Huawei Ascend Mate 2 4G hands-on: First look

Huawei has just unveiled its new Ascend Mate 2 phablet here at CES 2014, and we've got all the juicy details for you to sink your teeth into.

The Huawei Ascend Mate 2 hands-on shots

The changes are mostly cosmetic with this second generation, as Huawei has managed to squeeze in the same 6.1" 720p screen, 2GB of RAM, and 4050 mAh battery into a package that cuts 2.5mm in height, 1mm in width, and is 0.4mm thinner.

Here are the specs at-a-glance:

• Dimensions: 161 x 84.7 x 9.5mm, 202 g
• Display: 6.1" eHD (1280 x 720) IPS display, 241ppi
• Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 400; quad-core Cortex-A7 at 1.6GHz, Adreno 306 GPU, 2GB RAM
• OS: Android 4.3 Jelly Bean
• Camera: 13 MP, HDR, autofocus, LED flash, 5 MP front-facing
• Video camera: 1080p video capture @ 30fps
• Storage: 16GB built-in, microSD card slot with support of up to 64GB
• Connectivity: A-GPS+GLONASS, WLAN (2.4/5Ghz) a/b/g/n, USB Host, Bluetooth 4.0 LE
• Battery: 4,050 mAh
• Misc: FM Radio, built-in accelerometer, multi-touch input, proximity sensor
• Colors: Crystal Black, Pure White

Huawei has decided to opt out of the home-grown K3V2 chipset for this latest iteration, going for a Snapdragon 400 SoC instead. Imaging has been upgraded as well, with the Mate 2 sporting a 13MP Sony-made primary cam and a 5MP front-facer.

Last but not least, the memory has been doubled to 16GB, and there's a 4G LTE antenna with support for a plethora of both TDD-LTE and FDE-LTE bands. This latter feature Huawei hopes will help market the phablet in the North American market.

Up next we've got our first impressions as well as hands-on images of the device.