Go on, admit it. You've been eyeing off the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and wishing the screen was even bigger. Sure, you play along when your friends talk about how it'd never fit in your pocket, but secretly you ignore them. You want a huge smartphone.
If this describes you, you'll be excited by the info we have to share. Huawei will launch the 6.1-inch Ascend Mate "phablet" in Australia on April 20, and it is a bargain if you pre-order.
Sales will be exclusively through Harvey Norman at launch, and you can grab one for $429 if you get in before launch day.
Spec crunch
The phone will be sold unlocked and is compatible with all Australian networks. In fact, with support for all major 2G and 3G frequencies, the Ascend Mate should work on all GSM networks around the world.
It has a huge battery too; a 4050mAh capacity sealed within its plastic chassis. Huawei estimates this is good for 2 days of use or 9 days of standby, but given that we get results like these with the Galaxy Note 2 and its 3100mAh battery, we are expecting even more from the Mate when we review it soon.
It will also be interesting to test out the quad-core 1.5GHz processor developed in-house at Huawei. Most of the phones we review use Qualcomm hardware, so it will be great to have something different to benchmark them all against.
The phone runs on Android Jelly Bean (4.1) with a Huawei designed overlay on top, called the Emotion UI. Like the interface on the LG Optimus G, the Emotion UI is a themes-driven system, with lots of visual customisation. It is quite a simple system though, with only a few custom widgets and extra tools.
