huawei

The Huawei Ascend Mate may be built like a linebacker, but it's the custom software interface floating on top of the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean device that can hope to salvage an otherwise blah phablet experience.

With its 6.1-inch screen, the Mate is currently the largest smartphone you can buy -- though Samsung's Galaxy Note refresh is rumored to match or surpass even this gargantuan display with its own 6- or even 6.3-inch version. The Mate's screen is easy to read, yes, but it's also lower-resolution than I'd expect for the size. … Read more

HTC, Sony, and Huawei are leading the charge into large, full high-definition phone displays, said DisplayMate Technologies. It's a market Apple has yet to enter.

"With the iPhone 4 Retina display, Apple pioneered the previous generation of smartphone displays in 2010," wrote Raymond Soneira in DisplayMate Technologies' Full HD Flagship Smartphone Display Technology Shoot-Out released on Tuesday.

"This time the pioneers are all Android devices, with the iPhone still not even at the basic HD resolution of 1,280x720," he said.

Apple has some catching up to do to achieve "true Retina," as … Read more

Huawei would consider snapping up Nokia, which could help it boost its smartphone gains in Europe and the U.S., a company executive said on Tuesday.

According to the Financial Times of London (paywall), Richard Yu, chairman of Huawei's consumer business group, said at the launch of its latest smartphone offering, the Ascend P6, in London: "We are considering these sorts of acquisitions; maybe the combination has some synergies but depends on the willingness of Nokia."

"We are open minded," Yu told reporters.

Nokia would have to be a willing participant in a buyout discussion, … Read more

Earlier this year, Huawei impressed us with its super-skinny Ascend P2, but now the up-and-coming Chinese firm is looking to wow us a second time with the Ascend P6, a similar Android smartphone with a few hardware tweaks.

Huawei is fond of crafting creepily thin phones, and the P6 is no exception, measuring a slender 6.18 millimeters (0.24-inch) thick. The aluminium edges are very reminiscent of the iPhone, but the bottom of the phone is rounded, giving the P6 a tiny bit of original flair.

Like the P2, the P6 sports a 4.7-inch 720p display, and plays … Read more

Huawei, the embattled China-based telecom equipment maker that has been trying unsuccessfully to make an entrance into the U.S., thinks it has the right recipe to be successful in smartphones.

Speaking to Reuters in an interview published on Friday, Huawei deputy chairman Guo Ping said that his company wants to expand its presence in smartphones and not co-branded devices with carriers, as it has in the past. As part of that strategy, the company wants to try and combine the benefits of flashiness and high-tech to appeal to customers.

"In some ways, (designing) a smartphone is in the … Read more

A British Parliamentary committee has raised security concerns, echoing fears in Congress, about the potential threat that Chinese telecommunications-gear maker Huawei could be snooping on government and business interests.

The Intelligence and Security Committee issued a scathing, 27-page report Thursday, expressing shock over the lack of oversight regarding the manner in which Huawei gear has spread throughout that country's "critical national infrastructure." Rather than aggressively investigating concerns raised in the United States and elsewhere about the possible threat of relying on Huawei gear, British government agencies balked over worries that they would need to compensate the company … Read more

When members of the blind community petition the National Federation of the Blind about cell phones, they repeatedly ask for two things: a mobile phone that's easy to use, and audiobooks.

So says Odin Mobile, a new mobile network catering to the visually impaired. The Huawei Vision, Odin Mobile's star of the show at launch, promises to deliver both of those most-wanted attributes as soon as July -- and then some.

Less important than the coincidentally named and preexisting Huawei Vision debut device is the modified operating system that's loaded onto the Android phone. Called Project Ray, … Read more

The Samsung Galaxy S4 brings a lot of tech to the table. From eye-tracking and gesture control, to its built-in translator and ability to act as a TV remote, the phone is cutting-edge in a plethora of ways. That being said, in today's highly saturated smartphone market, does the S4 have what it takes to be the best? And if it does, is it enough to get people to switch or upgrade with so many good options out there? With these questions in mind, we dished the S4 out to three people, both iOS and Android users, to let … Read more

In a further attempt to ease national security concerns over its proposed acquisition of Sprint, Japan-based SoftBank has agreed to give the U.S. government the right to approve one of the members SoftBank would appoint to Sprint's board of directors, according to a report.

The U.S.-approved board member would make sure a SoftBank-owned Sprint honored whatever security agreement is hammered out with U.S. regulators, The Wall Street Journal reported late Wednesday, citing unnamed sources.

Regulators are also seeking oversight of Sprint's network equipment purchases to prevent gear from Chinese suppliers Huawei Technologies and ZTE … Read more