Huawei used its press event to announce its first Android Ice Cream Sandwich smartphone and its first serious high-end model in the P1 and P1 S.
Both models feature a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED qHD display at 960 x 540 with a Corning Gorilla Glass front underpinned by a 1.5GHz dual-core Texas Instruments OMAP 4460 Cortex-A9 processor, an 8.0 megapixel camera main camera with back-side illumination, LED flash, HDR image capture, and 1080p HD video capture while the secondary camera is a 1.3 megapixel front facing unit and can shoot 720p HD video. The P1 S supports quad-band GSM/EDGE and penta-band UMTS/HSPA; 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 3.0. The P1 S is slightly thicker than the P1 but is otherwise identical in terms of specifications.
Both phones will be released in the second quarter of the year with special consideration for North America. With Huawei making a serious effort to become a major player in the international mobile market, the development of its first high-end smartphone with Ice Cream Sandwich demonstrates its commitment to high-end devices at more reasonable pricetags, especially with critical acclaim garnered by its last major release in the Huawei Glory for Cricket, which features performance equal to current flagship devices for nearly half the cost without the need for an agreement with a 1.4GHz processor, WVGA display and Wi-Fi N radio.
The p1 and P1 S are sure to make the other manufacturers take notice as well because it will be one of the first phones to ship with Android 4.0 by default, instead of shipping with Gingerbread first in order to give manufacturers time to develop the update. Phones that are confirmed shipping this month are already confirmed as shipping with Gingerbread in lieu of 4.0 as manufacturers toil away on updates for later delivery, which significantly dampens anticipation for many.
