Huawei Ascend P1 and Huawei Ascend P1 S

Huawei surprised quite a lot of people with their announcement of the Ascend P1 and Ascend P1 S smartphones at this year’s CES. The smartphone maker was previously known for its affordable devices with modest functionality, but these two are aiming to take on the big boys out there.

The great news is that impressions made by the Huawei Ascend P1 and Ascend P1 S based on their specs sheets, still stood after we got a chance to play with them. The two ultra-slim droids are really solidly built and those 4.3″ Super AMOLED screens of qHD resolution are every bit as impressive as they sound.

The Huawei Ascend P1/P1 S duo really managed to impress us

Then there’s the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, which feels right at home on the Ascend P1 and P1 S. The TI OMAP 4460 chipset makes sure there are no performance hiccups at all and the two Huawei smartphones feel lightning fast.

More live shots of the Huawei Ascend P1/P1 S

The only thing that we didn’t particularly love about the Huawei Ascend P1 and Ascend P1 S were the glossy plastic used on their bodies. It was a real fingerprint magnet, so it will probably be a lot of effort for those two to retain their great looks.

The two phones are virtually indistinguishable • The easily replaceable back panels make them easy to customize

Of course, we couldn’t help but notice the resemblance between these two and the Galaxy S II. Yet, the Huawei smartphones are even slimmer than the former Samsung flagship, so they feel even nicer to handle.

If Huawei get the pricing right and put enough effort into marketing the Ascend P1 and P1 S well, they might have a couple of real winners on their hands here.

Fujifilm announced rangefinder-style, mirrorless X-Pro1 camera

If you love rangefinder-style cameras, you’re going to love this one. The X-Pro1 is a gorgeous new camera from Fujifilm that uses a 16.3 megapixel APS-C “X-Trans CMOS” sensor. It uses a new optical low-pass filter array, which promises to reduce the moire pattern that occurs while shooting patterns while maintaining image sharpness.

The X-Pro1 comes with a new lens mount called the X Mount that supports the new range of XF Lenses from Fujifilm. There are only three lenses available at the moment and all are fixed focus but Fujifilm promises enhanced resolution and light volume in image edge areas as well as reduced chromatic aberration with these.

Lastly there is the Hybrid Viewfinder that lets you switch between an optical viewfinder and the electronic one with a flick of a switch placed on the front of the camera.

The Fujifilm X-Pro1 will launch in February at around $1,700 and the lenses are expected to cost $650 each. To check out some sample images, click on the second source link below.