Dubai. Huawei’s Ascend Mate is a smartphone with a huge 6.1-inch screen. They were among the first to launch what is now known in the industry as a ‘phablet’ — a large screen device — but others are following suit. Samsung will soon release a 6.3-inch device.

Does size matter? Yes. With a large screen you can better view movies, photographs and surf the internet.

The phone has a premium finish with a metal rim and a non-removable polycarbonate shell at the back.

The IPS+ display supports 1280 x 720 pixel resolution, which translates into 241 pixels per inch. This is average compared to other high-end phones, but is decent for the price. The screen is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass.

The disadvantage of the size is the difficulty holding the phone and using it with one hand, even though it weighs just 198 grams. But Huawei has cleverly tweaked Android 4.1 Jelly Bean’s stock interface with their home-grown Emotion User Interface 1.5. This interface allows the keyboard and dial pad to be minimised and moved to the right or left of the screen so the Ascend Mate can still be operated with one hand. Huawei has even conveniently placed the volume rocker and power button for single hand use.

The phone is powered by Huawei’s 1.5 Ghz quad-core processor and sports 2GB of RAM and 8GB of internal memory. Out of the 8GB, only 4.6GB is available for users, so you have to use a micro storage chip.

The apps drawer is divided into four folders with all the major pre-installed applications: tools, management, Google apps and social.

The pre-installed game — Riptide GP — runs smoothly on this device, but the graphic rich Real Racing 3 stutters. Huawei needs to take a closer look at this, as the screen size is suited for gaming.

Other features include WiFi, 3G, AirSharing and Bluetooth 4.0, but it has no Near Field Communication.

The Ascend sports an 8 megapixel rear camera with an autofocus feature supplemented with LED flash, face detection, geo-tagging and high-dynamic-range imaging (HDR). The interface is clean and easily navigable.

Pictures taken in daylight are bright and vivid and shutter lag and focus are reasonably quick. But, in low-light pictures the colours look washed out and underexposed at times.

The camera has several presets to choose from, but Huawei has not overloaded the Ascend with features, unlike some other devices. However, there are Instagram- like features — big face, big nose, gobbler, insect, professor and wide smile — to tweak the photos.

The rear camera can record videos in HRI and in full high definition. Video recordings are better than pictures on the Ascend as it can shoot 1080p at 30 frames per second.

The 1MP HD front camera is good for video chatting. The front camera can also shoot 720p at 30 frames per second.

The Ascend Mate battery is the best in the market. It features a massive 4050mAh battery compared to Galaxy Note 2’s 3,100mAh battery. It also has patented QPC and ADRX smart power-saving technology, which allows two days’ normal use on a single charge. With a big screen and quad-core processor you need a bigger battery, but the drawback is that it cannot be removed.

During my test of the power-saving technology — which involved streaming videos, internet browsing, playing movies and music — it lasted more than nine hours. In the normal power profile, it lasted for more than 12 hours.

The Ascend is available in black and white. It is priced at Dh1,599.