Huawei's Ascend P6 not taken by any carriers

Huawei's new Ascend P6 smartphone will not be sold through Australian carriers, the company has confirmed.

Described as the "world's slimmest smartphone", the Ascend P6 will go on sale through retailers JB Hi-Fi and Dick Smith from Monday, 15 July.

The device won't be sold through traditional carriers like Telstra, Optus and Vodafone. It will retail for $499 outright.

Huawei's Australian sales manager for retail, Minh Phan, said the company wanted to get the Ascend P6 to market as quickly as possible.

"In terms of promotion, number one we need to focus on retail. So touch and feel, experiencing our devices. The focus will be on how we drive sales through the retail channel," he said.

"In terms of carriers, they look at a different opportunity. I can't comment exactly how they choose the devices that go on their subsidy plans, but at this stage as a business we have to look at our key partners."

"At the end of the day we want to get this product as fast to market as possible. We launched in London last month, and I think it's the first time as a business that we've launched a product globally and brought it to market so quickly."

When pressed on how many units Huawei sold to JB Hi-Fi and Dick Smith, Phan refused to comment. However, he stressed that both retailers were enthusiastic about the smartphone.

"I can't disclose how many [handsets] they've bought, but their support has been great with the P6," Phan said. "They're very, very excited. They jumped on board very, very early, obviously before the announcement in London."

A lack of local carrier support for Huawei's mid-to-high end Android smartphones is not a new issue.

The company's 6.1in Ascend Mate smartphone only sold through Harvey Norman back in April, while the Ascend D1 quad was sold through JB Hi-Fi last November.

In addition to claiming the Ascend P6 as the "world's slimmest smartphone," Huawei also describes its 5-megapixel front-facing camera as "industry leading". Most competing smartphones use a 2-megapixel front camera.

The device is powered by Huawei's own-developed 1.5GHz quad-core processor and has 2GB of RAM, but it does not have 4G-capabilities.

Australian models of the Huawei Ascend P6 will come in black and white variants.