CES 2013: Huawei Ascend Mate, D2 and W1 hands-on

Huawei Ascend Mate hands-on

The Huawei Ascend Mate has a massive screen even by phablet standards - it's got a 6.1" diagonal. The 720p resolution, however, was a bit of a disappointment. It works out to a decent pixel density of 241ppi, but looks notably worse than the Ascend D2.

Despite the sheer size of the screen, Huawei has managed to keep the footprint as small as possible by reducing the size of the bezel (the screen covers 73% of the front). Another thing that helps usability is the customized UI that offers one-hand mode (it's similar to Samsung's solution of squeezing the keyboard and dialer horizontally to make buttons easier to reach).

The screen is highly sensitive thanks to the Magic Touch tech, which allows users to use their Mate with gloves, a feature people in colder climates will surely appreciate. Gorilla Glass protects the screen against scratches.

Huawei Ascend Mate

The Huawei Ascend Mate has an 8MP camera which, besides photography, is used in the Guiding Wizard app - an Augmented Reality turn-by-turn navigation with voice guidance.

Huawei Ascend Mate

The Huawei Ascend Mate is powered by a quad-core processor clocked at 1.5GHz and, with a screen this big, it's a great multitasker. To that end, there are floating apps - Notes, Messages, Calculator and video player.

The interface is quite unusual - it's Android 4.1 Jelly Bean underneath, but Huawei has gotten rid of the app drawer, leaving you with just the homescreen, which makes the UI feel similar to iOS.

The Ascend Mate packs a massive 4,050mAh battery, quoted at up to 9 days of standby in 3G and 2 days of "ordinary usage". The battery is quick to charge too, though there's no info on how long it takes to charge it full.

With all this, the Ascend Mate is no small device - it measures 163.5 mm x 85.7 mm x 9.9 mm and weighs 198g. It's not too heavy (the Lumia 920 and Galaxy Note II are both around 185g, with smaller screens and batteries).

The Huawei Ascend Mate compared with the Samsung Galaxy Note II