Huawei Ascend D1 quad skips telcos, lands in JB Hi-Fi stores

Huawei will launch its latest Android smartphone through JB Hi-Fi stores rather than through traditional telco carriers

Huawei will launch its latest Android smartphone through JB Hi-Fi stores rather than through traditional telco carriers, the company has announced today.

The Ascend D1 quad is the first Huawei smartphone with a quad-core processor to officially in Australia. It will sell through JB Hi-Fi retail stores across the country for $499 outright, though the deal to sell the device isn't an exclusive one.

Huawei confirmed the phone will not be available on contract through traditional telco carriers like Telstra, Optus or Vodafone.

The Ascend D1 quad represents a slight shift in strategy for Huawei, which normally sells budget, entry level Android devices. The Ascend D1 has specifications that lend it to being compared with high end devices like the HTC One X, the Samsung Galaxy S III and the Apple iPhone 5.

"The Ascend D1 quad is Huawei’s most powerful smartphone ever released in Australia, delivering the most advanced quad-core processor technology while actually increasing energy efficiency,” said Poh-Lee Koh, Huawei Device's marketing manager.

The Ascend D1 quad has a large 4.5in screen with a resolution of 1280x720. The IPS+ display has a pixels per inch (ppi) rating of 330ppi, superior to the far more expensive iPhone 5 (326ppi), Galaxy S III (306ppi) and One X (312ppi).

The Ascend D1 quad is powered by Huawei's own 1.5GHz K3 V2 quad-core processor, has an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera, and comes with Google's Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. It is unknown if the Ascend D1 will eventually be updated to the latest 4.1 Jelly Bean version of Android.

Huawei says the Ascend D1 quad's 1800mAh battery can last between "one to two days with normal usage".

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More about: Apple, Ascend, Galaxy, Google, HTC, Huawei, IPS, Optus, Samsung, Telstra, Vodafone
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