Check Out This Massive New 'Phablet' — The Trend Apple Is Missing Out On

Kevin Smith

2013-01-08T20:03:00Z

We got a chance today to play around with Huawei's new Ascend Mate smartphone at CES.

The 6.1-inch Android-powered monster is one of the biggest smartphones we've ever seen and truly blurs the line between phone and tablet.

This is the newest trend in smartphones: Giant screens that can play full HD video. A lot of people call them "phablets."

For comparison's sake the 6.1-inch Ascend Mate is just slightly smaller than Amazon's Kindle Fire HD.

A phone this large probably won't work for most people, but manufacturers already have the ball rolling on such devices. Samsung already has the Galaxy Note II. Sony announced a large 5-inch Xperia phone last night. And LG is expected to announce its own phablet next month.

The Ascend Mate runs Google's latest mobile software, Jelly Bean.

Despite its, large size the phone was well constructed and felt good. The plastic casing didn't really feel cheap.

There's plenty of room for Android widgets and the screen is reinforced with Gorilla Glass. It's very durable.

Here it is compared to the iPhone 5. The Ascend Mate looked as if it could eat the iPhone 5 in one bite.

We didn't get a chance to see how the Ascend Mate would feel in a pocket, but we imagine it would be uncomfortable.

It charges via micro-USB. It's huge 4050 mAh battery promises 9 days of standby time on a CDMA network, like Verizon's.

The volume and power buttons are on the right side of the device.

The headphone jack and SIM card slot are on the top of the phone.

The camera is a standard 8 megapixels with flash. The Ascend Mate also has a 1 megapixel front-facing camera.

Photos looked great on the HD screen.

The phone also comes in pure white.

Here's another view of the side in white.

Now check out Vizio's budget friendly line-up...

Here's Your First Look At Vizio's 2013 Lineup For Budget-Friendly PCs, Tablets, TVs, And Smartphones >

Huawei Smartphones