It looks like someone beat Samsung in creating a 6-incher phablet, or phone tablet hybrid. Huawei just unveiled their take on the phablet with the Ascend Mate. With a 6.1 inch 720p display, the size of this thing dwarfs even the humongous Samsung Galaxy Note 2.
The device is being showcased at CES 2013 in Las Vegas, and it is getting a lot of positive attention. And why not, with the success of the Samsung Galaxy Note Series, a lot of manufacturers have created their own version of the phablet but no one has really ever threatened Note.
And Huawei’s phablet bet is intriguing to say the least. The company has been looking for a product that will let it compete stateside, and this has all the potential to do so.
Will it be a good bet? Let us find out.
What is inside?
We can’t help but be impressed with the spec sheet of this giant of a phone. The phone will be powered by a quad-core processor that clocks in at 1.5GHz and get this; it has 2GB of RAM. That is more than enough to smoothly run most of your phone apps.
The phone will be sporting an 8-MP rear shooter. We hoped that the device would have featured a better camera. 8-MP cameras were the standard for most flagship phones last year and this could have been a chance to raise the bar higher for 2013, but that is just us nitpicking.
Another bright spot for the Ascend Mate is that it features Jellybean 4.1. The OS is layered with Huawei’s Emotion Interface because they believe that out-of-the-box Android might be too complicated for the casual user. With their interface, they hope that it will be simple enough and be considered, not only as a great business phone, but as a personal one as well.
Finally, there is the battery. Huawei claims that you can keep the phone running for more than 20 hours in a single charge. We do not know if that is true, but with a 4050maH battery there might be something to their claim.
Hands on
The first thing you will notice about the device is that despite its size, it is comfortable to hold. The curved back design makes it easier to operate and does not feel very big at all. The interface flows smoothly especially with Jellybean OS. The quad-core definitely makes the usage snappy and fast.
Arrival
The phone is expected to be officially available in February in China. The price of the unit is still unknown. Unfortunately, there is no news of when the Huawei Ascend Mate is going to hit the US.
Hopefully, it does not take long for them to launch it in US soil because this is a big chance for them to make a splash in the market. If they take their time, the established brands might have already launched their own devices buy then and it will be more difficult to attract consumers by then.
That will be too bad because this is a very promising product and given the right price, it can be a hit.
Henry Conrad is a 29-year-old game developer from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Aside from gaming and being a tech junkie, he also dabbles in creative writing, which allows him to create great storylines and backgrounds for his characters. Follow me on Twitter and join me in Google +