Huawei Ascend Mate review: Gentle giant

Display

The Huawei Ascend Mate flaunts a 6.1" IPS+ LCD of 720p resolution, which works out to 241ppi. While this is nowhere near the 400+ pixel density of current flagships, we should not forget that it's a completely different price range we're talking about. The Ascend Mate beats a direct rival in the face of the Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3, too.

Huawei Ascend Mate 6.1" IPS+ display

The Huawei Ascend Mate's screen offers very good viewing angles with no color shift and only slight contrast loss when looking at the display at an a angle.

The brightness control in the notification area is a single virtual key with four steps: Automatic, 100%, 50% and 0% brightness. There's no brightness slider as in competing Android devices. There is an additional Smart Backlight toggle in the Display Settings - this could be On or Off and we're not sure how it affects the image quailty.

Sunlight contrast ratio

• Nokia 808 PureView
  4.698
• Apple iPhone 5
  3.997
• Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III
  3.419
• Samsung Galaxy S4
  3.352
• Samsung Omnia W
  3.301
• Samsung Galaxy S
  3.155
• Nokia N9
  3.069
• Samsung Galaxy Note
  2.970
• HTC One S
  2.901
• Samsung Galaxy S II
  2.832
• Samsung Galaxy S II Plus
  2.801
• Huawei Ascend P1
  2.655
• Nokia Lumia 900
  2.562
• HTC One
  2.504
• Sony Xperia Z
  2.462
• Samsung Galaxy S III mini
  2.422
• Motorola RAZR i
  2.366
• Sony Xperia ZL
  2.352
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  2.307
• Apple iPhone 4S
  2.269
• HTC One X
  2.158
• Nokia N8
  2.144
• Oppo Find 5
  2.088
• BlackBerry Z10
  2.051
• Apple iPhone 4
  2.016
• Sony Ericsson Xperia ray
  1.955
• Samsung Galaxy Camera
  1.938
• Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3
  1.913
• HTC Butterfly
  1.873
• Huawei Ascend Mate
  1.845
• Sony Xperia V
  1.792
• Sony Xperia U
  1.758
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  1.691
• HTC One V
  1.685
• LG Optimus Vu
  1.680
• HTC Desire V
  1.646
• LG Optimus G Pro
  1.552
• LG Optimus 3D
  1.542
• Nokia Asha 302
  1.537
• Nokia Lumia 610
  1.432
• Gigabyte GSmart G1355
  1.361
• HTC Desire C
  1.300
• LG Optimus L7
  1.269
• LG Optimus L9
  1.227
• Meizu MX
  1.221
• Sony Xperia E dual
  1.203
• Samsung Galaxy Pocket
  1.180
• Sony Xperia tipo
  1.166
• Samsung Galaxy mini 2
  1.114

You can find all about our display testing routines here.

Huawei Ascend Mate's screen under a microscope

The Huawei Ascend Mate also offers an option to adjust the color temperature. It's a slider that gives you control over color balance depending on how you like your display better - cooler or warmer.