CES 2014: Huawei unveils 6.1 inch phablet Ascend Mate 2 4G; Acer launches budget Android smartphone Liquid Z5

Taking forward our coverage of the ongoing Consumers Electronic Show (CES) 2014, today we are going to discuss in detail about the new mobile phone launches by brands like Huawei and Acer. You can also read our detailed coverage of CES 2014 for companies like ASUS, Samsung, and Sony & Micromax here, here and here.

While Huawei has unveiled the successor to its original Ascend Mate phablet- which now also comes with 4G LTE- Acer has launched a budget Android smartphone called Liquid Z5 targeted at the mid-price range segment. Here is a look at the specifications of the devices.

Huawei Ascend Mate 2 4G

The phablet features a 6.1 inch high definition LCD capacitive touchscreen display (1280×720 pixels resolution) and runs on the Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean) operating system. It is powered by a 1.6 GHz Qualcomm MSM8928 quad-core processor with Adreno 306 GPU and has 2 GB RAM. The device offers 16GB of internal memory, which can be further expanded up to 64GB with a microSD card.

It has a 13MP autofocus rear camera with LED flash that can also record full HD videos (1080p) at 30 frames per second, and a 5MP front facing camera for video calling. On the connectivity front, the device has Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi (with Wi-Fi Direct), 3G, & 4G LTE (like the name already states), and it also has a microUSB port & a microSD card slot.

Ascend Mate 2 4G measures 161mm x 84.7mm x 9.5mm and weighs 202 gm. Huawei has added a 4,050 mAh battery in the device, which it claims will provide up to 25 hours of talk time and 60 hours of battery life on a single charge. Interestingly, since the device has such a powerful battery, it also comes with a 'reverse charging' function that basically lets the phablet serve as a power source to charge batteries of other smartphones as well. The smartphone comes with stereo FM radio, GPS (with A-GPS support) and will be available in black and white colours.

Liquid Z5 for $230 (Rs 14,285)

The smartphone sports a 5 inch TFT capacitive touchscreen display (480x854 pixels resolution) and runs on the Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean) operating system. It is powered by a 1.3 GHz Mediatek MT6572 dual-core processor with Mali-400 GPU and has 512 MB of RAM. This one has only 4GB of internal memory, which can be further expanded up to 32GB with a microSD card.

This one has a 5MP autofocus rear camera with LED flash that can also record videos, and a front facing VGA camera for video calling. On the connectivity front, it has Bluetooth 3.0, Wi-Fi, & 3G, and it also has a microUSB port & a microSD card slot.

Liquid Z5 measures 145.5mm x 73.5mm x 8.8mm and weighs 150 gm. The device has a 2,000 mAh battery, dual-SIM capability and FM radio. It comes with GPS (with A-GPS support) and will be available in white and grey colours. While its India launch date and pricing is not available as of now, the company has priced it at $230 (Rs 14,285) in select European markets.

In addition to the smartphone, the company has also unveiled two entry level tablets christened A1-830 & B1-720. Both the tablets run on the Android operating system and have been competitively priced to target the low-cost tablet segment. While an exact India launch date is not available as of now, the company has priced the tablets at $179 (Rs 11,153) for A1-830 and $129 (Rs 8,037) for B1-720 respectively.