Huawei has officially unveiled the Huawei Ascend Mate a powerful high-end Android smartphone with a 6.1-inch screen.
We’ve known about Huawei’s big-screen phablet since chairman Richard Yu flashed his personal device at a Huawei store in China and finally at CES in Las Vegas, the device has been officially confirmed.
The Huawei Ascend Mate is an attractive handset. Slim and stylish, measuring just 6.5mm deep and available in crystal black and pure white. Interestingly Huawei is avoiding the tablet moniker – billing it as ‘the smartphone with the largest screen in the world.’
The Huawei Ascend Mate has a 6.1-inch HD IPS+ LCD screen with a resolution of 1280×720, rather than full HD used on the Huawei Ascend D2 which had a 5-inch screen. It’s also what Huawei terms a ‘Magic Touch’ display, which means the touchscreen can be used with gloves – something we saw first on the Nokia Lumia 920.
Inside there’s a quad-core processor and 4050mAh battery, which Huawei claims lasts up to two days per charge with ordinary use, thanks to its power-saving technology.
Running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, Huawei’s included some interesting features of its own. Smart Reading lets you quickly translate and look up words and there’s also an Augmented Reality app.
Find out about the Huawei Ascend Mate below or check out our Huawei Ascend Mate hands-on.
What features does the Huawei Ascend Mate have?
- Operating system: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean with
- Processor: 1.5GHz quad-core
- Screen: 6.1-inch HD IPS+ LCD, 1280×720
- Camera: 8-megapixel primary camera with HDR and autofocus/1-megapixel front-facing camera
- Storage: TBC
- Connectivity: TBC
- Battery: 4050 mAh 22hr 13min talk time, 14hr web browsing, 10hr video playback
- Dimensions: 6.5mm deep
Where does it sit in Huawei’s mobile line-up?
Despite having the biggest screen in Huawei’s smartphone range, the Huawei Ascend Mate isn’t necessarily the flagship. Interestingly the Huawei Ascend D2 has a higher-resolution screen and higher megapixel rating on its camera, which could indicate Huawei is trying to keep costs down.
What are the alternatives?
The Huawei Ascend Mate sits in the ‘phablet’ category created by Samsung, where it will compete against the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, although at 6.1-inches it’s almost closer to a tablet then smartphone.
When does the the Huawei Ascend Mate launch?
It will be available in China in February 2013. There’s no news yet about when it will be available in the UK.
How much will the Huawei Ascend Mate cost?
Huawei has yet to confirm pricing for the Ascend Mate.
What do we think?
A 6.1-inch screen? That’s 0.6-inches bigger than the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, which feels dramatically different to a regular smartphone. 0.6-inches might not seem like very much, but if you put 4-inch iPhone 5 next to the 4.7-inch HTC One X, the difference is huge. We’ll reserve judgement until we see the Ascend Mate, but it just looks too big.
Leave a Reply