Huawei Ascend Mate in the flesh, first impressions

We finally got our hands on a gigantic smartphone, the Huawei Ascend Mate. The handset is set to be released next week and we have a hands-on preview with us (though still an engineering unit).

The Ascend Mate is among the biggest smartphones we’ve ever seen, bigger than the Galaxy Note 2. With a 6.1-inch display, you can barely hold it comfortably with one hand.

The handset has a very solid, metallic feel to it. It has a certain heft to it too.

The front panel is completely covered with glass wrapped around the edges with a thin strip of brushed metal trimming. The frame around the sides has a slightly rough matte finish painted in dark gray. It feels like metallic but is actually some sort of hard polycarbonate.

The back side is slightly curved with a soft rubbery finish. Since it has a unibody design, the micro-SIM card slot is accessible from the top side (concealed by a flip cover). The microSD card slot is found on the left side while the power button and volume rocker are on the right side. The micro-USB port is at the bottom end.

The IPS LCD looks stunning and even at 6.1 inches, the 720p resolution still offers crisp and bright display. The display looks crisp and very bright.

Huawei uses their own Emotion UI which is pretty simple yet neat and clean. Navigation and transitions are smooth, the phone is very responsive over-all. The custom 1.5GHz quad-core processor was made by Huawei itself. Its the same one they used in the Ascend D Quad XL which we reviewed here.

Here’s the complete hardware specification of the Ascend Mate.

Huawei Ascend Mate specs:
6.1-inch IPS LCD 720p display @ 1280×720 pixels, 241ppi
Corning Gorilla Glass
Huawei K3V2 1.5GHz quad-core processor
2GB RAM
16GB internal storage
up to 32GB via microSD
HSPA+ 42Mbps
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, dual-band, WiFi Direct, DLNA, WiFi hotspot
Bluetooth 4.0
8MP camera with LED flash
1080p video recording
1.2MP front-facing camera
FM Stereo tuner
GPS w/ aGPS support
Li-Ion 4050mAh battery
Android Jellybean 4.1.2
163.5 x 85.7 x 9.9mm (dimensions)

Probably the most compelling feature of the Ascend Mate is the battery life. The handset has an internal battery rated at 4,050mAh which is among the highest we’ve ever seen. That should last you over a day or two.

The Huawei Ascend Mate is expected to be available in the Philippines next week with an estimated retail price of Php21,000USD 358INR 30,337EUR 341CNY 2,606.