In an attempt to try to build marketshare for itself without relying on domestic carriers to carry and sell its devices, Huawei has officially begun direct sales in the US with one of its mid-range devices in the Ascend Mate 2 Android smartphone which was announced this past January for $299.99 and is currently available for pre-order.
The Ascend Mate 2 features a 6.1-inch 720p HD display, 1.6GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor, 4,050mAh battery, 13-megapixel main camera, 5-megapixel front-facing camera, and support for US LTE networks from AT&T and T-Mobile. It runs Android 4.3 Jelly Bean with Huawei’s Emotion UI 2.0, which supports applications that float above other apps, and a driving mode with a simplified interface to minimize distractions.