Huawei has taken the wraps off its Ascend P7 Sapphire Edition smartphone, which is a limited edition of the Ascend P7 that debuted in May 2014.
On Thursday, Sept. 4, China-based Huawei has revealed that the top-of-the-line Ascend P7 smartphone would have a limited edition variant as well. With the Ascend P7 Sapphire Edition announcement, Huawei has stolen the thunder from Apple's iPhone 6, which is expected to launch on Sept. 9 and has been rumored to deploy the scratch-resistant sapphire glass as well.
For the unfamiliar, sapphire glass is usually used for the lens of a smartphone's primary camera. This is done so that the lens does not get scratched and spoil the resulting images. Sapphire glass is durable; however, high costs associated with its production has not made the material viable for mass production for most OEMs. Apple, however, is believed to be using sapphire glass for the impending iPhone 6.
While the Ascend P7 Sapphire Edition will sport a sapphire display, the device will have a ceramic back. This means that no scratches on the rear of the phone either and more durability, considering ceramic is said to be "three times stronger than steel." The metal framing of the handset will be in rose gold (reminiscent of iPhone 5 in gold?).
"The arrival of Ascend P7 Sapphire Edition so soon after the launch of Ascend P7 marks a new era in Huawei's smartphone business," said Richard Yu, CEO, Huawei Consumer Business Group. "Not only does the new Sapphire Edition demonstrate our advanced craftsmanship, but it also highlights our successful strategic deployment of resources to deliver the most advanced technology into the hands of consumers."
The specifications of the Huawei Ascend P7 Sapphire Edition are the same as the regular model. It has a 5-inch INCELL touchscreen with a display resolution of 1920 x1080 pixels. Under the hood, the device packs in a Hisilicon Kirin 910T quad-core processor clocked at 1.8GHz. The Ascend P7 Sapphire Edition will tout a memory capacity of 2GB and have 16GB of on-board storage. The smartphone will come with Android 4.4.2 KitKat out of the box.
The smartphone has a 13-megapixel primary camera and an 8-megapixel front-facing camera for all your selfie needs. The NFC-enabled phone has a 2500 mAh battery.
The Ascend P7 Sapphire Edition is expected to release in China in Q3 2014. It is not yet known when the exclusive model will make its way to other parts of the world. Huawei is yet to reveal the pricing for the limited edition as well.
