Huawei is a huge tech powerhouse in China, but so far, their smartphones have been less than impressive against the competition. The original Ascend Mate device had a 6.1-inch 720p display, along with Huawei’s own branded processor, and it looks like that trend may continue with its follow-up, the Ascend Mate 2, but it may look a little nicer based on some new pictures from Engadget Chinese. The black image is one of the original Ascend Mate, and the white device is the Ascend Mate 2 and it looks a little sleeker and thinner than the first rendition.
From the source it seems that the second generation of the Ascend Mate did not receive much of an update, and most disappointing is that the 6.1-inch display will remain at only 720p – they chose not to upgrade the screen to even FULL HD at 1080p, although our reviewer liked the display when he tested the device. This will make its arrival even less exciting on the smartphone technical front, if it is indeed announced at the 2014 CES.
Right now, it looks like the remaining specifications show a quad-core processor running at 1.6GHz, and could possibly be the Huawei Kirin 910 that was leaked a few weeks ago. It is sporting 2GB of RAM, and although the internal storage looks like it is only 16GB, there is support for a microSD Card of up to 64GB. The camera received a healthy upgrade from 8MP to 13MP with the flash moved under the camera lens, as opposed to the side on the original Ascend Mate and the FFC is 5MP. Also included are Bluetooth, FM Radio, and GPS. It will be running Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean and Huawei’s Emotion User Interface (UI).
The two variants of Huawei’s Ascend Mate 2 are the MT2-C00, which is the variant for China Telecom and supports CDMA200 and GSM networks, and the MT2-U071 which is the variant for China Unicom and supports WCDMA and GSM networks. With no U.S. distribution it is hard to get excited about this device unless you like big screens – yes, you can buy it unlocked, but really, what would be the point with so many other good devices out there with better specs.
Let us know on our Google+ Page what you think of Huawei’s new smartphone and if you would like to see them hit the U.S. shores.