Huawei, the Chinese smartphone company and the world's third-largest maker, released on Sunday what it claims the world's fastest smartphone to date, the Ascend P2.

The company boasted the gadget can download a two-hour high-definition movie in less than five minutes at a speed of up to 150 Mbps.

At 8.4 mm, Ascend P2 has a 4.7-inch high definition screen and a powerful 1.5 GHz quad-core processor. It can likewise utilize the fourth-generation high speed mobile networks currently being rolled out worldwide.

Scheduled to be made available in the April to June time frame for about $525 without a contract, the new phone can be programmed to display more than 100 different "themes," or looks, according to Richard Yu, head of Huawei's consumer business group, when the device was unveiled on the eve of the opening Monday of the four-day Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

"Ascend P2 downloads HD movies in minutes, and loads online videos, web pages, songs or e-Books in seconds," Huawei said in a company statement issued at the launch.

It likewise includes a 13 megapixel camera.

Huawei Ascend P2 key specifications

  • 4.7-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) HD IPS capacitive touchscreen
  • 1.5 GHz quad-core processor
  • 1GB RAM
  • 16GB internal storage
  • 13 MP auto focus camera with LED Flash
  • 1.3 MP front-facing camera
  • 4G LTE, 3G HSPA+, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS and NFC
  • Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean)
  • 2420 mAh battery
  • 122 grams

Ascend P2 is Huawei's latest foray into the smartphone battle as it levels up against the more fast-growing market leaders Samsung and Apple.

More than half of all smartphone sales in the final quarter of 2012 were traced back to Samsung and Apple, at 29.0 per cent and 22.1 per cent, respectively, according to research firm Strategy Analytics.

Huawei placed third at 5.3 per cent, while the fourth and fifth came from ZTE and Lenovo, at 4.7 per cent and 4.4 per cent, respectively.