Huawei Ascend 2 review

Lackluster system specs made the Ascend 2's on-board apps a shaky experience, but camera performance can be contingent upon a variety of factors. It tends to vary between handsets, even among those with similar specs.

However, we're sorry to report that the Ascend 2's camera is a real dud, on almost every level. It might be the worst in recent memory.

First, the good: there's a stock camera app, so you'll have a plethora of shooting options at your disposal, unlike on other handsets where custom skins get in the way.

But it's all spoiled by poor picture quality. No matter how much fiddling you do with the settings, images are going to be blurry, with muted colors. And that's under optimal conditions, like bright sunshine, which usually produces great pictures, even on a camera with half the megapixel count we had here.

Still, the Ascend 2's camera only has 5-megapixels, which is not very much, but the real problem is the fixed lens, which provides no autofocus. There's also the total lack of flash, meaning indoor, low-light conditions are impossible to deal with. Perhaps one reason why its subpar image capturing performance is such a disappointment is the aforementioned gigantic lens on the back. Due to the speaker grill looking so big, and also sounding big, we had similar expectations for the camera.