Huawei reveals 6.1in Ascend Mate phablet

Chinese smartphone manufacturer Huawei has taken the wraps off its gigantic Ascend Mate smartphone at CES 2013. The plus-sized phone comes packing a quad-core 1.4GHz processor, 2GB RAM and 6.1in 720p screen (which takes up more of the phone's frame than the similarly-gargantuan Samsung Galaxy Note 2, with a screen-to-frame ratio of 0.73).

To keep all that ticking over, the Ascend Mate crams in a whopping 4050mAh battery – Huawei claims it'll deliver over 22 hours of talk time, 10 hours of video playback and 14 hours of web browsing.

The Ascend Mate is wrapped up in a curved shell that's both splashproof and rustproof, ranging from 6.6mm to 9.9mm at its thickest point. It also features a "Magic Touch" screen that – like the Nokia Lumia 920 – will respond to commands even when you're wearing gloves.

Round the back, there's a 8MP camera, while the phone also features a front-facing snapper and a microSD card slot.

The Ascend Mate runs Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean, with Huawei's own Emotion UI – adding features including Smart Reading – which enables you to translate, search or look up highlighted words on Wikipedia. Other features include Guiding Wizard AR navigation and floating windows for multitasking. The phone also features a one-handed UI option, which crams the controls into one corner of the screen, Galaxy Note 2-style.

We got our hands on the Huawei Ascend Mate, and while it is comically large, the curved back means it sits comfortably in the hand – and it has a bit more heft to it than its closest rival, the Samsung Galaxy Note 2. That quad-core processor means it moves along at a snappy pace, while videos pop out on that gigantic screen.

Want to wrap your hands around it? Assuming you're a giant, you'll be able to pick up the Ascend Mate from January/February 2013.

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