the white balance, ISO, set the image quality (Super fine, Fine and Normal), Change the picture size (5MP, 3.2MP, 0.8MP and 0.3MP). You can also set a scene type (Auto, Action, Portrait, Night, Fireworks and more). You can switch to front-facing camera or change the LED Flash settings (Auto, On or Off) from the top left corner.
Check out some camera samples
The phone can record videos only in VGA (640 x 480 pixels) resolution. Check out the video sample.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii0GBADPCpc
Software
The phone runs on Android 4.1.1 (Jelly Bean) with Huawei’s own Emotion UI 1.0 on top. The user interface is similar to the one in Y300 without a separate menu, so all the apps are present in the home screen. There is a smart tutorial that is much useful for entry-level users to learn the software features. The bottom tray has shortcuts that could be replaced. There are also several widgets that could be added to the home screen.
Holding the Home button opens up the multitasking menu instead of Google Now. You can swipe to clear the applications or use the clean icon on the bottom to remove everything. It also shows the RAM details on the top. When you press the menu button, you get the home screen options instead of Menu since this phone has all the apps on the Homescreen. It lets you change the wallpaper, transition between different home screens, add widgets and choose thumbnails. The Huawei’s default lock screen lets you launch the dialer or messaging directly from the lock screen. Even though the phone has Google Now feature, you can’t launch it from the lock screen or by holding the home button.
The drop-down notification bar has rich notifications that lets you share, delete and do more actions from the notification pane. There are notification panel shortcuts on the top. It shows toggles for four, but you replace it with range of other toggles from the options.
The phone runs on Android 4.1.1 (Jelly Bean) with Huawei own Emotion UI 1.0 on top.
The phone has 4GB of internal storage, and you get 1.05GB of usable memory which is less than the Ascend Y300. A good thing is that you can choose the default storage option so that you can install apps on the micro SD card. Out of 512MB of RAM, you get 386 MB of usable RAM.
Apps
There are several pre-loaded apps. The utility apps include, calculator, calendar, flashlight and Sound Recorder. Google Apps include, Maps, Chrome browser, Gmail, Google+, Google Search with Google Now and YouTube. Some apps are inside the Management and Tools folder. There is a Huawei Care app to contact Huawei support easily. It has digital compass.
Music Player and FM Radio
The Music Player is simple and has DTS audio. It can play mp3 and AAC audio files. The FM Radio is simple similar to the Music Player but it doesn’t have RDS support. The phone can play 702p videos smoothly but it doesn’t support 1080p full HD video playback. Audio through the loudspeaker is decent. Audio through the bundled headphones is also good. Wish it came with an in-ear headset.
Calls and Messaging
The dialer has a menu that lets you view missed calls or clear the call log easily. In addition there is a IP call option. The phone has Huawei’s own Qwerty keyboard, but you can also switch to a T-9 keyboard with a 9-key configuration.
Performance and Benchmarks
Performance of the device is decent for the price. Games were were smooth without any lags. It is powered by a 1.2 GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8225 processor with Adreno 203 GPU.
Quadrant Benchmark
The Ascend G510 powered by a dual-core Snapdragon S4 Play processor is behind most of the phones powered by a dual-core MediaTek processor in the Quadrant Benchmark, but it beats the Y300 with the same processor clocked at 1 GHz.
AnTuTu Benchmark 3.3
Here the phone manages to score 6276 points almost similar to the Y300.
Vellamo 2.0 HTML 5
In the Vellamo 2.0 HTML5 benchmarks, the G510 scores 1209, but it couldn’t beat the P770 or the Grand Duos.
Check out the complete list of Huawei Ascend G510 Benchmarks here.
Connectivity
The connectivity features include, 3G HSDPA 7.2Mbps, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP and GPS / aGPS. There is a General settings to access the most important features quickly, apart from ‘All’.
There is fast boot option that reduces the boot time.
The 1750 mAh battery lasts a whole day with average use. The power saving mode lets you extend the battery to more than a day by turning off the Bluetooth, WiFi and background data when the battery is below certain limit.
Conclusion
The Huawei Ascend G510 is a decent mid-range phone at a reasonable price tag. It runs on Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) OS out of the box and has LED notification light. The chip and the UX is similar to the Y300. Wish it had a better design since this looks like a larger variant of the Y300. The camera is decent for photos in daylight, but it can record videos only at VGA resolution, which is disappointing. At a price tag of Rs. 10,990, if you need a mid-range Android device with good display, good audio quality, but can live with an average camera, go for it.
Pros
- Runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean out of the box
- Good display
- Good Performance
Cons
- Records videos only at VGA resolution
- Average camera
- Boring Design