Huawei Ascend Mate Philippines, Confirmed! Price, Release Date Guesstimate, Can Huawei Beat Samsung in the Phablet Game?

Breaking News! TechPinas Exclusive!

I've just received confirmation from one of our friends at Huawei Technologies that the Chinese electronics giant will indeed bring Huawei Ascend Mate phablet to the Philippines soon!

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Flaunting a massive 6.1-inch HD display, Huawei Ascend Mate is currently the largest smartphone in the world today -- that's putting all non-pocketable full-fledged tablets with phone functionality in a separate category.

No word yet on pricing details nor the exact release date, but I'm guessing that it should land here by March or April 2013 with price tag of around Php 25,000. Again, these are just TP Guesstimates. I personally join you in hoping it would arrive earlier with a far lower SRP.

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Apart from the unusually large screen, the quad core processor (running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean OS skinned by Huawei's very own Emotion UI -- which, as yet, I know little about), the full HD recorder, and the 8 MegaPixel camera - the biggest selling point of this phablet would have to be its giant-size 4050 mAh Li-Ion battery pack, which - according to Huawei - is capable of delivering a whopping 14 hours of web browsing and up to 22 hours and 13 minutes of talk-time! If you charge this fully before you leave the house for work, I guess you you won't have to charge it again in the middle of the day in your office. Now, ain't that how things should be?

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Huawei Ascend Mate and Samsung Galaxy Note II, respectively

With Ascend Mate, Huawei officially entered a territory and product category ruled by a sole and unrivaled monarch, the Korean giant, Samsung. 2011 TechPinas Favorite Samsung Galaxy Note N7000 and its successor, Samsung Galaxy Note 2 N7100, are currently best selling phablets in the world today -- with combined sales of around 15 million units.

Obviously, Huawei Ascend Mate is bigger than the 5.5-inch Samsung Galaxy Note II and some of the former's technical specifications can totally match what the latter has to offer. But do think the Chinese company's initial foray into the phablet game is strong enough to give Samsung a run for the money? Do you believe Huawei can eventually topple Samsung's leadership in this product category?

TechPinas Smartphone Technical Specs Table (TSTST)
Name Huawei Ascend Mate
Type Slate Form Factor (Full Touchscreen), Phablet
Price Category High-End (Flagship Release)
Dimensions163.5 x 85.7 x 9.9 mm
Weight 198 grams
Available Colors Pure White, Crystal Black
Operating System Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
Display 6.1 inches (~241 ppi pixel density), 720 x 1280 pixels, IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Processor 1.5 GHz Quad Core Huawei K3V2 chipset
RAM 2 GB RAM
Internal Storage 8 GB, expandable via microSD, supports up to 32GB
Camera 8 MegaPixels, 3264x2448 pixels, autofocus and LED flash, 1 MegaPixel front camera
Video Capture Full HD 1080p 30 frames per second, 720p 30fps front facing camera
Audio and Video Playback DivX/MP4/H.264/H.263/MP3/WAV/eAAC+ player
Ports microUSB v2.0, 3.5 mm audio jack
Connectivity Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth v4.0 with A2DP, LE, EDR, 3G HSDPA, 42 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.7 Mbps
Network 2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900, 3G Network HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100
Sensors Accelerometer, Digital Compass, Proximity, Gyroscope
Battery Li-Ion 4050 mAh battery
Uptime 14 hours of web browsing, 10 hours 8 minutes of video playback, 22 hours and 13 minutes of talk time
Value-Added Features Largest screen on a phablet currently available
Announcement Worldwide: January 2013
Availability TP Guesstimate: March 2013
Price TP Guesstimate: Php 25,000