Huawei Ascend G620S: Camera

The Huawei Ascend G620S has an 8-megapixel camera with an LED flash and a basic 2-megapixel front camera. At £120, you can’t ask for much more.

Its photos are surprisingly respectable, with punchy colours and none of the red tone-mushing issues we see in many cheap phones. This is partly thanks to a rather clever ‘smart’ mode that not only judges exposure and colour temperature reasonably well, but can focus closer than the Auto mode, handy for macro shots. It’s also good at reducing the amount of noise in low-light situations and bumping-up the exposure so that what’s in-shot is reasonably clear.

Natural dynamic range is pretty poor, but then there’s the HDR mode to help out with that.

What it isn’t, though, is remotely fast. And its slowness does take some of the fun out of using the camera. The Huawei G620S’s camera app takes almost five seconds to load, there’s some shutter lag, and both the Smart and HDR modes are significantly slower than the Auto made. And that’s not fast to start with.

So while the results can be decent if you have patience, the Huawei G620S will probably see you miss a few of those quick-shot photo moments. Oh well. Here are some photos we took using the phone:

The close-up skills of Smart mode make shallow depth of field effects possible

Given its price, the G620S has done well with colour and detail here


This backlit scene would be a silhouette with Auto mode, solved here with HDR

Huawei Ascend G620S: Battery Life

The Huawei Ascend G620S wins back a few points with its stamina, which is pretty solid. It only has a 2000Ah battery, which is about as small as we’d like to see in a 5-inch Android phone, but it does remarkably well here.

We’re not talking easy two-day stamina, and heavy users can drain it down in a day (we did with all-day WhatsApp, an hour of Netflix streaming and a couple of hours of 3G/4G podcast streaming). However, with ‘normal’ use you should find you have around 30 per cent battery left by bedtime to see you through into the second day without a charge.

Do note, though, that the reflective screen means you’ll need to crank up the Huawei Ascend G620S screen to the maximum brightness when you go outdoors. Its stamina works best for office workers, not outdoors types.

In the looped video test, which involves playing a 720p MP4 until the battery runs dry, the Huawei Ascend G620S lasts for 10.5 hours. That means it comfortably outperforms the Moto G 5-inch, likely down to the aggressive Huawei power management, the 64-bit processor or a less power-hungry screen. Or maybe all three.

Huawei Ascend G620S: Sound Quality

We’re going to have to end this Huawei Ascend G620S review on a bit of a bland note, but we can’t go without mentioning its call quality, even if it is 2015. It’s perfectly fine, and we experienced no drop-outs during calls.

The tone of the speaker goes for clarity by not smoothing out the sound too much or adding too much lower-end warmth. As such, voices don’t sound exactly pretty, but you will be able to understand them. There’s also a secondary mic on the back for noise cancellation.

It’s the same story with the speaker. It’s nothing special, but doesn’t embarrass the Huawei Ascend G620S. You get a single speaker on the back. It doesn’t distort at top volume like some cheaper phones, but isn’t terribly loud and is fairly thin-sounding.

Should you buy the Huawei Ascend G620S?

The Huawei Ascend G620S is a very solid budget Android phone that offers pretty strong value if you can swallow its quirks. Just look at what your get for around £100: 4G, a decent processor and a fair 720p screen. Not bad, is it?

The bad bits include a highly reflective screen, a pretty slow camera and software that’s dated and unusual in parts. As the screen is that bit more reflective than the Moto G, this is not the new king of budget phones.

However, if you find it at a good price and need to save cash, go ahead. While there are some strange bits and some signs this is a real entry-level phone, there are no show-stopping annoyances.

SEE ALSO: Best Phones Round-up

Verdict

A solid budget 4G Android phone with decent battery life and just a few budget-grade bits.

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