Huawei Ascend D quad XL: Anyone else excited?

Posted by hmarcusmoss on May 4, 2012 01:19 pm 8

Hello all,

I know I cannot be the only one who remembers this phone from back at MWC '12. I know it was overshadowed by the bigger players, especially the One X and then by all of the hype that surrounded the disappointing, IMHO, Galaxy S 3.

via cdn2.sbnation.com

To recap, the Quad XL was a pentaband phone (T-Mobile USA & AT&T HSPA+ capable) that ran a stock version of Android 4.0.x. Actually it may be running a custom skin on it. I saw one that had pure stock Android on it and one with a slightly customized skin, it didn't look like anything more than a customized launcher however. It had a 2,500 mAH battery on it which is a fairly decent size these days, although not as large as the RAZR MAXX's battery. It was also fairly thin despite the large battery. I should also note that this was the "XL" version which had the larger battery, there was also the regular Ascend D Quad that had a smaller capacity battery; a la RAZR vs RAZR MAXX.

It also had a 720p IPS display which is welcome over the pentile panels we've been seeing as of late. It also had a quad-core processor, but I'll wait to see some public benchmarks and performance before I get too excited about that. Especially interesting to me however, was their decision to use a "menu" button over the redundant, IMO, multitasking key. I say it is redundant because multitasking can be achieved by simply pressing and hold the "home" button. I believe the "menu" key is useful, in this time of Android 4.0 development, because many developers have not yet redesigned their apps to utilize an onscreen menu bar which means that a large black bar appears at the bottom of the screen with the three vertical dots for menu options. The other appealing thing to me is the design. It's nothing special in particular, but it's also not hideous. It looks like an evolution on the Galaxy Nexus or the GSII, which I like.

With my current boycott on HTC, ever since they started voiding warranties in exchange for a half "unlocked" bootloader (no boot partition access) and with Samsung's latest flagship underwhelming overall, I'm left wanting a modern Android phone with few compromises. I believe it will be the Huawei. It's stock Android. It's supposedly fast. It will run on all USA carriers. And I expect it too be reasonably priced unlocked, well...just because it is a Huawei device. Anyone else feel the same way I do?

Latest rumors predict July release

D Quad gallery from MWC