In the world of Android smartphone manufacturers, there are many household names. Samsung, HTC, Sony and LG are among the most popular, but what about the smaller, lesser-known brands? These companies tend to come from somewhere in the southeast Asia region and generally specialize in low to mid-range phones, but every now and then come out with something truly amazing that can compete with the best of what the bigger guys can pump out. Huawei is one of those brands, and it’s actually one of the bigger brands when you look at a comparative piece of the pie, even if you haven’t heard of them before. This is like because, with a few notable exceptions, Huawei has yet to really release a device that does well in the US or European markets, but that may well change with their new lineup. The Ascend Mate 2 is the followup to Huawei’s rather good initial foray into the world of phablets, and the upcoming Huawei Glory 4 may just be the new mid-range king if it can make a splash outside of a handful of markets. While we only had a handful of leaked specs before, we finally get a first look at the phone, albeit a bit of a blurry one.
We brightened up the original image so you can actually see the device, but it looks like a pretty standard Android device, and that’s a very good thing for the most part. It unfortunately features 3 capacitive buttons, back, home and menu, instead of software buttons as is usually preferred by Android enthusiasts. We can also see Huawei’s Emotion UI in full force in these shots, and unfortunately it’s looking as ugly as ever. Thankfully the hardware side of the house should be pretty incredible for most high-end devices, much less one that’s classified as “mid-range.”
- 1.7GHz MediaTek “true” octo-core processor
- 2GB RAM
- 13 megapixel rear-facing camera
- 5 megapixel front-facing camera
- 16GB or 8GB internal storage
- “HD display”
What’s even more amazing about these specs is the rumored price. According to Phone Arena Huawei states that the phone is going to be competing with the Xiaomi Red Rice, which is a $130 quad-core phone from the Chinese company that Hugo Barra left Google to work at. That spells some seriously insane phone for your buck, and will likely give Huawei a serious shot in the arm when it comes to marketshare.