Huawei Ascend Mate2 4G review: Value king

Synthetic benchmarks

Huawei Ascend Mate2 4G is powered by a Qualcomm MSM8928 Snapdragon 400 chipset with 1.6GHz quad-core Cortex-A7 CPU. The GPU is Adreno 305, while 2GB of RAM make sure that apps run without any hiccups.

GeekBench 3 and AnTuTu 4 are all-round benchmarks that test the entirety of the hardware build. In the first test - GeekBench 3 - the Ascend Mate2 scores a middling result.

GeekBench 3

Higher is better

• Oppo Find 7
  3178
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  3011
• Alcatel Idol X+
  2842
• LG G3
  2687
• OnePlus One
  2663
• Gionee Elife S5.5
  2581
• LG Nexus 5
  2453
• HTC One
  1972
• HTC One Max
  1899
• Samsung Galaxy S4 S600
  1869
• HTC One mini 2
  1526
• Huawei Ascend Mate2 4G
  1522
• Sony Xperia T2 Ultra
  1359
• Huawei Ascend P6
  1315
• Sony Xperia M2
  1074
• Motorola Moto E
  611

AnTuTu 4

Higher is better

• Oppo Find 7
  38484
• OnePlus One
  37469
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  36018
• Alcatel Idol X+
  31717
• LG G3
  30482
• Samsung Galaxy S4 S600
  27613
• Gionee Elife S5.5
  26957
• HTC One
  26389
• HTC One Max
  26348
• LG Nexus 5
  25097
• Huawei Ascend Mate2 4G
  21726
• Sony Xperia T2 Ultra
  19896
• HTC One mini 2
  17883
• Sony Xperia M2
  17808
• Huawei Ascend P6
  13776
• Motorola Moto E
  12880

Next up we have GFXBench's 2.7 T-Rex and 3.0 Manhattan. The device's performance is hardly impressive, though it performed in line with similarly equipped offerings.

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus One
  28.3
• Oppo Find 7
  28
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  27.8
• LG G3
  27.6
• LG Nexus 5
  23
• Samsung Galaxy S4 S600
  17.1
• HTC One Max
  14
• Alcatel Idol X+
  10.9
• Gionee Elife S5.5
  10.8
• Sony Xperia M2
  5.9
• HTC One mini 2
  5.8
• Sony Xperia T2 Ultra
  5.8
• Huawei Ascend Mate2 4G
  5.8
• Motorola Moto E
  4.5
• Huawei Ascend P6
  4.4

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (onscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus One
  30
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  28.1
• LG Nexus 5
  24
• LG G3
  20.6
• Oppo Find 7
  19.9
• Sony Xperia M2
  15.4
• Motorola Moto E
  11.2
• HTC One mini 2
  11
• Sony Xperia T2 Ultra
  10.9
• Huawei Ascend Mate2 4G
  10.8
• Gionee Elife S5.5
  10.6
• Alcatel Idol X+
  10.6

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus One
  12.1
• LG G3
  11.9
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  11.8
• Oppo Find 7
  11.1
• Huawei Ascend Mate2 4G
  2
• Sony Xperia M2
  1.9
• HTC One mini 2
  1.7
• Motorola Moto E
  1.4

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus One
  12.9
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  11.7
• LG G3
  7.4
• Sony Xperia M2
  6.9
• Oppo Find 7
  6.7
• Motorola Moto E
  4.9
• Huawei Ascend Mate2 4G
  4.3
• Sony Xperia T2 Ultra
  4.1
• HTC One mini 2
  3.8

BrowserMark 2.1 looks at HTML 5 performance, while Mozilla's Kraken 1.1 is JavaScript-centric. Once again, the handset showcased results which are in line with its price tag.

BrowserMark 2.1

Higher is better

• Oppo Find 7
  1452
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  1398
• OnePlus One
  1339
• LG Nexus 5
  1286
• LG G3
  1254
• HTC One mini 2
  945
• Sony Xperia M2
  903
• Huawei Ascend Mate2 4G
  822
• Motorola Moto E
  784
• Gionee Elife S5.5
  432

Kraken 1.1

Lower is better

• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  6043
• Oppo Find 7
  6363
• OnePlus One
  7008
• LG Nexus 5
  7148
• LG G3
  7610
• Gionee Elife S5.5
  12201
• HTC One mini 2
  15684
• Motorola Moto E
  17213
• Sony Xperia M2
  18047
• Huawei Ascend Mate2 4G
  20366

Basemark X is designed to put the Adreno 305 GPU to the test. It is fair to say that the device did not set the benchmark on fire.

Basemark X

Higher is better

• Oppo Find 7
  14968
• OnePlus One
  13129
• LG G3
  12436
• Huawei Ascend Mate2 4G
  1976
• HTC One mini 2
  1650
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  1066

Basemark X (anti-cheat)

Higher is better

• Oppo Find 7
  15060
• OnePlus One
  12890
• LG G3
  12433
• Huawei Ascend Mate2 4G
  1971
• HTC One mini 2
  1663

Basemark OS II tests the overall CPU performance. Again, we witness a score which is typical for a Snapdragon 400-equipped device.

Basemark OS II

Higher is better

• Oppo Find 7
  1212
• OnePlus One
  1196
• LG G3
  1151
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  1082
• Huawei Ascend Mate2 4G
  542
• HTC One mini 2
  517
• Gionee Elife S5.5
  492
• Sony Xperia T2 Ultra
  434
• Sony Xperia M2
  298
• Motorola Moto E
  116

Basemark OS II (single-core)

Higher is better

• Oppo Find 7
  2606
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  2415
• OnePlus One
  2213
• LG G3
  2137
• Gionee Elife S5.5
  1781
• Huawei Ascend Mate2 4G
  1666
• HTC One mini 2
  1304
• Sony Xperia M2
  1164
• Motorola Moto E
  1110

Basemark OS II (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Oppo Find 7
  10391
• OnePlus One
  10234
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  10063
• LG G3
  9937
• Gionee Elife S5.5
  8941
• Huawei Ascend Mate2 4G
  6662
• HTC One mini 2
  5182
• Sony Xperia M2
  4927
• Motorola Moto E
  2637

Basemark OS II (anti-cheat)

Higher is better

• Oppo Find 7
  1174
• OnePlus One
  1165
• LG G3
  1132
• HTC One mini 2
  511
• Huawei Ascend Mate2 4G
  498

Basemark OS II (single-core. anti-cheat)

Higher is better

• Oppo Find 7
  2583
• OnePlus One
  2254
• LG G3
  2176
• Huawei Ascend Mate2 4G
  1668
• HTC One mini 2
  1357

Basemark OS II (multi-core. anti-cheat)

Higher is better

• Oppo Find 7
  10411
• LG G3
  10097
• OnePlus One
  9323
• Huawei Ascend Mate2 4G
  6121
• HTC One mini 2
  4889

Overall, the Huawei Ascend Mate2 4G didn't surprise us with its benchmark scores - it performed in line with similarly equipped offerings. It is worth noting that in real life, we didn't experience any performance hiccups with the handset - it ran every app we threw at it without breaking a sweat.