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

GSMArena team, 6 January 2014.

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 @ 30fps video capture


• 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 have decided to get rid of their home-grown K3V2 chipset for this latest iteration, and have replaced it with a Snapdragon 400 SoC. Also upgraded are both cameras, with the Mate 2 sporting a 13 MP Sony-made primary shooter and 5 MP secondary camera.

Last but not least, the memory has been doubled to 16 GB, and there's the addition of a 4G LTE antenna capable of supporting a plethora of both TDD-LTE and FDE-LTE bands. This latter feature Huawei hopes will help it 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.

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