Android Smartphone Developments At CES 2013

There weren't many smartphone announcements at CES 2013, but most of them were for Android phones and here they are, including one phablet. Pantech, Sony and Huawei all announced phones — some exclusively for the Chinese market — and Intel released a CPU and reference platform optimized for Android and also designed for low cost in emerging markets.

Huawei Ascend Mate

Huawei, a company you've probably never heard of, but which generated over $32 billion in revenue last year, unveiled two Android phones at CES this year.

The first, and more interesting of the pair is the Ascend Mate. The company claims that the device includes the largest screen on a phone in the world. At 6.1" it very well might be. (The Samsung Galaxy Note II, by comparison, features a 5.55" display.) But as large as the dispaly is, it's disappointing. It won't display full 1080p — the display is 1280x720, i.e. 720p. 720p is still HD, but with a larger screen we expected the higher resolution, because at that point it may be possible to notice a difference.

The rest of the hardware sounds decent enough. A 1.5GHz Hi-Silicon quad-core processor powers the device. The company claims the 4050 mAh battery provides, "... up to two days of ordinary usage on a single charge." They also claim that the charging system charges the device 30 percent more quickly, although they don't specify to which device they're comparing it.

The operating system is Android 4.1. In addition, it features an eight megapixel rear-facing camera, and a one-megapixel front-facing camera.

Unfortunately the company will release the phone in China only, and hasn't announced other markets at this point. But, with such a big screen we're curious to get our hands on one.

The other phone, the Ascend D2, is also China-only.

Next: Sony Xperia Z