Here, I'd like to mention the Lenovo P780 and its massive 4000 mAh battery. I got one for my Dad last week, and whilst he doesn't use Mobile data, he was able to get a nice 5 days of voice call usage and SMS out of it. Other specs are a 5" 720p display, dual sim, and 8 MP rear camera.
The only drawback would probably be that it is on Jelly bean (4.2.2) and might never be upgraded.
Why is this phablet being compared to phones? I know a 6 inch phablet has a bigger battery than a 5 inch phone. I know that 6 inch phablet has an easier time cooling the fast chips. What I don't know is how this phablet compares to other phablets.
The note 3 is a top tier device, this is a midrange device. They don;t really compete much because of that. I mean yeah they are both phablets, but the price sets them apart. Maybe it would be good to compare to the Note 2, if that phone happens to still be available at low prices.
You don't buy purely on pricepoint. You find out what kind of phone you want and then look for the best price/performance ratio. If I want a phablet I will look at a few phablets like this one and note3. The question becomes: is note3 worth the extra premium?
That's a generalization, and I can make the opposite case too: most people don't buy unlocked phones by paying full price upfront, and once you do you often have a price point already in mind (often something under $400).
It still wouldn't hurt to throw other phablets in for comparison or controlled outgroups. And to be more fair they could do something like compare it to a note 2 or an older phone since many companies do not really have mid range phones they just have late model phones that are not midrange due to age.
This honestly seems like one of the worst reviews on Anandtech. - 1 line about the 720p resolution on such a large screen - 240dpi is so 2012 and easily seen on any web page - Pretty bad GPU performance - For phablets, put to shame by the Oppo or OnePlus phones which are not much more expensive but far more capable.
Maybe a year ago this phone would be a worthwhile budget phablet, but Oppo and OnePlus have already shaken up the phablet market.
For someone that wants LENGTHY battery life without adding an extended battery (for Note2, Note3 etc.), this seems like a nice choice. The pixel density is low http://pixensity.com/list/phone/ (it is very near the bottom) but for a quite capable unlocked phone the price is not bad IMHO.
Totally agree. I couldn't believe to see Anand name on the top of this absurd review of such utter junk. Hey Anand, everything is fine there? Need an eye doctor or others too? Holly &&%$$, it's like i swimmed in the toulet at Engadget.
have you even tried the phone? It runs surprising well. The only time it bogs down is after several hours straight of clash of clans with xmod running on top. The only crash I've seen is an occasional contacts crash (weird because I can't find any info on why, maybe other contacts being imported). It runs much better than my G2 at half the price. I bought it because I am no longer subsidizing or financing phones and I was tired of having to charge my "great battery life" G2 at work. I love the battery optimizations and how it tells you if apps are eating battery in the background instead of a bunch of nonsensical google services in the battery list. I noticed the 720p screen for the first day, and after that, I didn't notice it being grainy or pixelated. To each their own, but I find that the midrange market is prime for explosive growth because Android runs just fine on lower end hardware. Funny how lower end hardware is snapdragon 400 and 2gb of RAM...
Why dont you ever throw in the Nokia Lumia 1520 into these comparisons? Especially when you are looking at things 5.5+ inches?
I'd love to see how my Lumia stacks up against some of these other phones. I have never done an official battery life test but everyday @7am I take it off the charger and @11pm I put it back on and it always has >50% battery life left. If I dont do any gaming or heavy downloading it will have >60%.
No reason to not include the 1520/930/Icon camera in the comparison, at the very least, especially when he mentions the Lumias on the camera architecture page!
Unfortunately, until Microsoft steps up and starts allowing fine grained control of brightness and the ability to disable the screen timeout, we will be unable to test the battery life of Windows Phone devices.
Well, you did this so-called "review" and didn't test the battery life either (or anything else to be more precise). No WP phone ever being reviewed (or hardly even just mentioned) because of WP lacking fine grained brightness control seems a bit over the top if you ask me.
It also fucks with the stand-by mode and they had to invent stuff that acted like a fake finger, but Microsoft of Synaptics closed that down. So yes, thank Microsoft for making their WP so efficient it doesn't battery test at all.
Just a heads up, the results of your Nexus 5 web scores are WELL wrong. I ran the tests and received considerably better results than what's reported here in your tables. Obviously, Android and Chrome have moved on since the debut of the Nexus 5 last year. I believe you need to update your tables with some kind of statement to indicate test date as it's misleading and not a fair accurate comparison by date. I'm sure you tested the latest version of Chrome on the Huawei? Doesn't that immediately invalidate the table? I'm running stock 4.4.3 Android and ART. On another note, I'd love to see a performance graph update for each version of Android. I'm sure it would be very popular. Keep up the fantastic work.
I have a prism2 from t-mobil which is a huawei device which I am generally been happy with, I'll have to look into this phablet when I bet a bit extraa cash.
I find it odd that you write a review of a device where in you you compare it e to phones that I would consider consider competing devices. But, then you don't include those phones you mentioned in the benchmark comparisons. I'm wondering why you didn't include say the onemaxx or note3?2 or 1mini or moto g. 3 of the phones l mentioned you mentioned and all seem like better comparison points to me than the phones used in the charts.
What happened with the photography? Anandtech has had good, or at the very least not bad, photography throughout for a decade or more, yet here it's mediocre at best, laughable at worst. One shot even has a reflection of the camera in it!
I currently own a Note 2. Bought it used for around $200. (Swappa!) I'm not bothered by the 5.5 screen (and size) on the Note 2 and actually looked at the Mega but ultimately decided against it. Since reviewer began by speaking about the note series I was disappointed to see no comparisons to the note series. Someone else mentioned the Note 2 would have been a good point of comparison and I think it would be.
I bought my wife a note 3, brand new on swappa (not retail) and it was 450 dollars. This new on Amazon with 2 year warranty was 290. Its not really a fair comparison. Yes my wife's note 3 has a prettier screen, but that is about it. This is a solid midrange phablet and should be compared with other phones in the 200-400 new price point.
"The first place to start is industrial and material design. While many people like to suggest that any weight given to ID or MD is effectively evaluating fashion for the sake of evaluating fashion, design is critical to a phone's utility. A phone or a tablet is something that people will be constantly feeling and looking at, thus a phone that's unergonomic or finished poorly will dramatically affect the rest of the experience."
I agree. The problem is that most reviews don't really criticize material or industrial design, but aesthetic design and whether or not a device is made from plastics or metal. As if metal has any advantage over metal besides it's perceived quality. The abundant disses of Samsung's devices on the use of glossy plastics (or lately the faux materials) are totally unnecessary. Any customer can judge a phone's looks by themselves, they don't need a reviewer to help them out.
This review honestly tells me practically nothing about how pleasant or enjoyable the device actually is to use. You've discussed the luminance and white balance of the display in exhaustive detail whilst glossing over the software and the actual experience of using the device in three fairly short paragraphs.
How much difference does it make to the real-world desirability of a phone if its saturation accuracy is 3.6063 rather than 3.8685? Nobody is going to notice that, but they will notice a shoddy UI or an unergonomic design. Reducing everything to numbers really misses the pleasure and pain points which make a good or a bad phone.
I bought this about 3 months ago and don't regret it at all. Sold my LG G2 to amazon for 145 and got this for 290. It is a little unwieldy at times due to size, but its easy to use, runs really well and I haven't had any software problems. I don't use many apps these days, and only play a couple of games so 16gb of storage with a 32gb micro sd card works fine for me. I unlocked mine using code from Huawei (all you have to do is ask) and rooted it. Its running JB, but I'm scared of what lollipop would do to an already great software experience. I wasn't a fan of the UI at first, but decided against 3rd party launchers when I saw how much battery they were eating.
I really think Huawei deserves some more brand recognition. I'm in Australia, and I recently purchased the Huawei Mediapad Honor X1 - basically a 7" phablet, a great convergence device. I've done away with my ultrabook, and use this while travelling with a BT keyboard, and while it's pretty big for pocket use, it's easy to stash in my hand-bag.
The quality of these phones - and the price point they are currently sitting at - make for excellent value. I took a gamble (was advised build quality wasn't up to some of the other devices), but I have been very pleasantly surprised. This Ascend looks good, too.
I'd seriously recommend anyone try these Huawei devices. Build quality and finish is up there with the likes of Samsung and Sony and Apple. I'd really like to see Anand do a review of the Mediapad X1. You can't argue with fully unlocked, broad gamut of 4G/LTE bands, 1920x1200 resolution etc for less than $400 USD . . . and all day or two battery life.
Avoid this crap. I just got the phone but found it cannot connect to a mobile network when I turn off Wi-Fi after it stays on Wi-Fi for some time. It cannot connect to a mobile network even after I re-start the device. This is over-hyped crap.
A good phone with a great camera (13mp). It's big, but I got used to it pretty quickly. I drop phones constantly, so I bought a Trident case, which so far seems to be fine. (looked for an Otter Box but they don't make one for the AM2.) Only real downside is that it gobbles up data like a fiend and my model came stuffed w/Google apps, and I've had to shut off the mobile network data manually when I'm off Wi-Fi to make sure I stay under my data cap. Four out of five stars....
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49 Comments
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amicic - Thursday, June 12, 2014 - link
We need more phones with this battery life (if that means 720p, i'm ok) in 5-5.2" sizes.Kristian Vättö - Thursday, June 12, 2014 - link
I totally agree. If this was a <5" phone, I would buy it on a heartbeat, but 6" is just way too big for my taste.nathanddrews - Thursday, June 12, 2014 - link
1080p and stock KK4.4 on this phablet would be perfect.ColinByers - Monday, September 29, 2014 - link
True. But why get the Huawei Ascend Mate 2 when there are other really good Android phones out there? /Colin from http://www.consumertop.com/best-phone-guide/bstowe9 - Friday, June 13, 2014 - link
That's what she said...SeleniumGlow - Monday, June 16, 2014 - link
Here, I'd like to mention the Lenovo P780 and its massive 4000 mAh battery. I got one for my Dad last week, and whilst he doesn't use Mobile data, he was able to get a nice 5 days of voice call usage and SMS out of it. Other specs are a 5" 720p display, dual sim, and 8 MP rear camera.The only drawback would probably be that it is on Jelly bean (4.2.2) and might never be upgraded.
Fergy - Thursday, June 12, 2014 - link
Why is this phablet being compared to phones? I know a 6 inch phablet has a bigger battery than a 5 inch phone. I know that 6 inch phablet has an easier time cooling the fast chips. What I don't know is how this phablet compares to other phablets.wimbet - Thursday, June 12, 2014 - link
It's big, but it's still a phone that fits in your pocket.vortmax2 - Thursday, June 12, 2014 - link
Agreed, I don't see the Note 3 on many of the comparison charts...extide - Thursday, June 12, 2014 - link
The note 3 is a top tier device, this is a midrange device. They don;t really compete much because of that. I mean yeah they are both phablets, but the price sets them apart. Maybe it would be good to compare to the Note 2, if that phone happens to still be available at low prices.Fergy - Friday, June 13, 2014 - link
You don't buy purely on pricepoint. You find out what kind of phone you want and then look for the best price/performance ratio. If I want a phablet I will look at a few phablets like this one and note3. The question becomes: is note3 worth the extra premium?Impulses - Friday, June 13, 2014 - link
That's a generalization, and I can make the opposite case too: most people don't buy unlocked phones by paying full price upfront, and once you do you often have a price point already in mind (often something under $400).PubFiction - Saturday, June 21, 2014 - link
It still wouldn't hurt to throw other phablets in for comparison or controlled outgroups. And to be more fair they could do something like compare it to a note 2 or an older phone since many companies do not really have mid range phones they just have late model phones that are not midrange due to age.dawheat - Thursday, June 12, 2014 - link
This honestly seems like one of the worst reviews on Anandtech.- 1 line about the 720p resolution on such a large screen - 240dpi is so 2012 and easily seen on any web page
- Pretty bad GPU performance
- For phablets, put to shame by the Oppo or OnePlus phones which are not much more expensive but far more capable.
Maybe a year ago this phone would be a worthwhile budget phablet, but Oppo and OnePlus have already shaken up the phablet market.
nevertell - Thursday, June 12, 2014 - link
But it's a gr8 m8, m8, I r8 8/8.coolhardware - Thursday, June 12, 2014 - link
For someone that wants LENGTHY battery life without adding an extended battery (for Note2, Note3 etc.), this seems like a nice choice. The pixel density is low http://pixensity.com/list/phone/ (it is very near the bottom) but for a quite capable unlocked phone the price is not bad IMHO.SanX - Saturday, June 14, 2014 - link
Totally agree. I couldn't believe to see Anand name on the top of this absurd review of such utter junk. Hey Anand, everything is fine there? Need an eye doctor or others too? Holly &&%$$, it's like i swimmed in the toulet at Engadget.nrfitchett4 - Friday, March 20, 2015 - link
have you even tried the phone? It runs surprising well. The only time it bogs down is after several hours straight of clash of clans with xmod running on top. The only crash I've seen is an occasional contacts crash (weird because I can't find any info on why, maybe other contacts being imported). It runs much better than my G2 at half the price. I bought it because I am no longer subsidizing or financing phones and I was tired of having to charge my "great battery life" G2 at work. I love the battery optimizations and how it tells you if apps are eating battery in the background instead of a bunch of nonsensical google services in the battery list. I noticed the 720p screen for the first day, and after that, I didn't notice it being grainy or pixelated.To each their own, but I find that the midrange market is prime for explosive growth because Android runs just fine on lower end hardware. Funny how lower end hardware is snapdragon 400 and 2gb of RAM...
cknobman - Thursday, June 12, 2014 - link
Why dont you ever throw in the Nokia Lumia 1520 into these comparisons? Especially when you are looking at things 5.5+ inches?I'd love to see how my Lumia stacks up against some of these other phones.
I have never done an official battery life test but everyday @7am I take it off the charger and @11pm I put it back on and it always has >50% battery life left.
If I dont do any gaming or heavy downloading it will have >60%.
Duraz0rz - Thursday, June 12, 2014 - link
No reason to not include the 1520/930/Icon camera in the comparison, at the very least, especially when he mentions the Lumias on the camera architecture page!JoshHo - Thursday, June 12, 2014 - link
Unfortunately, until Microsoft steps up and starts allowing fine grained control of brightness and the ability to disable the screen timeout, we will be unable to test the battery life of Windows Phone devices.uhuznaa - Thursday, June 12, 2014 - link
Well, you did this so-called "review" and didn't test the battery life either (or anything else to be more precise). No WP phone ever being reviewed (or hardly even just mentioned) because of WP lacking fine grained brightness control seems a bit over the top if you ask me.uhuznaa - Thursday, June 12, 2014 - link
Ah, sorry, missed the battery life section here... Still, the point about WP still stands.Death666Angel - Thursday, June 12, 2014 - link
It also fucks with the stand-by mode and they had to invent stuff that acted like a fake finger, but Microsoft of Synaptics closed that down. So yes, thank Microsoft for making their WP so efficient it doesn't battery test at all.mikedice - Thursday, June 12, 2014 - link
You mention that it is a value, but am I missing something...I never actually see the price listed.jimjamjamie - Thursday, June 12, 2014 - link
Final Words page, last paragraph.jjj - Thursday, June 12, 2014 - link
I fail to see how is this incredible value at 300$. Decent maybe but not good or great.Gunbuster - Thursday, June 12, 2014 - link
Is that MSRP? If so I would expect to see this going on sale in the $220-250 range.Goodnight $700 phone price fleecing.
JoshHo - Thursday, June 12, 2014 - link
For the same price as a Moto G LTE during pre-orders, this is a great phone. The 300 dollar price is about right, all things considered.josephnero - Thursday, June 12, 2014 - link
Please do a Xperia Z2 review.i love your reviewsKetzal - Thursday, June 12, 2014 - link
Just a heads up, the results of your Nexus 5 web scores are WELL wrong. I ran the tests and received considerably better results than what's reported here in your tables. Obviously, Android and Chrome have moved on since the debut of the Nexus 5 last year. I believe you need to update your tables with some kind of statement to indicate test date as it's misleading and not a fair accurate comparison by date. I'm sure you tested the latest version of Chrome on the Huawei? Doesn't that immediately invalidate the table? I'm running stock 4.4.3 Android and ART. On another note, I'd love to see a performance graph update for each version of Android. I'm sure it would be very popular. Keep up the fantastic work.Impulses - Friday, June 13, 2014 - link
ART isn't enabled by default is it...groundhogdaze - Thursday, June 12, 2014 - link
Great battery life is a godsend for me. I've got so many gadgets that need charging that I'm almost to the point of needing to do triage on them.Electron? - Thursday, June 12, 2014 - link
This came as a surprise, but it's great to see a phone that really pushes the boundaries on battery life.Really hoping your next review will be the LG G3. Anandtech is pretty much the only site that goes in-depth on battery life these days.
JoshHo - Thursday, June 12, 2014 - link
I hope it is too. :)dawp - Thursday, June 12, 2014 - link
I have a prism2 from t-mobil which is a huawei device which I am generally been happy with, I'll have to look into this phablet when I bet a bit extraa cash.GNUminex_l_cowsay - Thursday, June 12, 2014 - link
I find it odd that you write a review of a device where in you you compare it e to phones that I would consider consider competing devices. But, then you don't include those phones you mentioned in the benchmark comparisons. I'm wondering why you didn't include say the onemaxx or note3?2 or 1mini or moto g. 3 of the phones l mentioned you mentioned and all seem like better comparison points to me than the phones used in the charts.KillaKilla - Thursday, June 12, 2014 - link
What happened with the photography? Anandtech has had good, or at the very least not bad, photography throughout for a decade or more, yet here it's mediocre at best, laughable at worst. One shot even has a reflection of the camera in it!rivethead23 - Thursday, June 12, 2014 - link
I currently own a Note 2. Bought it used for around $200. (Swappa!) I'm not bothered by the 5.5 screen (and size) on the Note 2 and actually looked at the Mega but ultimately decided against it. Since reviewer began by speaking about the note series I was disappointed to see no comparisons to the note series. Someone else mentioned the Note 2 would have been a good point of comparison and I think it would be.nrfitchett4 - Friday, March 20, 2015 - link
I bought my wife a note 3, brand new on swappa (not retail) and it was 450 dollars. This new on Amazon with 2 year warranty was 290. Its not really a fair comparison. Yes my wife's note 3 has a prettier screen, but that is about it. This is a solid midrange phablet and should be compared with other phones in the 200-400 new price point.tim851 - Friday, June 13, 2014 - link
"The first place to start is industrial and material design. While many people like to suggest that any weight given to ID or MD is effectively evaluating fashion for the sake of evaluating fashion, design is critical to a phone's utility. A phone or a tablet is something that people will be constantly feeling and looking at, thus a phone that's unergonomic or finished poorly will dramatically affect the rest of the experience."I agree. The problem is that most reviews don't really criticize material or industrial design, but aesthetic design and whether or not a device is made from plastics or metal. As if metal has any advantage over metal besides it's perceived quality.
The abundant disses of Samsung's devices on the use of glossy plastics (or lately the faux materials) are totally unnecessary. Any customer can judge a phone's looks by themselves, they don't need a reviewer to help them out.
Euphonious - Saturday, June 14, 2014 - link
This review honestly tells me practically nothing about how pleasant or enjoyable the device actually is to use. You've discussed the luminance and white balance of the display in exhaustive detail whilst glossing over the software and the actual experience of using the device in three fairly short paragraphs.How much difference does it make to the real-world desirability of a phone if its saturation accuracy is 3.6063 rather than 3.8685? Nobody is going to notice that, but they will notice a shoddy UI or an unergonomic design. Reducing everything to numbers really misses the pleasure and pain points which make a good or a bad phone.
nrfitchett4 - Friday, March 20, 2015 - link
I bought this about 3 months ago and don't regret it at all. Sold my LG G2 to amazon for 145 and got this for 290. It is a little unwieldy at times due to size, but its easy to use, runs really well and I haven't had any software problems. I don't use many apps these days, and only play a couple of games so 16gb of storage with a 32gb micro sd card works fine for me. I unlocked mine using code from Huawei (all you have to do is ask) and rooted it. Its running JB, but I'm scared of what lollipop would do to an already great software experience. I wasn't a fan of the UI at first, but decided against 3rd party launchers when I saw how much battery they were eating.torimish - Sunday, June 15, 2014 - link
I really think Huawei deserves some more brand recognition. I'm in Australia, and I recently purchased the Huawei Mediapad Honor X1 - basically a 7" phablet, a great convergence device. I've done away with my ultrabook, and use this while travelling with a BT keyboard, and while it's pretty big for pocket use, it's easy to stash in my hand-bag.The quality of these phones - and the price point they are currently sitting at - make for excellent value. I took a gamble (was advised build quality wasn't up to some of the other devices), but I have been very pleasantly surprised. This Ascend looks good, too.
I'd seriously recommend anyone try these Huawei devices. Build quality and finish is up there with the likes of Samsung and Sony and Apple. I'd really like to see Anand do a review of the Mediapad X1. You can't argue with fully unlocked, broad gamut of 4G/LTE bands, 1920x1200 resolution etc for less than $400 USD . . . and all day or two battery life.
MarkWebb - Tuesday, June 17, 2014 - link
Ordered!mikkej2k - Thursday, July 10, 2014 - link
OK phone.Gethuawei.com website is broken. Call in customer service is also awful - be careful.
zlinghaha - Wednesday, August 6, 2014 - link
Avoid this crap. I just got the phone but found it cannot connect to a mobile network when I turn off Wi-Fi after it stays on Wi-Fi for some time. It cannot connect to a mobile network even after I re-start the device. This is over-hyped crap.FarWestNow - Tuesday, December 23, 2014 - link
A good phone with a great camera (13mp). It's big, but I got used to it pretty quickly. I drop phones constantly, so I bought a Trident case, which so far seems to be fine. (looked for an Otter Box but they don't make one for the AM2.) Only real downside is that it gobbles up data like a fiend and my model came stuffed w/Google apps, and I've had to shut off the mobile network data manually when I'm off Wi-Fi to make sure I stay under my data cap. Four out of five stars....nrfitchett4 - Friday, March 20, 2015 - link
turn off auto-sync. I haven't noticed any extra data used. You can turn off mobile data as well, leaving only wifi, phone and sms on.