Huawei opens new concept store in Plaza Singapura; 6-inch Ascend Mate 7 flagship phablet to go on sale tomorrow

Another phablet is in town, and this time, it’s Huawei’s 6-inch Ascend Mate 7. First seen at IFA in Berlin this past September, the Ascend Mate 7 is making headlines not just for its 6-inch, full HD IPS screen. It’s also one of the few octa-core devices around; more specifically, it’s powered by the company’s own HiSilicon Kirin 925 chipset, which has four 1.8GHz Cortex-A15, four 1.3GHz Cortex-A7 CPU cores, and a 230MHz i3 co-processor. Graphics-wise, it runs a Mali-T628 GPU.

The 7.9mm thin Ascend Mate 7 also has a fingerprint sensor located right below the rear 13-megapixel camera for instant unlocking of the device. Apps can also be locked and opened via this sensor or by authorized users using the Visitor mode on the phone. Huawei says all fingerprint data is encrypted and stored safely, and that no one else can access them.

Of course, the Huawei Ascend Mate 7 has more tricks up its sleeve, including a giant 4,100mAh battery that lasts up to two days (depending on how you use it, naturally) and an Ultra Snapshot function that lets you snap a photo in 1.2 seconds, without the need to open the camera app first. There are many other nice touches, so here’s a quick features summary:

• 6-inch, 1080p display (368ppi) with Gorilla Glass 3
• 8-core Kirin 925 chipset
• 2GB RAM, 16GB storage (microSD up to 32GB)
• Fingerprint sensor
• LTE Cat6 for up to 300Mbps download speed
• Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, BLE, NFC
• 13MP, F2.0 rear camera; 5MP front camera
• 4,100mAh lithium-polymer battery
• Ultra, Smart, and Normal power-saving modes
• Android 4.4 / Huawei EMUI 3.0 interface
• Active noise reduction headphones
• 7.9mm thick, 2.9mm side bezels
• 185g

The Ascend Mate 7 goes on sale tomorrow, November 15, for a price of S$749; and it's available in obsidian black and moonlight silver. A slightly pricier champagne gold version that supports dual-SIM, and which has 3GB RAM and 32GB internal storage will arrive at the end of the year.

New flagship store at Plaza Singapura

Huawei is also opening its second store in Singapore tomorrow. Located at #03-78 of Plaza Singapura (over at the new extension), this new concept store will also be the company’s flagship store in Singapore.

While the store is a place for customers to see Huawei’s latest mobile products (and wearables), the company is also positioning it as a place where you can get some expert opinion and find out what else you can do with your mobile devices in areas of work and play. To do that, the store has demo zones showcasing not just Huawei’s products, but third-party products too. For example, you can learn how to manage a fleet of vehicles from anywhere using Cartrack, discover the best way to conduct a video conference, get tips on how to set up an IP camera to monitor your kids, and even try out the various iHealth products that you often see in stores but have no idea how they work or how they can improve your life. And while the adults are busy with their things, the young ones can keep themselves entertained at the selfie corner, or with the Xbox 360 and Parrot mini drones in the store.

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