Huawei Technologies unveiled its flagship smartphone, the Ascend P6, defined as the world's slimmest smartphone packed with the latest software and an elegant design.

Huawei, China's largest handset manufacturer, has unveiled its flagship smartphone, Ascend P6, at its first glamorous standalone launch event Tuesday in Central London.

Huawei says that the Ascend P6, measuring 6.18 mm in thickness, is the world's slimmest smartphone. With the successful launch of its latest smartphone, the Shenzhen-based company plans to take on its biggest rivals in the market, Apple and Samsung. The Ascend P6 is 19 percent thinner than the leading smartphones - Apple iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S4, which measures 7.6 mm and 7.9 mm, respectively.

Huawei Ascend P6 has come a long way from its predecessor Ascend P2, which was launched at a side event at the Mobile World Congress. Ascend P6, weighing just 120 grams with a full metallic body, packs a powerful 5 megapixel front facing camera designed for taking better self pictures, along with a 8 megapixel rear-camera. It boasts a 4.7 inch high definition in-cell display with "Magic Touch" technology for enhanced responsiveness even with gloves, said the company.

Ascend P6 is powered by a 1.5GHz quad-core processor and runs on Google's latest 4.2.2 Jelly Bean operating system with customized Huawei's Emotion User Interface. The sleek design manages to pack in a 2000mAh battery. The company promises elongated battery life, which uses "Huawei's unique Automated Discontinuous Reception (ADRX) and Quick Power Control (QPC) battery optimization and power saving technology."

"The HUAWEI Ascend P6 is a star among smartphones with its industry-leading design, high-quality camera, and intuitive user interface, Huawei's proprietary Emotion UI," Richard Yu, chief executive officer, Huawei Consumer Business Group, said in a press release. "Building on the success of our Ascend P series of fashion smartphones, the HUAWEI Ascend P6 provides unsurpassed technology and a design that is simply stunning."

Additional features in  Ascend P6 are proprietary enhanced security and Huawei's Me Widget, MagicTouch and SmartReading. For better photography, the camera packs the panoramic shoot and facial recognition photography functions.

The HUAWEI Ascend P6 will be shipped to China starting June and western Europe in July through all major telecom carriers and online retails. The device lacks the fourth generation LTE technology, but the company promises to launch the LTE version in October. The smartphone will be available in three colors, black, white and pink.