Huawei Ascend Mate Review and Specification

Huawei launched its 6.1-inch Ascend Mate in India with a price tag of Rs 24,900. As of now, the Ascend Mate is the most expensive smartphone that the company has in the country. Be that as it may, the competition that the smartphone will face in that price category from international competitors like Samsung and LG is considerable. What will set the Ascend Mate apart is the kind of specifications that it brings to the table. And it looks like Huawei has put just the right mix in the bag with this smartphone.

OS – Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
The Ascend Mate comes to the market with an Android 4.1 Jelly Bean operating system, which shouldn’t clog up the RAM performance while ensuring a lag-free software experience. The phone will also feature Huawei’s home-grown Emotion User Interface, which suggests applications intuitively and has intelligence guidance for entry-level users who are getting used to the interface.The interface seems to lack an app drawer though.

The company has included most of the stock Android apps while tweaking them here and there. The lockscreen seems pretty cool, though, as it functions like a circle with shortcuts functioning around the four points of the compass. Users can simply unlock the phone by swiping southwards, while the camera can be accessed by swiping north, messaging by swiping to the east and the call log can be accessed by swiping to the west. Users can opt for the standard Android lockscreen options if they want to. The other features the UI comes with includes an inter-changeable upper area of the phone, which normally displays the date and time but switches to reflect music player controls when users are in the music player mode.

Cellular Connectivity – 3G and 2G
The phone features GSM for 2G network as well as Intel’s HSPA+ chip, which should definitely deliver high-speed 3G internet. Users can also use GPRS/EDGE if the need arises.

Display
You'd expect such a expansive device to offer an equally expansive viewing experience. The Huawei Ascend Mate's IPS+ LCD unit is more than adequate despite some harrumphing about the screen not being Full 1080p HD.

The resolution you get here is 720x1280, giving a ppi of 241 - one that is trumped by the troop of flagship five inchers of today including the Galaxy S4 (441ppi), Sony Xperia Z (441ppi) thanks to their 1080x1980 resolution.

However, the Huawei Ascend Mate does fit better inline with the larger-sized Samsung Galaxy Note 2 with its ppi of 267.

Pixel density isn't everything though when you’re talking numbers above 400 (the eye can’t detect a pixel density of above 399) and it means the Huawei Ascend Mate’s image reproduction is acceptable even if not wow-inducing with vivid colours, clear readable text on webpages and images packed full of detail. Screen tech pedants may suggest otherwise but for us it does the job. Plus, Huawei at least gives you the option to adjust the colour temperature via an on screen slider.

The viewing angle is also to be applauded - even using the device on the sunny roof terrace here at Dennis Towers couldn't dampen the viewing experience and on screen images still appeared crisp and clear. Hats off (or should that be gloves on?) to the Mate's creator for also providing a high-sensitivity touch mode that allows the screen to be operated whilst wearing mitts. It’s not new tech though - Samsung’s Galaxy S4 has a glove mode, as does the lower-end Sony devices including the Xperia Sola and Xperia SP.

Form Factor– A big phablet
The Huawei Ascend Mate measures 163.5 x 85.7 x 9.9 mm, which makes it big, even for a phablet. The dimensions show the smartphone to be a bit thick around the waist. Overall, the Ascend Mate looks a bit boxy, which may make it a bit uncomfortable to handle. The matte finish on the back is a bonus, though. The bezel footprint of the smartphone has also been reduced, with the display covering most of the phone.

Technically, the phone can be used with one hand. However, with a 6.1-inch display, and weight of around 200 g, the Ascend Mate may take users some time to get used to. An interesting thing to note here is the fact that all the Android controls are onscreen only, which can be accessed with an auto-hiding navigation bar. The Mate will be available in stores and online retailers in Crystal Black and Pure White colours.

Wi-Fi – Everything that you might need
The Ascend Mate comes with all the connectivity options users might require by supporting dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n of Wi-Fi. Adding to that, it comes with support for DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct and Wi-Fi hotspot, which lets users use their phone as a Wi-Fi hotspot – a common feature in most Android phones now.

SoC
The Ascend Mate features a Huawei K3V2 chipset with a 1.5GHz quad-core Hi-Silicon CPU. The K3V2 processor is based on the ARM Cortex-A9 MP Core and comes with four 64-bit A9 cores. In addition to that, the K3V2 chipset also packs 16 GPU cores, which gives better performance than the Galaxy Nexus or the Transformer Prime when you look at the benchmark scores. The K3V2 processor has also been featured in other Huawei offerings like the Ascend D1 quad as well as Honor 2 Android phones, which have got fairly good reviews in the market for over-all performance. The smartphone supplements the processor with 2GB of RAM, which should give lag-less performance.

Cameras
The Ascend Mate features an 8 megapixel camera on the back, which is similar to the cameras that the Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 or the Note 2 sport. The camera can shoot images of up to 3264 x 2448 pixels and comes with an autofocus feature supplemented with an LED flash. The camera will also provide Geo-tagging, face detection and HDR. The video aspect of the smartphone also seems fair, as it can shoot up to1080p@30FPS. The smartphone will also come with a 1 megapixel front camera, which can shoot up to 720p@30FPS. The low specification of the front camera could be chalked up to cost-cutting efforts in the over-all production of the phone.

GPS  
The Ascend Mate supports A-GPS. GLONASS seems to be missing from the specifications, though.

Sensors and miscellaneous 
The sensors being featured include the usual suspects – accelerometer, gyro, proximity and compass sensors. The smartphone also comes with Bluetooth v4.0 with A2DP, LE and EDR for interfacing with other devices. Among the miscellaneous features, the phone features a microUSB v2.0 port as well as USB On-The-Go.

Battery 
With a big screen and a high-end processor, it was necessary for Huawei to give the Ascend Mate a battery which would provide enough power to last through the day. The company has obliged by bringing the smartphone with a Li-Ion 4050 mAh battery. This is definitely one of the largest batteries seen in a smartphone so far. A drawback here is the fact that the battery is non-removable.

Design

With dimensions of 163.5x85.7x9.9mm, the Huawei Ascend Mate is a hefty unit. The 6.1-inch IPS+ LCD screen dominates the front fascia, giving the illusion of an edge-to-edge display.

There's just few millimetres of unused space at the top and bottom of the screen, with a central earpiece and front-facing 1-megapixel snapper above the display.

At first glance, the Huawei Ascend Mate looks like a blown-up Samsung Galaxy S2, but it's when you hold it that the Mate's comparative bulk becomes apparent. Tipping the scales at 198g, the phablet won't win any awards for being lithe. It’s a massive 82g heavier than the Samsung Galaxy S2, so there’s no way these two can be confused once they’re in your hand.

Rounded corners make its black obelisk-like frame slightly less imposing and a rubberised cambered backing makes it comfortable to hold in one hand. Also situated on the rear is the 8-megapixel camera module flanked by an LED flash, and there's a scarcely noticeable speaker grill in the bottom left-hand corner.

Connectivity ports are dotted around the edge of the device incorporated into the gunmetal grey bezel that runs around the perimeter of the device and separates the front panel housing the screen from the gently arching back.

Huawei Ascend Mate : Specifications

Length :- 163.5mm
Width :- 85.7mm
Thickness :- 9.9mm
Weight :- 198g
Screen Size :- 16m
UK Launch :- March 2013
Phone Style :- Phablet
Typical Price :- 399.00
Website :- http://www.huaweidevice.co.uk/mobile-phones/
Designer Lens :- No
Camera Resolution :- 8-megapixel
Video Resolution :- 1080p
Flash :- LED
Zoom :- Digital
Music Formats :- MP3/eAAC+/WMA/WAV
Song Storage :- 8GB