When Huawei released Ascend Mate at CES this
year, it felt like the smartphone had reached its end – certainly they couldn’t
get any bigger. Since then, we’re proven to be wrong because of Galaxy Mega 6.3
of Samsung, but 6.1inch Ascend Mate has hit the shelf first, and it’s still as
creepy as it was back in January. The question is whether Huawei has anything
different beside its size. Can this almost tablet-size device worth putting
into your pocket, and can it be able to evade Galaxy Note II and Optimus G Pro which
suddenly look small? Read on, and you will find out.
Hardware
Let’s fast process this obvious thing: yes,
Ascend Mate is comfortable for holding. Regardless of the enormous screen, it
won’t make the average hands strained throughout a phone call. Huawei has
reduced the bezels enough so that the 6.1inch LCD screen can really exist. With
6.5x3.4x0.4 inch (163.5x85.7x9.9mm) and 7 ounce (198g), the phone is not as
large and heavy as you expect from something more than 0.6 inch compared to its
rivals. The power button and volume rocker sitting on the right are easy to
reach. Let’s think about Ascend Mate as a effectively designed Sony Xperia ZL.
Regardless
of the enormous screen, it won’t make the average hands strained throughout a
phone call.
Which means, there’s nothing to debate that
this monster has pushed the limit if the safe and working efficiency
boundaries, not just in the palms. While there’s no need to say that you need 2
hands to reach all the corners of the screen, the phone is easy to put into the
pocket. It fits average-sized jeans pockets comfortably, but with the noticeable
protrusion; we won’t want to try the same thing with the skinner legwear. Who
thinks that the 5inch phones such as Galaxy S4 will suddenly have a compact
look?
No one accuse Huawei for being a fashion
slave. The body of Ascend Mate is a definition of a utilitarian: aside from the
speaker and the 8MP rear camera, the back and the sides are dominated by the
matte plastic layer. While this makes other phones from LG and Samsung look
like a work of art, it provides solid grasping which is almost essential to a
large-size phone like this. The soft surface on our black model (there’s also
white model) is pretty interesting in our palms. On the front, it’s pretty
plain. You will find a 1MP front camera as well as the necessary sensors and
speakers, but mostly it’s the anti-scratching Gorilla Glass slab. All the
navigations happen on the screen.
The
body of Ascend Mate is a definition of a utilitarian: aside from the speaker
and the 8MP rear camera, the back and the sides are dominated by the matte
plastic layer.
The expansion and connectivity are not as
wide as we want. You will find a micro-SIM slot and headphone jack at the top, micro-USB
port at the bottom and microSDHC slot at the uppermost right corner. What you
won’t find are NFC, MHL video support of Ascend D1 Quad XL or lots of built-in
capacity. Huawei sells Ascend Mate with only 8GB of built-in flash memory, and
you can only access 4.68GB. We almost ran out of built-in capacity after a few
days of testing, and that’s with just 2 games (we have to admit that they are
large games), some common social apps, 125 images and 3 short 1,080p videos.
Unless you entertainment just includes transferring media and the small-sized
games, it’s best to buy the microSD card immediately. Before you ask, we’d like
to answer: no, there’s no stylus in the box, as well as no stylus-detecting
digitizer on the touch screen. If the hand-writing notes are important to your
job, you will have to use the third-party capacitive pen or buy Galaxy Note.
Unless
you entertainment just includes transferring media and the small-sized games,
it’s best to buy the microSD card immediately.
The battery is non-detachable, though we
think that the owners won’t mind as much as they have with other phones. Ascend
Mate carries a “supreme” 4,050mAh battery which makes the 3,300mAh battery of Droid
RAZR Maxx HD seem to be modest. We will talk about the raw information later,
but it can be sure that we didn’t spend lots of time looking for the socket.
However, there’s no wireless-charging capability to help us get rid of the cables
completely.
Screen
This is actually the reason why we’re here.
It’s hard to impart exactly how the 6.1inch screen looks like when using: Ascend
Mate sits among the largest smartphones in 2012 and the smallest tablets. The
software tells that you control it like a phone, but the size encourages the
likely-tablet behavior model more. Watching news on Flipboard? Lasting YouTube sessions?
Both prove to be reasonable here. We will happily pass any smaller tablet if
this phone is always in our hands.
It’s
hard to impart exactly how the 6.1inch screen looks like when using: Ascend
Mate sits among the largest smartphones in 2012 and the smallest tablets
That this is a high0quality screen is a
good thing, though it’s not as good as we want. IPS+ LCD has vibrant but
balanced colors, no striking hue. Huawei allows more sophisticated owners
adjust the color temperature through a simple slide bar. Viewing angle is very
wide, like you expected with IPS, though the images are slightly blurred
anytime the phone is off from its center. The outdoor visibility is clear when
brightness increases, and any of us who meets the winter weather will be
pleased when seeing that the touch mode is incredibly sensitive,
glove-friendly.
However, it’s unable to avoid that Ascend
Mate has 720p, 241ppi screen at the point which numberless of smaller phones
have stepped up to 1,080p and surpassed the 440ppi level. You will realize the
separate pixel if you try to find them, and you will remember the printout-like
quality of the phones such as Galaxy S 4, One or Ascend D2 of Huawei in these
same moments. Ascend Mate is largely saved by the distance along with such
large screen. Many people won’t take the device close to their face, and we
have stopped focusing on the pixels after a short while. However, it’d be
better if high res and large size are not exclusive things of the Ascend line.
However,
it’s unable to avoid that Ascend Mate has 720p, 241ppi screen at the point
which numberless of smaller phones have stepped up to 1,080p and surpassed the
440ppi level.
