Huawei Ascend D2 review: First look

Huawei has had a pretty busy CES, launching three new devices with the Ascend D2 sitting at the top of the pile.

The screen is probably the highlight of the Huawei Ascend D2. It's 5-inches and packs in a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels. It really does look high quality too, and is the most stunning feature of this particular device. There's not a whole lot of real estate around the screen, and the three buttons below the screen seem to melt into the plastic body.

There's not too much different in terms of styling when compared to the super-sized Ascend Mate. Like Huawei's competitor Samsung, it has opted for glossy plastic. The Ascend D2 looks very similar to the Samsung Galaxy S3, just as the Ascend Mate looks like the Galaxy Note 2.

One extra on the Ascend though, is a metal bezel and there's no removable battery in sight. Instead, there's an iPhone-like SIM card tray, which you'll be scrabbling around for a paperclip to set free. 

The SIM slot sits at the top alongside the microUSB charging port, while the speaker and headphone jack are on the bottom. It feels like an odd way round of ordering things to us.

The Ascend D2 runs on Android 4.1 with Huawei's Emotion UI on top. It's a pretty light UI in comparison to Samsung's TouchWiz or HTC's Sense, ensuring customisation and personalisation is a the heart of the homescreen.

We like certain parts of the UI, including the picture tagging interface in the gallery. If the device detects faces in the picture, it will suggest you tag them. Just tap, choose a friend, and tag.

Little things like this suggest the device is designed for younger generations and social networking fiends, rather than for an older audience.

On the back of the Samsung-esque Ascend D2 is the camera, alongside a flash. We didn't get the chance to use this 13-megapixel snapper, but we certainly hope the camera tech lives up to the pixel count.

HDR is supported, too, but that's becoming a requirement for any serious smartphone nowadays.

We want to like the Huawei Ascend D2 because it's the flagship, but we can't help feeling a little under-impressed.

It's almost a complete rip off of the Samsung Galaxy S3, although isn't available in blue, and although the screen is super-high resolution and processor claims to make this the fastest smartphone yet, we'll have to reserve proper judgenment until we've spent a lot more time with the device.