Huawei's Ascend D Quad: The World's Fastest Smartphone

This week, quad-core smartphones are making noise at Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona, Spain. First the LG's first model take the center stage, followed by the HTC's One X, and now China's Huawei Device is hoping to trump the competition by launching what is claimed to the be the fastest smartphone in the world - the Huawei Ascend D quad.

HUawei claimed the world's thinnest crown for its Ascend P1 S smartphone at CES 2012 and launching the first Android 3.2 product last June. Now the company has crammed its own K3V2 quad-core 1.2 GHz/1.5 GHz processor into a smartphone that's just 8.9 mm thin to give the competition something to think about.

The 129 x 64 x 8.9-mm (5 x 2.5 x 0.35-inch) Huawei Ascend D quad features a generous 1800 mAh battery that's claimed to be good for at least a full day of use, possibly two if the company's proprietary power management system - that's said to provide up to 30 percent energy savings and helps maintain low chip temperatures for better performance - has anything to say about it. The smartphone runs on Android 4.0 and benefits from a sunlight-friendly, 4.5-inch 1280 x 720 pixel resolution (at 330 ppi) touchscreen display, 8 GB of onboard storage with microSD expansion and 1 GB of system memory.

The technology features Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound and Audience earSmart voice technology (a voice processor that enhances clarity in noisy environments). There's an 8 megapixel backside-illuminated AF camera with dual LED flash at the rear capable of 1080p video capture, and a 1.3 megapixel cam at the front.

The Ascend D quad - along with an XL version housing a bigger battery - will be made available in China, Australia, Europe, Asia-Pacific, North and South America, and the Middle East in Q2 2012. A dual-core D1 series cousin is also set for April. Unfortunately, there's been no word on pricing.