Huawei has announced that its Ascend Mate2 is now available for pre-order. The unlocked phablet is rocking a 6.1-inch display, 4G LTE, 13-megapixel camera and more for $299.
When Samsung unveiled its first Galaxy Note phablet in 2011 many people in the tech community slammed the company for producing a smartphone with a gigantic (at the time) 5.3-inch display. The smartphone was labeled DOA and many claimed it was a passing fad and consumers wouldn't buy such a large device.
Now we're in a world where "mini" smartphones can have 4.7-inch displays and devices like Samsung's upcoming 7-inch Galaxy Mega 2 make the original Galaxy Note seem miniature. Phablets are here to stay and now U.S. consumers have a new 6.1-inch smartphone to consider.
Huawei's unlocked 6.1-inch Ascend Mate 2 phablet features an "Ultra-large" 6.1-inch 1280 x 720 IPS (in plane switching) display with a pixel density of 241 pixels per inch (ppi). It's powered by a 1.6 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor, Adreno 305 GPU (graphics processing unit) and 2 GB of RAM.
The Ascend Mate2 is packing a 13-megapixel rear camera with f/2.0 aperture and 5-megapixel front-facing camera with wide-angle lens. It includes 16 GB of internal storage and a microSD expansion slot that will support up to 32 GB microSD cards. Its wireless connectivity options consist of a 4G LTE radio, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0 LE (low energy). The phablet ships with Android 4.3 Jelly Bean and Huawei's Emotion UI 2.0 Lite. The smartphone has a very large non-removable 3,900 mAh battery that Huawei claims will last for up to 60 hours of standard use.
Huawei has added some cool features that make it easier to use the 6.1-inch phablet than competing devices. Users can operate the smartphone with one hand and even while wearing glvoes. The "Windows on Windows" feature will allow you to do two things at once, similar to LG and Samsung's multiwindow feature.
One of the Huawei Ascend Mate2's most impressive features is its price. The company is selling the unlocked phablet through its website for $299.99 and, from now through June 22, anyone that pre-orders the smartphone will receive a SIM card with a free month of service and a protective case. The Ascend Mate2 will work on both AT&T and T-Mobile's 4G LTE network.
Check out the video below to see the Huawei Ascend Mate2 in action.
