It may not be the world's thinnest, fastest or boast the world's best resolution - all common traits in Huawei's MWC launch devices - but the Huawei Ascend D1 still has enough about it to make us sit up and take notice.

And that's exactly what we did when we saw the Android Ice Cream Sandwich device sitting on the Chinese company's stand in Barcelona at the big mobile expo.

The Ascend D1 undoubtedly plays second fiddle to the Ascend P1 S ("world's slimmest") and the Ascend D quad ("world's fastest") but it boasts a spec-sheet that should see it sitting nicely in the middle to upper echelons of the Android table when it launches later this year.

It has a gorgeous 4.5-inch IPS+ touchscreen display with 1280x720 HD (330ppi) resolution, is powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core processor with 1GB RAM and has 8GB of internal memory.

Measuring 8.9mm thick, it boasts an 8-megapixel BSI rear-facing camera with AF and 1080 Full HD video recording and has a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera with 720p HD video capture as well. Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound is on board and connectivity options are aplenty; 3G HSPA+ 21Mbps/5.76Mbps, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth 3.0.

Looks-wise, it's not too dissimilar to the D quad - these are handsets clearly separated at birth. It has a nice textured back and the raised section at the bottom make it comfy to hold. Huawei and ZTE are both making big waves at this year's MWC but it's definitely the former of the Chinese duo that seems to have the best design qualities on show.

We particularly loved the look of the all-white Ascend D1 LTE version that was also on display at Huawei's booth. White phones are ten to a penny these days but this one does have a certain angelic quality to it.

Both the Ascend D1 and the Ascend D1 LTE are due out in Q2 2012. No word yet on which networks will be picking them up.