I didn’t have much awareness of the Huawei brand beyond dongles but after a fairly intimate 6 hours session with their engineers, managers and PR people in London’s Roundhouse it feels like it’s all I’ve ever know. Huawei chose June 18 to launch the super-slim Ascend P6 smartphone as it’s just 6.18 mm thin. I was quite worried about how easily I could break a phone that thin. Wouldn’t it bend or break easily? However, the Ascend P6 looks and feels like a very high quality device with the aluminium frame and brushed steel familiar to iPhone users. It’s sleek and stylish with recessed controls and feels reassuringly robust, despite only weighing 120 g.

It’s not all svelteness without sophistication – the Ascend P6 features a 1.5 GHz quad-core processor, Android 4.2.2 operating system, 2000 mAh battery, 4.7-inch HD in-cell LCD screen technology, and ‘MagicTouch’ for enhanced screen responsiveness even when wearing gloves.

The camera is very impressive. The 10 megapixels rear camera comes packed with easy to use features to make your phone snaps look great including a 4 cm macro view for great close ups – if you like taking endless pictures of your food this is the camera for you. It also produces very good images in low light. But, in a sad reflection of the times this is a phone that was made for selfies with a 5 megapixels front-facing camera that even has a beauty filter which supposedly makes you look up to ten years younger. Sadly there were no 9 year old in the crowd to test this on.

The Ascend P6 comes in black, white and a lovely soft pink. Huawei’s new superslim device will be available from July with a recommended retail price of EUR449 (GBP385).