Review: Huawei Ascend Mate 7

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I remember the days when I was a tech journalist. In some ways, I'm a gadget geek, the type who would get extremely excited every time I lay my hands on the latest gadget. It's been a long time since I had that feeling. So imagine my excitement when I received the Huawei Ascend Mate 7 for this feature. It was nice to get that old feeling back again. 

First impressions

Smartphone designs are getting more and more impressive, and the Huawei Ascend Mate 7 is definitely one that catches attention from the onset. It comes in a black box with slim embossed letters. Nice and sleek. It is a precursor to how stylishly designed the actual phone is. And I must say, I was rather impressed by it. Extremely slim (how slim? We’ll get to that in a moment.), extremely appealing, looks set to be a smartphone with heaps of promises. Beyond the first impressions, how exactly does the Huawei Ascend Mate 7 help a busy mum? 

5 ways how Huawei helps a busy mum

More space for parenting (and child) necessities

It measures only 7.9mm, so it’s extremely thin. As can be seen in the picture below, it fits right into the box set of books. Yet, it’s smaller than a Peter & Jane Key Words book, which makes it an easy fit into most bags and pockets, leaving sufficient space to put other stuff, such as kids’ toys or notebooks and colour pencils. The Ascend Mate 7 also doesn’t weigh anyone or anything down, since it only tips the scales at 185g. That’s even lighter than a cup of water!

Don’t you hate pop up messages like ‘Low battery 20%’? I do. Now this whole light and slim package that is the Ascend Mate 7 includes the 4100 mAh lithium polymer battery. Its Power-Saving feature allows one to customise how one wants to use the smartphone. There are three modes - Normal for maximum performance, especially when gaming and watching online videos, Smart for daily use and Ultra for basic call and message functions, useful when the battery is low. It shuts down the battery draining operations for extra battery life. Now that’s what I call intuitive.

Bigger screen and memory means more eye-popping images

The 6-inch screen almost fills most of the 157mm x 81mm (6.1inch x 3.1-inch) smartphone. In fact, 83% of the screen takes up the body. This makes it one of the biggest in the market. Its resolution is also on par with the rest, at 1920 x 1080 pixels, bringing higher contrast and more accurate colour to pictures of kids that are being shown off proudly to family and friends. There are lots of internal memory too, 16GB of it. Together with the option of inserting a MicroSD card, busy mums can take heaps of photos and videos before downloading them to a laptop.

It’s also possible to sneak in a video or two, when the kids are in dreamland. The Ascend Mate 7 is the first smartphone to be powered by a super eight-core Kiren 925 SoC chipset. Ok, sounds complex? Actually it’s not, Essentially, this processor enables the Ascend Mate 7 to be a super multitasker - manage work and parenting life, entertain the kids, record memories of the kids, and of course, entertain the parent. Together with the fast 4G LTE technology and a download rate of up to 300 Mbps, videos, even full-length movies, can be streamed without interruption.

Powerful camera for snapping sharper images of beautiful kids

Which smartphone toting parent can resist snapping pictures of their little ones? Definitely not me! The 13-megapixel back camera is as good as any dedicated digital camera, while the 5-megapixel front camera has a panoramic feature that takes a ‘groufie’ shot without using a selfie stick. Snapping pictures of the funny antics of unpredictable kids at just the right time is no longer a ‘trial and error and hope for the best’ situation, thanks to the 1.2-second Ultra snapshot and Low-light Performance features. They instantly capture the right moment within a second, in whatever light conditions. So no worries about missing that precious moment!

More accurate fingerprint security and less unwanted calls

This is one feature that I personally like. At the back of the smartphone is a fingerprint sensor that can read fingerprints in any direction and is incredibly accurate. It can be programmed to wake the smartphone from sleep mode without pressing any other buttons. As the fingerprint data is encrypted, sensitive applications and files can be locked and opened only using the fingerprint sensor. This means that I can keep my kids’ pictures away from prying eyes. Up to five fingerprints can be stored.

Another good feature is the Harassment Filter, which allows one to block messages and calls, and even blacklist certain contacts. This is really useful and handy in preventing unnecessary attention.

Set clear profiles for work and family

Now this is quite useful for a mum, whether she is a full time working mum or stay at home mum. The Ascend Mate 7 enables different profiles to be customized and set according to their needs. A total of five different individual profiles can be set, according to the five stored fingerprints. So working mums like me can set up one for work-related apps and files, and another for family-related apps and files, and keep them absolutely separate. One can even set up separate profiles for the children, with age-appropriate educational apps and games.

The Huawei Ascend Mate 7 is indeed a very well-designed smartphone. Its various features make it a friendly and efficient device for parents who want outstanding images and trustworthy security yet do not want to compromise on style and functionality.

Disclaimer: This is a paid review feature. We received monetary compensation. All images are our own.

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