Hiya!
I purchased Huawei Ascend Mate 6.1†from Flipkart when there was offer of 8% off. Having used Galaxy S, Galaxy S3, Galaxy Note I & II, IMHO, no other phone came close to matching the performance & Build quality.
*UNBOXING THE MATE*
The phone comes with the standard accessories- Phone, headset, a microusb cable & a charger. I have to mention that the Box of the Ascend Mate is almost a carbon copy of the Galaxy Note II.
*Key features*
• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE; penta-band 3G with HSPA
• 6.1" 16M-color 720p IPS+ LCD capacitive touchscreen with Gorilla Glass, Magic Touch, usable with gloves
• Android OS v4.1.2 Jelly Bean with Emotion UI
• Quad-core 1.5 GHz Cortex-A9, 16-core GPU; Huawei K3V2 chipset
• 2GB of RAM
• 8 MP autofocus camera with LED flash, 1080p video recording @ 30fps, continuous autofocus and stereo sound
• 1 MP front-facing camera, 720p video recording
• Dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct and DLNA
• GPS with A-GPS
• 8GB of built-in storage
• microSD card slot, side-mounted, hot-swap
• microUSB port with USB host and MHL 2.0
• Bluetooth v4.0
• FM radio
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Accelerometer and proximity sensor
• Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
• Plenty of juice in the ample 4050 mAh battery
*BUILD QUALITY*
As already mentioned, this phone beats the Galaxy series Phone hands down in the looks department. The Sharp edge may not be to everyone’s liking but I loved it. The phone feels sturdy and because of Matte finish at the back, the phone is awesome to look and hold!
The Simcard slot and MicroSD slot are at top and sides respectively; so no need to switch off/restart the phone- just pop in the cards and the phone detected both the external SDcard as well as the SIM..
*DISPLAY*
Display of the Phablet is crisp and clear. Have heard so much technical jargons that the pixel density is only 233ppi in comparison to Note's superior 300+ but I couldn't find any difference with naked eye. Maybe because, we tend to keep the phone at more distance than would a normal one!
*SOFTWARE/USER INTERFACE*
The phone comes with JellyBean but with Android 4.1.2 but I think update is around the corner as apparently OTA is available in some countries. It comes with its own interface Emotion UI and I really liked it. Touchwiz was never to my liking but the more I use my Mate, the more I like the interface.
It comes with many lockscreen options (similar to MIUI lockscreens) and the default widget is also good.
*PERFORMANCE*
The performance of the phone is comparable, if not, better than Galaxy Note 2. As it is equipped with 2GB RAM, there is no sluggishness or lag which I found in my Note 2. I had backed up and have installed almost all the apps (632 apps) from my Note 2 and this phone shows no sign of slowing down.
However, I found slight lag while playing Temple Run 2 but it can be rectified by choosing Optimized performance in the settings menu (It comes default with Power Saving option).
I played both 720p & 1080p videos and it played without any lags.. The quality of sound was also pretty good..Have not used headset, so cant comment on it..
*BATTERY*
Ascend Mate is loaded with humungous battery of 4050maH and it really lives upto its capacity.
It outperforms Galaxy series by a long distance. With my normal usage of 30 mins voice call, 5-10 sms, 30 mins of Gaming & 1hr of Browsing/reading , my battery used to last barely 12 hrs but with this phone, after 13.5 hrs of similar usage and 3hrs of screen time. Moreover, I was installing and updating stuffs, so more CPU would have been utilized but despite that I have 58% left- JUST UNBELIEVABLE (Sorry for constant comparison with Note 2 but I do have to compare, right?)
However, one big disadvantage is that it is a unibody and battery is not removable.
*CAMERA*
Ascend Mate is loaded with 8MP camera, same as Note 2 .I don’t use camera much, so cant really comment but from my little experience, I found the camera to be very grainy in Indoor conditions. Outdoors, it is pretty good but pictures are bad in comparison to Note 2.
*STORAGE*
Only 8GB Internal storage but I’ve purchased a Samsung 64GB microsd, so not a problem for me! Moreover, we have the option of selecting our storage for apps in settings..
*CALL QUALITY/GPS/BROWSING/Wifi*
I found the call quality to be on the lower side. I found some disturbance/noise but maybe I need my ears cleaning
– On a serious note, only negative point IMO.
There was no problem with GPS- it locked immediately to my location both in Sygic as well as Google Maps.
I had no problems with wifi or Edge connectivity (no 3G with me☹)
*CONCLUSION*
Huawei Ascend Mate is without doubt the BEST PHONE, I have had. We Indians care a lot about pricing and this phone, I purchased for only Rs. 22,908/- from flipkart. Maybe, this is not everyone’s cup of tea because of size but I am one of those, who likes ‘Bigger the Better’. And since, I read a lot and watch movies, I am extremely satisfied with my phone.
P.S: Battery remaining is 40% after 24hrs of usage with 4hrs screen time and 50 mins of call
P.P.S: I have posted this review in another forum but not gonna mention forum name as I am not 100% sure of the rules here
I purchased Huawei Ascend Mate 6.1†from Flipkart when there was offer of 8% off. Having used Galaxy S, Galaxy S3, Galaxy Note I & II, IMHO, no other phone came close to matching the performance & Build quality.
*UNBOXING THE MATE*
The phone comes with the standard accessories- Phone, headset, a microusb cable & a charger. I have to mention that the Box of the Ascend Mate is almost a carbon copy of the Galaxy Note II.
*Key features*
• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE; penta-band 3G with HSPA
• 6.1" 16M-color 720p IPS+ LCD capacitive touchscreen with Gorilla Glass, Magic Touch, usable with gloves
• Android OS v4.1.2 Jelly Bean with Emotion UI
• Quad-core 1.5 GHz Cortex-A9, 16-core GPU; Huawei K3V2 chipset
• 2GB of RAM
• 8 MP autofocus camera with LED flash, 1080p video recording @ 30fps, continuous autofocus and stereo sound
• 1 MP front-facing camera, 720p video recording
• Dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct and DLNA
• GPS with A-GPS
• 8GB of built-in storage
• microSD card slot, side-mounted, hot-swap
• microUSB port with USB host and MHL 2.0
• Bluetooth v4.0
• FM radio
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Accelerometer and proximity sensor
• Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
• Plenty of juice in the ample 4050 mAh battery
*BUILD QUALITY*
As already mentioned, this phone beats the Galaxy series Phone hands down in the looks department. The Sharp edge may not be to everyone’s liking but I loved it. The phone feels sturdy and because of Matte finish at the back, the phone is awesome to look and hold!
The Simcard slot and MicroSD slot are at top and sides respectively; so no need to switch off/restart the phone- just pop in the cards and the phone detected both the external SDcard as well as the SIM..
*DISPLAY*
Display of the Phablet is crisp and clear. Have heard so much technical jargons that the pixel density is only 233ppi in comparison to Note's superior 300+ but I couldn't find any difference with naked eye. Maybe because, we tend to keep the phone at more distance than would a normal one!
*SOFTWARE/USER INTERFACE*
The phone comes with JellyBean but with Android 4.1.2 but I think update is around the corner as apparently OTA is available in some countries. It comes with its own interface Emotion UI and I really liked it. Touchwiz was never to my liking but the more I use my Mate, the more I like the interface.
It comes with many lockscreen options (similar to MIUI lockscreens) and the default widget is also good.
*PERFORMANCE*
The performance of the phone is comparable, if not, better than Galaxy Note 2. As it is equipped with 2GB RAM, there is no sluggishness or lag which I found in my Note 2. I had backed up and have installed almost all the apps (632 apps) from my Note 2 and this phone shows no sign of slowing down.
However, I found slight lag while playing Temple Run 2 but it can be rectified by choosing Optimized performance in the settings menu (It comes default with Power Saving option).
I played both 720p & 1080p videos and it played without any lags.. The quality of sound was also pretty good..Have not used headset, so cant comment on it..
*BATTERY*
Ascend Mate is loaded with humungous battery of 4050maH and it really lives upto its capacity.
It outperforms Galaxy series by a long distance. With my normal usage of 30 mins voice call, 5-10 sms, 30 mins of Gaming & 1hr of Browsing/reading , my battery used to last barely 12 hrs but with this phone, after 13.5 hrs of similar usage and 3hrs of screen time. Moreover, I was installing and updating stuffs, so more CPU would have been utilized but despite that I have 58% left- JUST UNBELIEVABLE (Sorry for constant comparison with Note 2 but I do have to compare, right?)
However, one big disadvantage is that it is a unibody and battery is not removable.
*CAMERA*
Ascend Mate is loaded with 8MP camera, same as Note 2 .I don’t use camera much, so cant really comment but from my little experience, I found the camera to be very grainy in Indoor conditions. Outdoors, it is pretty good but pictures are bad in comparison to Note 2.
*STORAGE*
Only 8GB Internal storage but I’ve purchased a Samsung 64GB microsd, so not a problem for me! Moreover, we have the option of selecting our storage for apps in settings..
*CALL QUALITY/GPS/BROWSING/Wifi*
I found the call quality to be on the lower side. I found some disturbance/noise but maybe I need my ears cleaning
– On a serious note, only negative point IMO.There was no problem with GPS- it locked immediately to my location both in Sygic as well as Google Maps.
I had no problems with wifi or Edge connectivity (no 3G with me☹)
*CONCLUSION*
Huawei Ascend Mate is without doubt the BEST PHONE, I have had. We Indians care a lot about pricing and this phone, I purchased for only Rs. 22,908/- from flipkart. Maybe, this is not everyone’s cup of tea because of size but I am one of those, who likes ‘Bigger the Better’. And since, I read a lot and watch movies, I am extremely satisfied with my phone.
P.S: Battery remaining is 40% after 24hrs of usage with 4hrs screen time and 50 mins of call
P.P.S: I have posted this review in another forum but not gonna mention forum name as I am not 100% sure of the rules here
