Huawei has launched its much-anticipated Ascend P7 in Paris, the new flagship Android that the company hopes will push them over the edge from their current industry third-place ranking. 

The new Android phone is a successor to the company's P6 model which was Huawei's original push for a smartphone that emphasizes design and quality over performance.

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Huawei intended the P6 to be an affordable alternative to other Android phones such as industry leader, the Samsung Galaxy, and HTC One-series, as well as the iPhone which continues to be seen as the industry gold standard in terms of quality.

Huawei fell behind with the P6, however, due to its lack of 4G LTE support just when the new standard of wireless high-speed data communication was breaking out.

It intends to rectify that with the P7, a more refined slick presentation this time around.

Despite tough competition from Samsung, Apple and other smartphone manufacturers, Huawei pushed back hard with the P7 featuring a trim thickness of only 6.5 mm, compared to the competing HTC One M8 at 9.35mm, the Samsung Galaxy S5 at 8.1mm, and the iPhone 5S at 7.6mm.

Another big point Huawei made sure to make during the launch was the 8-megapixel front-facing camera for better selfies.

The Ascend P7 features a 5" display of full HD resolution 1920x1080, and is coated on both sides with Corning's Gorilla Glass 3.

It comes with the latest Android 4.4.2, or "KitKat", with the company's own EmotionUI 2.3 interface that closely emulates the iPhone model of home screens and is highly customizable.

The P7 also packs the added functionality of a simplified home screen from the P6, which is intended for smartphone novices and users with poor eyesight.

The 13-megapixel rear-facing camera is again a product of collaboration between Huawei and Sony, featuring an f/2.0 aperture, HDR, and real-time filtering with a one-second snapshot function in development, where a quick double-press of the volume button will snap a pic from standby.

But the real star is the forward-facing camera with an f/2.4 aspherical lens and includes a Selfie Panorama mode, intended to capture group selfies, and a voice command feature.

One of the biggest complaints with the P6 has also been addressed in that the 1.5GHz quad-core processor has been swapped out for a 1.8Ghz quad for an added speedboost as well as 2Gb LPDDR3 RAM, a Mali-450 MP4 GPU and 16Gb storage.

The severely clipped battery life of the P6 has also been addressed with a different battery supplier, to compensate for the power-hungry LTE modem functionality. As with the P6, it also features a so-called "ultra battery" mode, which Huawei claims can make the phone last a full day on only 10% battery.

Huawei is set to release the P7 across Europe and Asia in June at an estimated price of 449 Euros (US$625), but has yet to set a date for a US release.

As a relatively recent smartphone manufacturer that has only been in the business for 5 years, Huawei does not currently have a presence in the US.  

However Huawei Device Chairman Richard Yu assures customers that the P7 is intended for worldwide release, although he but did not commit to a specific timeframe.

TagsHuawei, Ascend P7, iPhone 5S, Samsung Galaxy S5, HTC One M8, Launch, Gorilla Glass, KitKat, EmotionUI, Selfies