Touted as the world's thinnest at the time, the Huawei P1S was no slouch either, featuring a dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM and a great screen.
Since then, it's launched the budget-minded G510 and the gigantic Ascend Mate phablet - but it's now ready with a new flagship, the Ascend P6.
World's thinnest
Yep, Huawei broke the record for world's thinnest smartphone again, as the P6 measures about 6.18mms, compared to the iPhone 5's 7.6mms.
Speaking of the iPhone, it's impossible to look at the P6 and not have Apple's device come to mind, mainly owing to the antenna ring and minimalistic design.
The P6 is a well-designed phone, with the back curving around to the front when you look at the bottom. I can sort of see what Huawei meant when they said that paper inspired their design.
You'll also find an array of ports and bays on the device, with the micro-USB port at the top, microSD and microSIM slots on the right and, strangely enough, the earphone jack on the left side.
Huawei claims that they didn't want to sully the phone's lines by having the earphone jack elsewhere - but why not pop it right next to the microUSB jack? It's an awkward arrangement, especially if you have the phone in your pocket while listening to music.
The one upside to the earphone jack is that it has a metal plug which doubles as a microSIM/microSD removal tool. It's a neat idea, although you don't want to lose it...
As you may have surmised, the P6 doesn't have a removable cover and thus, has no removable battery either.
Hold the P6 and it's not hard to see why they went for a super-thin design though - it's pretty comfortable to hold, while the 4.7-inch touchscreen feels smaller than it really is (not a bad thing at all).
Focusing on the cameras (is that a pun?)
Huawei has hyped the P6's camera features, and on paper, it's looking pretty good. There's an eight-megapixel main camera, as well as a five-megapixel front-facing shooter.
Back at the launch, the company compared shots from the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S4, with the P6 looking like a slightly better option. But when we actually got some hands-on time, things weren't as clear-cut.
Daytime shots looked excellent, it has to be said, with quite a bit of resolvable detail and good colour reproduction.
However, when we took the phone to a local live music venue, things didn't fare so well - inaccurate lighting, out-of-focus snaps and noise are all par for the course. The Lumia 920 or HTC One this is not.
Still, the Ascend P6 has plenty of other camera features up its sleeve, such as the ability to change ISO and white balance or the usual burst and HDR modes, it's quite versatile.
The front-facing camera takes some great daytime selfies too, but the lack of a flash means that your nightclub photos will look like someone smeared marmite all over it.
Huawei has introduced a "Beauty Shot" as well, which seems to smooth a subject's skin - it's not something I'd use but hey, it's there if you want to use it.
What can it do?
Turning the phone on, I was pleased to see quite a lush 720p display - sure, it's not 1080p, but most people couldn't tell the difference. The fact that it's not a five-inch screen makes it even more comfortable to hold too.
Powering the P6 is a 1.5Ghz quad-core processor and 2GBs of RAM - but the chip has far more in common with the likes of last year's processors than this year's silicon. And the benchmarks show.
The device ranked close to the Nexus 7 in the Antutu benchmark test, while falling far below the likes of HTC's One and Samsung's Galaxy S4. But of course, benchmarks only tell a tiny part of the story.
The Ascend P6 is quite a snappy handset, as apps launch quickly and screens open fast. That's not to say it's brisk all the time - we sometimes found that switching menus would result in a second of waiting, as the phone's gears whirred.
As for gaming, the Ascend P6 copes well, running Temple Run 2 and Subway Surfers with little slowdown. So if you're constantly on the hunt for new games, it should be up for the job.
Connectivity wise, the P6 has your usual Bluetooth and WiFi, but it's missing NFC. While we can live with NFC's absence, you'll be disappointed if you're looking for LTE, as the standard isn't present here.
Huawei's additions
The Chinese giant has implemented its Emotion UI on Android, with the iteration seen on the Ascend Mate feeling like TouchWiz Lite.
Unarguably the biggest change over other Android themes is the omission of an app drawer/menu, with all apps dropped on a homescreen instead.
We're pleased to say that the default theme on the P6 is a departure from that, with some brown and blue featured.
In saying so, the Ascend Mate's theme is still an option, bringing with it that great customisable lockscreen too.
Simply hold a circle and drag it down to the padlock to unlock the phone, or flick it in any other direction to launch another app or function. The best part is that the other three directions are customisable - so if you love Vine, you can set it as a shortcut, for instance.
Other than the aesthetic changes, Huawei has introduced a few practical applications too, with the Power Manager and Permissions Manager being two of the more useful ones.
The former is easy to understand, as it lets you tweak settings to extend your phone's battery life, also offering a few preset modes. Does it help? Yes it does, but you won't see a dramatic increase.
Speaking of which, the Ascend P6's battery life is merely okay, with music playback and the occasional game session killing the phone come evening. I'd prefer if Huawei launched a thicker version with a bigger battery.
The Permissions Manager is quite an innovative idea, with the phone letting you approve or ban apps from using certain device functions. For instance, you can ban a game from constantly sending you push notifications. We'd like to see this kind of feature on other phones too.
Worth it?
The Huawei Ascend P6 doesn't quite have the specifications of a 2013 flagship phone nailed down, but it's still a capable and slick-looking device.
Whether you're playing games on it or taking snaps at the beach, the device handles tasks well, but of course, the question is, how much will you need to pay?
We were originally told that the price was R5999, which, while cheaper than most flagships, is still pretty steep for a smartphone at the upper end of the mid-range tier.
However, Huawei has since confirmed that the phone will cost R4999 from MTN, making it a very reasonable deal.
So, should you get it? Well... if you don't mind the ho-hum battery life and poor low-light performance, you'll have a well-designed phone that offers great performance relative to its price. So why not?
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