Gadgetory

i'm michael fisher with pocket now and I've been using this smartphone for two days straight if you're an American this behemoth is probably alien to you just like pretty much every other smartphone from this Chinese manufacturer can very long battery life and a very low price tag finally make the name Huawei mean something to us buyers let's find out in our video review of the ascend mate to 4G LTE yeah that's a mouthful of a title but anything less would seem somehow inadequate for a beast like this at 202 grams it masses more than almost any other device in its class and its footprint makes every other smartphone look puny by comparison what's more none of its hardware features have been scaled up which amplifies its perceived size the tiny camera lens sits adrift in an endless expanse of textured soft touch the microUSB port looks infinitesimal on the wide strip of glossy plastic along the bottom one-handed use is basically impossible still Huawei uses the extra acreage to its advantage the device is relatively slender for its size at nine point five millimeters with a removable cover that grants access to the microSD card and SIM slot and the front side is dominated by an IPS display that takes up almost 80% of the face with nice color saturation fair viewing angles and a very bright backlight and like everything else on the phone the screen is huge at 6.1 inches yet for all its size the ascend mate 2 is not so beastly on the spec sheet with this phablet it's more size of the boat than motion of the ocean the Snapdragon 600 is good but not top-of-the-line the display is only 720p which had six inches isn't the sharpest and both onboard and extendable storage is on the low side this isn't so much a flagship smartphone as it is an oversized mid-range er that's true in software too with a slightly dated Android 4.3 sitting under Huawei's in motion UI which is a mixed bag of course aesthetics are subjective but to our eye the rounded corners and bland colors lend the phone and all infantile feel there are typeface spacing issues in folders and in designing its widgets the company seems to have forgotten that it's built a six-inch phone here look at the FM radio widget it's huge for no apparent reason same for the clock which is so big it can't even be centered on the screen and this isn't hallways fault but so many Android apps still can't properly take advantage of a screen as large as this on the brighter side the big canvas doesn't totally go to waste the Wow button sits in a corner of your choosing giving you one touch access to navigation keys and popover apps gesture based motion controls are available and so is an easy mode for those who want an idiot-proof experience on a huge screen there are also really nice touches here and there anytime you get an alert from a newly installed app the phone lets you choose right in the notification shade whether you want the app to be allowed to send you notifications and there's all kinds of optimization tools if you're worried about what apps are using too much data there's a whole section for that a phone manager gives you automatic cleanup for memory storage and a block list for harassing messages or calls but the most powerful customization goes to the core of this device the ascend mate 2 is all about endurance this phone guards its battery more jealously than any other every so often you'll get a notification that a certain app is using too much juice you're given the option to shut that app down right away the power saving hub gives you three distinct usage plans and also a monitoring screen with a list of issues you can optimize you'd expect all this from a device with a tiny power pack but with a 3900 milliamp hour reservoir this phone is basically all battery to put that in perspective it's basically the same capacity as Google's Nexus 7 tablet it's so big in fact that Huawei expects you to spread the wealth plug in a micro B cable and you can charge other devices from your phone if instead you keep all that power to yourself you'll be using your phone for days with moderate to heavy use including mobile hotspot and a fair amount of Netflix we got 44 hours of use in our first charge with eight and a half hours of screen on time that kind of endurance on a smartphone is almost unheard of and the company deserves real credit for that achievement it set out to create a phone that would last a weekend on a single charge and even if its solution is inelegant it succeeded elsewhere performance is more middle-of-the-road this version of the ascent mate - is compatible with both AT&T mobile and preloaded with those carriers APN it's unlocked out of the box and our testing on AT&T went well in Greater Boston and New York City over both data and voice connections it's mighty awkward talking on a device as large as this though and the noise cancellation is nothing special so you won't miss much by opting for a headset instead fortunately this speakerphone though located back aft is large and plenty loud for gaming which gives us no trouble with most titles by the way and also for media playback though it's a touch softer with Netflix finally there's that 13 megapixel 1080p camera we've got more samples and a video reel in the full review at pocketnow.com but this shooter is safely described as average in good lighting and a little on the noisy side when the lights not so good the viewfinder is bare-bones but you've got the usual offerings of HDR panorama and a handful of effects and we do like how the software senses night shots and automatically brightens the image though not enough to make this devices stand out it's real set off is a four centimeter macro mode which won't blow your mind but it does let you get closer to a subject than some other phones to the camera up front is a 5 megapixel module with the wide-angle lens for selfies or GRU fees a term which will never catch on that describes group selfies it's nothing we haven't seen before but it works as advertised we still have some concerns about the assent made to 4G LTE concerns which go beyond that lengthy brand name there's no clear guarantee it'll ever get timely software updates for one thing and that's troubling also for just a little more you could get a Nexus 5 with a more powerful processor and the guarantee of long-term support directly from google but $299 unlocked and contract free the ascend mate 2 is an outstanding value if you're looking for a smartphone that can double as a tablet and last for days on a single charge while it's at it for huawei it may not be the blockbuster that'll stop Americans from wondering who are they but it's a good step in that direction be sure to read our full written review linked in the description below for more thoughts on the ascend mate 2 and check out our other giganto phone coverage here on youtube at these links till next time this has been michael fisher with PocketNow thanks for watching be sure to subscribe and we'll see you next time you