Huawei picks Paris for Ascend P7 launch

The Chinese smartphone maker will be unveiling a new premium handset in the French capital on May 7.

The Chinese smartphone maker will be unveiling a new premium handset in the French capital on May 7.

Often billed as the biggest smartphone company you've never heard of, Huawei builds good-looking, specification-rich handsets and until recently had a very low profile beyond its homeland. And this is despite the fact that in terms of shipments, Huawei is the fourth most popular smartphone brand in the world at the moment (13.3 million handsets shipped over the last three months).

Two things could change that. First, the choice of Paris for the launch of its next flagship phone and secondly, the phone itself, the Ascend P7 which, if recent leaks are anything to go by, could give the Samsung Galaxy S5 a run for its money.

Huawei isn't revealing any details of what to expect other than promising that the phone will 'Unlock Possibilities' and has posted an official video that uses smartphones in lieu of dominoes toppling around the world and stopping in Paris.

Still, thanks to whispers, leaks and reports, we should expect a handset with a 5-inch full HD screen, quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM, the phone should be fast, and like the handset it replaces, the P6S, boast a minimalist, super-slim design closer to those of Apple, Sony or HTC than to anything Samsung currently offers.

And, highlighting the fact that it has its finger on the pulse, the handset is also tipped to have a serious front-facing camera. Some reports suggest 5-megapixles, and others 8-megapixels, meaning that it will be a serious selfie handset and the latest in a growing list of devices to focus on this particular social phenomenon.

The back-side camera will offer 13-megapixels and, like all Android phones scheduled to launch in 2014, should come with the latest version of the operating system out of the box.