Huawei Ascend sure has an edge over Obi Octopus, but for a price

Huawei has been an established player in the global smartphone market, where as Obi Mobiles, co-founded by ex-PepsiCo and Apple CEO, John Sculley, is a relatively new player that has rapidly expanded its foot prints across India, Middle East and Africa. In many countries, Obi’s devices are now directly competing with established players like Huawei.  Therefore, in this comparative review we have decided to focus on two impressive smartphone models, i.e. Huawei AscendG750 and Obi Octopus S520, even when we realise that Huawei’s Ascend is pegged at a much higher price point than Obi Octopus.
Let us get to the design first. Both Obi’s Octopus S520 and Huawei’s G750 are bar shaped smartphones that are curved at all the ends. Obi’s Octopus comes in 145x75x8.4mm dimensions, where as Huawei’s Ascend is 149.5x77.4x8.9mm which makes the device comparatively larger (It is important to note that Huawei’s official website does not provide the dimensions of the device, and the aforementioned stats have been sourced from Fone Arena). The overall size reflects in the display screen size which in case of Octopus is 5” with TFT technology and in case of Ascend it is 5.5” inch HD IPS display, which provides Ascend an edge but only in terms of size as both the devices have similar resolution i.e. 720x1280pixels. Moreover, while Huawei’s Ascend comes in textured plastic back cover, Obi’s Octopus has a full-aluminium back cover.

Both the devices are powered by 1.7 GHz Octa-Core processor and built on MTek chipsets, however, Obi’s Octopus acquires an edge in terms of its more advanced operating system (OS) Andriod 4.4.2, while Huawei’s Ascend comes with OS Andriod 4.3. However, Ascend takes a leg up with its 2GB of RAM which is 1 GB in case of Octopus. In addition, both the devices provide an internal storage of 8GB which is expandable up to 32GB via MicroSD card. Therefore, essentially the choice is between a more advanced OS and larger RAM. If a customer is more keen on having a device that provides better user interface, Obi’s Octopus has an edge otherwise RAM advantage lies with Huawei.

Looking at the additional features, we note that Obi Octopus S520 has an 8MP primary (rear) camera by Sony that records videos in 720p HD and a 2MP secondary (front) camera. On the other hand, Huawei Ascend G750 comes with a 13MP primary (rear) camera by Sony and a 5MP secondary (front) camera, thereby, acquiring an outright edge over Obi’s Octopus. Huawei’s lead continues at the battery front too, where it boasts of 3000mAh battery power over Obi’s Octopus, which comes with a lower 1800mAh battery power with 3.7V capacity, however, Obi has the advantage of having a removable battery that means one can replace the existing battery with the one having higher capacity.

On the connectivity front, both the devices support Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, WiFi 802.11 b/g/g and a micro USB port, and have dual SIM cards. However, in case of Obi’s Octopus both the cards are 3G enabled, where as Huawei Ascend has only one SIM that is 3G enabled. On the whole, we note that Huawei Ascend has an edge over Obi Octopus in terms of larger RAM and display screen, superior cameras and higher battery capacity, where as Obi Octopus S520 boasts of advanced operating system (OS), removable battery feature and two 3G enabled SIM cards. However, if we look at the price tag in the Indian market, Huawei’s Ascend costs about INR18,000, where as Obi’s Octopus is priced at around INR10,000. 

In this context, going by the major specifications, Huawei Ascend G750 sure has an edge, however, if the customer choice is to be led by the finances, in comparison, Obi Octopus S520 turns out to be a good deal too.