The Ascend P6 is just over 6mm thick, comes in white, black and baby pink, and in language usually associated with skin creams rather than computer technology, its maker claims the camera's "instant facial beauty support" software reduces wrinkles and blends skin tone.
The phone capitalises on the growing popularity of the self portrait or "selfie", examples of which now litter the internet, with celebrities from Justin Bieber to Rihanna as likely to photograph themselves as their friends and family.
While smartphone front facing cameras – those on the same side as the screen - have tended to be low resolution, the Ascend P6 has 5 megapixels, compared to 1.2 for the iPhone 5. Its rear camera has 8 megapixels, equivalent to Apple's phone.
On sale from July, and with a recommended price of €449 (£385), or £21 a month with a contract, it is cheaper than the latest iPhone, which costs £529 in the UK. The P6 is made with metal and glass and less plastic than previous Huawei models, but the current version lacks the iPhone's ability to run on 4G networks.
"The keen price is evidence that Huawei is prepared to use pricing as a way of building share in major European markets," said analyst Ben Wood at CCS Insight. "Huawei has made substantial progress in design and quality, but the big unanswered question is whether consumers will accept a product from an almost unknown name in preference to established brands."
With Apple and Samsung taking the lion's share of profits to be made from smartphones, operators and retailers are keen to redress the balance of power away from the duopoly. Huawei's launch event in Camden's Roundhouse was attended by Carphone Warehouse chairman Sir Charles Dunstone, who took to the stage to describe Huawei as "the most fantastic partner".
With a metallic body and 4.7-inch LCD display, the Ascend P6 is 6.18mm thick, making it the world's slimmest smartphone, according to Huawei.
Although it is a shade thinner than Apple's 7.6mm thick iPhone 5, the Ascend P6 is a little heavier, weighing in at 120g versus the latest iPhone's 112g. Still, the P6 is lighter than Samsung's 130g, five-inch Galaxy S4.
The Ascend has a 1.5GHz quad-core processor, 2GB RAM, 8GB on board storage, 8-megapixel rear camera and five megapixel front facing camera. The device can take 1080P full HD video.
Huawei has also built its own UI on the Android platform called Emotion, but unlike its Ascend P2, which can run on LTE networks, the P6 can only use W-CDMA and GSM networks.
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