ZTE Grand Memo vs Huawei Ascend Mate
ZTE and Huawei have had their products revealed intermittently in the Consumer Electronic Show and Mobile World Congress, but the propagation of them in-land is second to zero. However both companies have taken actions to improve their marketing efforts and to make their brand names emerge throughout the world. The two handsets we are going to talk about today can be considered as their new signature devices that may well be used to improve their good will. They seem to have an issue on finalizing a career in the USA, but once they do, we are positive that there will be an ample market for these Chinese products. Hence let us make a comparison in advance before that happens, so you know what you are going to get. ZTE Grand Memo was revealed in MWC 2013 while Huawei Ascend Mate was revealed in CES 2013 and resurfaced in MWC 2013. Let us compare these two smartphones and report back the differences.
ZTE Grand Memo Review
ZTE Grand Memo reflects a great inspiration for non-mainstream Android device manufacturers. It emanates potential for more and can be considered as one of the best handsets in the market right now; at least as per specs on record. It is powered by 1.5GHz Quad Core Krait processor on top of Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chipset with Adreno 330 GPU and 2GB of RAM. It runs on Android OS v4.1.2 and looks almost like Vanilla Android. As we pointed out, the specs certainly seem appalling. In fact, ZTE Grand Memo is the first smartphone to feature Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chipset. However, there are also some posts denying the Snapdragon 800 processor and indicating that it’s, actually, Snapdragon 600. We are quoting the official press release by ZTE as of now placing our confidence on the manufacturer.
Grand Memo sports 5.7 inch capacitive touchscreen display featuring a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels display although we have also seen some indication of a variant that has 1080p resolution, as well. The display panel doesn’t seem to offer Corning Gorilla glass reinforcement which is a disappointment. Even though the interior looks like a beast, the cover of the device feels more like a low end device with plasticky finish and semi rounded edges. The thickness is at 8.5mm which is not the industry best, but certainly an acceptable measure. ZTE has included a 13MP camera at the back that can capture 1080p HD videos with LED flash and the 1MP front camera can be used for video conferencing. It might not be the best camera in the industry, but we are expecting an acceptable performance out of the 13MP camera. ZTE has also indicated that Grand Memo would feature 4G LTE connectivity on top of 3G HSDPA connectivity. It also has Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n for continuous connectivity and makes sharing your internet connection relatively easy. You can also share your screen using DLNA with an enabled display panel extending the capabilities of Wi-Fi further. The internal storage is at 16GB with the option to be extended by using microSD card up to 32GB. ZTE claims that this handset has a 3200mAh battery for super-long standby. We still need to test and verify this claim in realistic circumstances. USA customers may not like the fact that ZTE is only marketing Grand Memo in Asia and Europe, but you might get it in USA sometime in the future.
Huawei Ascend Mate Review
If you think Samsung Galaxy Note is large, then it’s time for you to take a look at Huawei Ascend Mate. It is gigantic if not colossal at 6.1 inches. Huawei goes ahead and call this a smartphone, but we are not convinced, I mean, we are not convinced whether we can place that at the phablet category either. In any case, let’s give it a chance. The giant needs both hands to hold comfortably although Huawei has curved the glossy plastic back of Ascend Mate for a firmer grip. However, when compared with Samsung Galaxy Note, it can be seen that Huawei has had serious design considerations to improve the outlook of this giant. It is powered by 1.5GHz Quad Core processor from HiSilicon with 2GB of RAM. Ascend Mate runs on Android OS v4.1.2 Jelly Bean with the Huawei custom Emotion UI. The specs on the sheet are certainly lucrative, but the processor comes from a less known Huawei’s in-house semiconductor division making it difficult to compare it directly without benchmarking.
Huawei Ascend Mate has 6.1 inches IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen display panel that features a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels at a pixel density of 241ppi. It comes with Corning Gorilla glass reinforcement for dust and scratch protection. The pixel density is relatively low compared to the high end smartphones released these days, but it reproduces colors vibrantly with no apparent pixilation. Huawei Ascend only offers HSDPA connectivity, as opposed to super-fast 4G LTE connectivity which might be a turn-off. It has Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n for continuous connectivity with the ability to share your internet connection by making the smartphone a Wi-Fi hotspot. It also has DLNA enabling you to stream rich media content to DLNA enabled big screens. The optics is at 8MP wit LED flash and autofocus and can capture 1080p HD videos @ 30 frames per second. It can detect your face and also supports HDR image capturing. The 1MP front camera can be utilized for video conferencing. Huawei Ascend Mate comes in Crystal Black and Pure White colors with a beefy 4050mAh battery that would have plenty of juice to keep the big display panel running throughout the day.
A Brief Comparison Between ZTE Grand Memo and Huawei Ascend Mate
• ZTE Grand Memo is powered by 1.5GHz Quad Core Krait processor on top of Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chipset with Adreno 330 GPU and 2GB of RAM while Huawei Ascend Mate is powered by 1.5GHz Quad Core processor from HiSilicon with 2GB of RAM.
• ZTE Grand Memo and Huawei Ascend Mate both run on Android OS v4.1.2 Jelly Bean.
• ZTE Grand Memo has 5.7 inches capacitive touchscreen display featuring a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels while Huawei Ascend has 6.1 inches IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen display featuring a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels at a pixel density of 241ppi.
• ZTE Grand Memo features 4G LTE connectivity while Huawei Ascend Mate only features 3G HSDPA connectivity.
• ZTE Grand Memo has 13MP back camera that can capture 1080p HD videos @ 30 fps while Huawei Ascend Mate has 8MP camera that can capture 1080p HD videos @ 30 fps.
• ZTE Grand Memo has 3200mAh battery while Huawei Ascend Mate has 4050mAh battery.
Conclusion
As mentioned in the introduction, both these manufacturers are relatively low matured in the smartphone market. They do hold a good reputation in other tech related markets which may give them a head start for their journey in the smartphone market. In any case, we can definitely recommend ZTE Grand Memo because it comes with the hardware elements we have come to know over the years and trust to deliver great performance boosters. On the other hand, it should be note that Huawei’s in-house K3V2 chipset excelled several benchmarks during the last year, and if their new processor is anything like that, then we can surely recommend Huawei Ascend Mate too. A slight problem I see with Huawei Ascend is the form factor which goes beyond 6 inches and is literally not pocket-able. However, if you have big hands, you may be able to use Ascend Mate with one hand. Another slight hiccup is the lack of 4G LTE connectivity, but this may be overlooked by many customers given the LTE coverage map and the brief difference of speed in realistic scenarios. Hence the differentiating factor may come to be the price each of these handsets is offered. These two manufacturers are known to offer competitive pricing schemes, so we are expecting a great deal out of these two.