Huaweis first Windows Phone is the entrylevel Ascend W1
If you thought the Huawei Ascend W1 — the company’s first Windows Phone device — would be a beast of a phone like their new quad-core, 5-inch Ascend D2, prepare to be nonplussed. Turns out the W1 is a more modest offering, likely aimed at consumers in emerging markets and folks talking a gamble on their very first smartphone.While the Ascend W1 won’t blow away power users, it’s still a capable piece of hardware. A dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor clocked at 1.2GHz runs the show. It’s paired up with 512MB of RAM, which isn’t a lot by today’s standards. Nevertheless, it’s enough to meet the minimum requirements for Skype on Windows Phone, so Ascend W1 owners will certainly be able to do more with the front-facing VGA cam than take selfies.A four-inch display with a native resolution of 480×800 pixels plays host to your live tiles, and a 5 megapixel rear-facing camera is ready to capture both stills and video. The Ascend W1 doesn’t offer much in the way of storage space, with just 4GB of NAND on board, but that can be boosted via micro SD expansion cards.Although it’s no powerhouse, the Ascend W1 compares favorably to the $249 Nokia Lumia 620, which is aimed at the same market segment Huawei is gunning for with this phone. The company is even following suit by offering buyers a variety of color choices — four in all, including white, black, blue, and red. One big difference with the W1 is its battery. It’s a 1950mAh unit, which provides a full 50% more power than the Lumia 620.Pricing and carrier details have yet to be announced, but Huawei did say that the Ascend W1 would be arriving in the U.S. later this year. Shoppers in Russia and “other regions” will be able to get their hands on it a bit sooner.More at Huawei