Huawei Ascend Mate 2 Review: Incredible Battery Life & Value

Camera Architecture

These days, it’s harder to distinguish between cameras. While previously it was easy to point to a higher megapixel count and declare a winner that way, most OEMs have converged on largely similar sensor formats and pixel sizes. So it’s worth taking a closer look at the camera setup of the Ascend Mate2. On the rear camera, Huawei uses a Sony IMX135, and the front camera is a Samsung S5K4E1, something that I haven’t really seen in another phone. Surprisingly, based upon some quick calculations, this may actually be a 1/ 4” sensor. A casual Google search for this model number leads right back to the rear facing camera in our Galaxy Nexus review. If anything, this may be the biggest sign of how the industry has advanced over the years. At any rate, I’ve put up the relevant information that I know on the table below.

As can be seen by the table above, the rear camera of the Ascend Mate 2 is quite similar to many other camera systems. The focal length means the field of view is broadly equivalent to the One (M8), and the sensor itself was one shared by the Exynos Galaxy S4, Oppo Find 5, LG G2, and LG G3. In short, the camera should be solidly in the middle of the pack. It’s not going to blow anyone away with superior low light capabilities like the iPhone 5s, HTC One (M7), or the Nokia PureView phones. It’s also not going to blow anyone away in daytime detail like the Xperia Z1/Z2 or the Lumia 1520/1020/930. Of course, to figure out just how well all of the pieces come together, controlled testing is still needed.

On the front facing camera, I suspect that Huawei made a mistake in their EXIF data, as the focal length of the sensor most nearly corresponds to a 26mm equivalent focal length, which implies that the sensor is a 1/ 3” size, rather than 1/ 4” size that it’s most likely to be. While the 1/ 4” sensor seems large, the 1.4 micron pixel size is effectively equivalent to the 1.1 micron pixel size on the One (M8)’s front facing camera, as the S4KE1 sensor is front-side illuminated, rather than back-side illuminated.

On the UI side, Huawei has done a reasonably good job. All the necessary controls are present, although it’s a bit disappointing that Huawei doesn’t include an option for guidelines in the preview. Preview frame rate is acceptable, as is the resolution. However, I suspect that the 8x26 ISP is once again a gating factor here as the preview doesn’t appear to be as high of a resolution and frame rate as on Snapdragon 801 devices. The UI is very much reminiscent of the Galaxy S2’s camera UI before the Android 4.0 update. Qualitatively, the camera has little shutter lag, but like the One mini 2 there’s a noticeable shot to shot latency, and burst shot isn’t nearly as fast as it is on Snapdragon 801 devices. As a result of the weaker ISP, 1080p30 is the maximum quality/frame rate that can be selected.

Outside of standard UI, the two main features of note are the object tracking and “groufies”, or panorama mode on the front facing camera. Object tracking is only available on the rear facing camera, but it’s quite amusing to use and generally quite cool. In short, by enabling this mode the camera will automatically attempt to stay focused upon the selected object. At first glance, this mode seems to use accelerometer/gyroscope information on the phone. However, the fact that you can move the object around in the field of view with the camera locked to the correct target suggests that this is simply interpreting the image to determine the focus point. I don’t know the specifics of this mechanism, but it’s surprising how well it works.

Overall, while Huawei isn’t breaking new ground with this camera system, it has the pieces to make a camera that’s competitive with 2013/2014 high end phones. Of course, image quality requires integration as well. This means comparison shots are necessary, as even the same camera system can be tuned differently depending upon the OEM that uses it.