Mysterious 6.1 inch Huawei Ascend Mate phone has us saying “enough is enough”
The “bigger is better” attitude that has hit the mobile world seemed fine for a bit. We’ve gone from the 3.2 inches featured on the original G1, went up to a more respectable and balanced 4 inches, stretched the bar with 4.7 inches, and we’ve even accepted a 5.5-inch wonder into our good graces. But what if I told you we were about to go even bigger?
Well, Huawei sure seems to think that there is room for about 6/10ths of an inch more before we start hitting that boundary that asks us to decide whether or not it’s a phone or tablet. That’s right — a 6.1 inch smartphone (if you can even call it that anymore) called the Huawei Ascend Mate may be in the works.
The rumored specs are amazing — It’s said to feature 1080p resolution, 2GB of RAM, a 1.8GHz quad-core processor, and a 4,000mAh battery. Say what you want about Huawei devices, but any phone with that collection of internals deserves a second look.
It’s hard for us to swallow that screen size though. At 6.1 inches you’re less than one inch away from being a 7 inch tablet. I wouldn’t even call this thing a “phablet.” I’d call it a tablet with the ability to make calls. This phone, if true, simply steps too far into the direction of a tablet for me to respect its status as a phone.
While I can’t judge how wieldy the device would be without any images, I imagine things would get a tad cumbersome if Huawei sticks with the industry-standard 16:9 or 16:10 aspect ratio.
For comparison’s sake, the 5.5 inch Galaxy Note 2 is even easier to hold than the 5.3 inch Galaxy Note as Samsung’s engineering process has allowed them to increase the screen size while still keeping roughly the same overall size. I can palm a Galaxy Note 2 no problem, and though one-handed use is not a possibility for me I do not consider it a problem to need to use two hands.
Going a bit above this Huawei device, the Nexus 7 is 7 inches large, and I can fully palm that tablet. I can even stick it into my front pockets if I so choose. Hell, the original Galaxy Tab 10.1 could be palmed with one hand in portrait mode.
But does that mean it should be a phone? Absolutely not. As I’ve said, I can not accurately judge this device without anything to reference, but the sheer thought of having a 6.1 inch phone has me screaming “enough is enough.”
- Bigger is not always better as you can tell with the rising popularity of 7 inch tablets vs 10 inch tablets.
- The saying “everything’s bigger in Texas” actually makes me not want to go there.
- If my phone is bigger than some of the steaks I’ve eaten then I have a serious problem.
- If my phone is bigger than my head then I’ve officially made a concerted and conscious effort with Huawei to make myself look like a dolt. And I don’t like making myself look like a dolt.
And while I’m not the voice of the people by any means I think many share similar sentiments when I say that there needs to be some sort of unofficial cap when it comes to these display sizes before you. I’d vote for 5.5 inches personally, and even a centimeter above that should automatically be considered a tablet.
I’d be surprised if any carrier would even consider such a phone. It would be a difficult task to market this things, and most consumers I know would easily mistake such a device for a tablet at the point of sale. Perhaps this thing will be perfect for some niche market that exists in a realm I’m not a part of, but I just don’t see this being an ideal size for pretty much anyone.
We’d love to hear what you guys think. Would this phone be way too big for its own good or is Huawei’s desire to stretch (no pun intended… I think) the market even further than Samsung was daring enough to do ingenious? Sound off in the comments below!
[MyDrivers via AndroidForums.com, thanks Earl!]