Blame it on Huawei’s earlier troubles with Congress, the reluctance of carriers, or the general disinterest of U.S. consumers. atever the reason, Huawei has had difficulty breaking into the American market is now trying to take its message right to U.S. smartphone shoppers.
The China-based company announced the U.S. availability of the Ascend Mate 2 on Thursday. The new Android-based E phone is available exclusively through the company’s own website, GetHuawei.com, for $300 contract-free.
’s review of the Ascend Mate 2 will be up soon. In the meantime, the specs for the device include a massive 6.1-inch display, 1.6GHz quad-core processor, 13 megapixel rear-facing camera, a 5-megapixel selfie video chat camera.
Huawei has also packed a 3900mAh battery into the phone, which the company says has enough life to stream three movies in a row, surf the web for 12 hours, or play 1000 hours of music. It also boasts a 25 hour talk time—if you still use your phone for that kind of thing.
The Ascend Mate 2 comes in black white is a little behind the times running Android 4.3 lly Bean.
Anyone who purchases the phone before ne 22 also gets a free case a month’s worth of service from Net10 wireless, as long as you enter the promo code HATE2C at checkout.
Huawei is selling only the Ascend Mate 2 on its site right now, but other phones may show up in the future such as the company’s new flagship phone, the Ascend .
Smartphone makers haven’t had a ton of success bypassing the carriers selling their smartphones directly to U.S. consumers. But with a $300 price tag, perhaps Huawei will be able to convince thriftier shoppers to give the company’s phones a chance.