Huawei Ascend Mate

“In terms of screen size, the Huawei Ascend Mate slots in between the Galaxy Mega 5.8 and the Mega 6.3. However in terms of specs, it's a lot closer to the upper end, that is the Mega 6.3, and yet notably cheaper than it. That's a solid start for the Chinese phablet, which is just an NFC radio and LTE support short of matching its Samsung rival.”

“With big-screen handsets, the game is to replace your phone, tablet, laptop, camera and so on, with one converging device, but we'll leave to Mr Market to decide whether this can be done via a 6.1 smartphone successfully enough. On the plus side, Huawei has equipped the Ascend Mate with the largest stock battery in a smartphone at 4050 mAh, so that you can keep watching movies on the plane for 10 hours straight. Not only that, but the phone is an all-around quality package for the sub-$500 price, with its stereo sound recording, great call quality, super-sensitive display and pentaband radio. The only gripe with the phone, if you love'em big screens, is the camera, as the lens seem unable to produce a well-focused image anywhere but in the center of the frame.”

“At this size, the Mate won't be for everyone. You're going to need to really want a massive handset and you're going to need to think about the practicalities of owning such a big phone. And on the downside, the screen resolution isn't that great but for the most part, it didn't trouble us. The only problem is, some things do look a little soft on the display, but this never gave us significant problems in real-world testing and we say it's nothing to worry about.”

“Despite a few issues here and there, like the okay buy not great camera and the slightly dated chipset architecture, there is an awful lot to like about the Huawei Ascend Mate. Whether the simplified, somewhat unusual UI appeals to you is up in the air, but if you like the idea of a large screen on your phone, you could certainly do worse, especially if you don't mind 720p.”