The annual Consumer Electronics Show is always an exciting event for those who love to stay up to date with the latest technologies, but CES 2014 has been rather disappointing for those looking for new mobile phones. Industry giants HTC and Samsung have failed to announce new phones so far, and with only two days left in the conference it looks like the show belonged to smaller players this year. We’ve just posted the exciting news from Sony about two new top of the range phones they’ll be releasing shortly, but other manufacturers also made announcements. Here’s we’ll be looking at the latest offerings from ASUS, Huawei and Hisense.
Hisense X1
Haven’t heard of Hisense before? Don’t worry, neither had we. They’re a technology company that focuses on televisions and tablets rather than smartphones, but the Hisense X1 is their first venture into the Android phone market. Normally another Android device from another small manufacturer wouldn’t be on our radar, but the Hisense X1 is different. Or rather it’s larger. With a 6.8 inch screen this phone is so large that it’s difficult – impossible for some – to use with a single hand. Still it’s distinctly a phone rather than a tablet and can make and receive calls.
Specs are high end – there’s a top of the line quad-core Snapdragon 800 2.3 GHz processor, 2 GB of RAM, a gigantic 3900 mAh battery, 13 megapixel main camera with a 5 megapixel front facing camera in support. Plus the display has IPS and is 1080p Full HD. All great specs, but the price range is surprisingly mid-range for such as high-end phone. Currently it’s only being released in China, but wider availability is predicted over the next few months.
Huawei Ascend Mate2 4G
Huawei phones are becoming increasingly popular for offering great specs without the high end price tag charged by other manufacturers. The Ascend Mate was their most popular phone to do in Western markets, and they’re following it up this year with the Ascend Mate2 4G. As the name suggests the biggest change is the introduction of 4G LTE which brings download speeds of up to 150 mbps.
Other changes include utilising a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip, but sadly this isn’t a top of the range processor. It’s still quad-core, but only a Snapdragon 400 rather than the latest Snapdragon 800, and only clocked to 1.6 GHz. The screen is pretty much the same at 720p and 6.1 inches. However the battery is gigantic at 4050 mAh and large enough that you can even use the phone to charge up other electronics. In normal use you’ll easily be able to get two days out of this battery, which is increasingly rare in any smartphone.
ASUS
As predicted prior to CES, ASUS has brought out three new devices each with three different sizes. They’re all part of the Zenfone range and all offer a colourful range of backplates. The Zenfone 4 is the smallest and cheapest with a 4 inch WVGA display, with a dual-core Intel Atom 1.2 GHz processor and 1GB of RAM. The Zenfone 5 has a 5 inch screen with a 720p resolution, and comes with an dual-core Intel Atom clocked at 2 GHz, as well as a 8 megapixel camera, 1 GB RAM, and 4 GB internal storage (expandable with MicroSD). The phablet sized device in the range is the Zenfone 6, with a 6 inch display with a 720p resolution. It has the same 2 GHz Intel Atom dual-core processor as the Zenfone 5, but comes with a 13 megapixel camera, and a choice of 8 GB or 16 GB internal storage.
