Ascend P7
Huawei CEO Richard Yu holds the Huawei's new smartphone, the Ascend P7, launched by China's Huawei Technologies during a presentation in Paris, May 7, 2014. The mobile - billed as the world's slimmest phone at 6.5 mm thick - will go on sale in 31 markets, including Britain, Germany and China, starting this month for 449 euros ($630) without a SIM card or service contract. It will not be sold in the United States. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer

Huawei has currently joined the high-end handset race by launching its new flagship Ascend P7 in Paris on May 7.

Its new Android slim-bodied phone will fare with tough competitors Apple, Samsung and others. At present, it seems its 8 MP front-facing camera is its major edge in producing better selfies.

Huawei was among the largest manufacturers of smartphones in the previous year. The Chinese OEM was far behind Samsung and Apple though, but it managed to beat neighboring OEMs Lenovo and LG Electronics. It aims to double its shipments this year, and P7 obviously earns the task to deliver that mission.

Few days before its schedule to reveal what's in store for the tech world, Chinese OEM Huawei released a video teaser on its campaign site giving a sneak peak of Ascend P7, the successor of Ascend P6.

While Ascend P6 was labeled as the "slimmest Android smartphone" with its glossy metallic chassis, P7 reveals a premium design that scraps the plastic of some Android phones.

Another thing about Ascend P7 is that it is the most interesting from Huawei with impressive specs. It sports a 1080p HD 5-inch display, 16 GB expandable internal storage with microSD card, 2 GB RAM, 8 MP front-facing camera, 13 MP rear-facing camera, 2500 mAh battery and an in-house quad-core 1.8 GHz processor. Ascend P7 will be run by Google's Android.

P7 carries its maker's trademark of "slimness," coming in 6.5 mm thick and weighing 124 grams. Rival Samsung Galaxy S5 is 8.1 mm thick and 145 grams heavy. Vice-president Shao Yang of the Consumer Business Group Marketing Department said they want the P series to be "always a fashion symbol."

The P7 comes with a $625 (or €449) price tag with no contract and will be market released this month in Asia, Middle East and Europe. According to Vice-President Yves Maitre of Connective Objects and Partnerships, Orange will market Ascend P7 in Europe come June 7.

Meanwhile, P7's mini version, the Ascend P7 Mini, had its wraps taken off ahead in Germany on April 28. The small flagship copycat sports a 4.5-inch TFT 940 x 540 pixel resolution display with 1 GB RAM, 8 GB onboard storage, microSD card and is run by Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. The Mini P7 variant is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon quad-core 1.2 GHz processor.

Ascend P7 Mini is 4G LTE-ready and allows network access of up to 50 Mbps up and 150 Mbps down. It is expected Ascend P7 Mini will roll out across Europe in the next few weeks.