I have been loving my Huawei Ascend mate 6 inch black because of great battery life. Now, i am wondering if it is worth it to sell my Ascend Mate and buy Huawei mediapad X1. Any advice? Thanks

yes, it does look like the only hurdle is using this as a phone. was it easy to overcome this issue? Will it be troublesome if use a bluetooth all the time? Is there some kind of bluetooth device that can remote control the phone dialing features of this tablet ? Or, maybe after a while, holding this phone to the ear becomes not so abnormal anymore.

While driving my son from school few days ago, I saw one of his school mate hold a large tablet to his ear and talking maybe to his parents. I thought it didn't look that funny after all. I mean as long as he is happy being able to chat away the tablet has served its purpose well for him.

This post has been edited by cphilip: Jul 17 2014, 08:58 PM

As a happy owner of Ascend Mate since it first launched (still using), I am very keen to try Huawei x1.

I wonder if any X1 owners would like to consider swapping with one of my gadgets. They are all in very good conditions. If no one wants to swap, I will take it to mean that my current devices are good enough for my needs since they are really great devices to own. But if someone wants to swap, I will be able to satisfy my curiosity regarding the Mediapad x1 and regarding whether this is more suitable for my needs of large screens phablets. i wouldn't say that paarting with either one of these devices is an easy thing to do but it is sometimes a necessary sacrifice in order to explore an interesting device such as the x1.

1.) Xperia Tablet Z 10.1 inch (WIFI/without LTE MODEL) / running latest Android 5.1.1 cyanogen custom rom by qsnc in xda developer forum

2.) Huawei Ascend Mate (I will top up a bit)

3.) MSI net book (Model:U270/AMD E-450/4GB RAM/500GB HD/64bit OS : BODHI 3 (LINUX UBUNTU)/USB3x1/USB2x2/HDMIx1/SD card reader/webcam/11.6 ins display/wifi/bluetooth)/(if need windows 64bit, you need to install by yourself, sorry)

Thanks

Since some people ask about my Huawei Ascend Mate and want more info, I will just share a bit more about my phablet.

I bought it in begining of 2014. Around January - March i believe. Lazy to search for the receipt. So, warranty is over.

I have lost the earphone and the casing that was provided. Still have the box, Phablet and original charger.

The phablet itself is in very good condition internally (excellent battery life) and externally it looks new. Never ever drop it before.

The color of back of my phablet is greyish and the front is black. I found some pictures on the net and I have sent it to my onedrive. Hope this link works. Otherwise, please google for ascend mate and you will easily find it.

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=7D5A92B5FA3291D9%21105

(The Huawei ascend mate camera takes good pictures but my xperia tablet doesn't take good enough pictures so I couldn't use my xperia tablet to take a shot of my Huawei Ascend mate. But believe me, it looks very much like the pictures I found on the net. Troublesome to charge my panasonic digital camera battery up just to take pictures of my Huawei.)

I still enjoy using my Huawei Ascend Mate everyday. This is why I hesitate to put it up for sale. But exchanging with another phablet is a different thing.

The Phablet is 6.1 inch. Compared to many 6 inch phablets nowadays, the extra 1 inch is really nice. It doesn't look as big as sony ultra z or the samsung mega. Instead it looks more close to 6 inches phablets (now, commonly available) but yet have a little bit more.

When I was hunting for phablets a year ago, these 3 phablets was in my mind - Samsung Mega vs Sony Ultra Z vs Huawei Ascend mate (a year ago, those 3 were released almost at the same time). I never once regretted choosing the Huawei Ascend Mate. Then why am I thinking of exchanging it now, you might ask. The problem is this Huawei x1 must come along and I feel really tempted to venture into it. I really don't know what my future feelings about the X1 phablet will be like in regards to whether it is suitable for my needs. For all i know, I might have to buy another smaller phone to use and to complement the x1 phablet. I just feel that it is a risk I am interested in taking after reading about the x1 here and there and also because of my love for big screens that are considered portable enough for everyday use.

The only cons of huawei that I can now think of is that the x1, like my current Ascend mate does not have many developers working on custom roms. Fortunately, the huawei stock roms is actually good enough from my experience.

(In the case of my Xperia tablet z, I admit it is quite fun to test out different custom roms especially the current Android 5.1.1 Lollipop)

cphilip

This post has been edited by cphilip: May 4 2015, 01:33 PM

Thanks for your feedback benny888

I skipped the mate7 although I have no doubt it is a great device. Partly because I was so satisfied with my Ascend mate that I didn't look around anymore for some time. In may ways, the Mate 7 has better specs than the ascend Mate including better ppi, but because mate 7 is 6 inch, I am happy enough with my 6.1 inch Ascend Mate.

The x1 however, comes across to me as something different and interesting because it is reviewed as big but at the same time very portable. Although I admit that P8 Max a 6.8 incher will surely be a good phablet to look forward to.

The dilemma is to use or not use the x1 as a phone. It is hard to find a clear answer to this question. In the past, before Ascend mate, I used to go around with 2 separate devices (phone and tablet). So if I get the x1, I am preparing my self to resurrect my old habit. Hopefully, the x1 can be use for both a phone and a tablet.

This post has been edited by cphilip: May 4 2015, 01:56 PM

Thanks again benny888

I think i am also someone who is not over concern about how people think if i hold a big device next to my ear to answer calls.

Things that would discourage me from using a device as a phone would be something like :

1. the device is heavy and too much trouble to pull it out when the phone rings
(maybe not in the case of x1.. don't know yet. will take days of using it before i can know ... )

2. it is hard for the person at the other end of the "line" to hear my voice because the microphone is not in the right place. ...

3. holding it in that position is not so comfortable

4. etc etc ??

Then of course, there is the possibility of using bluetooth. Another extra device to remember charging. Unless I get plantronics that can last for weeks with 1 full charge.

This post has been edited by cphilip: May 4 2015, 03:22 PM

Suddenly, I am putting on hold my thoughts of exchanging one of my devices for the huawei mediapad x1.

I realized that Benny888 might have a point when he mentioned about the performance problem of the Mediapad x1.

I went to xda forum and did further reading.

I wonder how is the x1 performance compared to Asus fonepad 2015 fe171 intel based cpu? The fonepad is definitely cheaper for someone who want to test out if using a 7 inch as both a phone and a tablet is suitable or not. If it proved to be not suitable, the money lost won't hurt as much.

I haven't seen an actual asus fonepad fe171 set yet but if it can slip into the side pocket of a long pants, then perhaps it is just as portable as the x1? By the way, I keep all coins and car keys in a small belt pouch so there is nothing sharp inthe side pocket that will scratch the phablet.

Any opinions?

oh... ok benny888

Good to hear from someone who has had an actual experience with an intel based android devie.

Guess fonepad is stiked out from the list then. It's back to x1 again for now if ever there is a chance to exchange.

Also, since I already have good experience with huawei.

Otherwise, I will just be happy with what I currently have until the release of new better, lightweight, large screens phablets.

Thanks benny888. You are a real help because you are someone with personal experiences with the different devices.

This post has been edited by cphilip: May 4 2015, 08:00 PM

Good advice Benny888

Curious to see what Huawei can come up with. Huawei seems to know what phablet lovers like me want.

Screens as large as possible
Excellent battery
Acceptable performance - although a non gamer but want enough power
Support for External storage microsd
Good enough camera
Light Light weight - the lighter the better.
slim
good enough ppi display
(wacom pen? just wishing)

But still, no harm to start "playing" with x1 in the mean time if deal is right.

Then sell it to raise funds for P8 max when it launch.

if deal is not right, i will definitely hold on and wait. Because what huawei can do does surprise me.

hope Xperia and Asus will also compete to bring out the ultimate ideal solar powered phablet.

This post has been edited by cphilip: May 4 2015, 08:25 PM

Hi benny888,

I have finally obtained the Huawei mediapad x1 for use as phone and also a portable 7 ins tablet.

From your experience, which firmware is the best for the 501L?

My X1 is still using Android 4.2.2 and I am fine with it.

But it will be good to have some ideas about how is Android 4.2.2 compared with other firmwares.

So, may i ask which is the preferred firmwares for this device.

I managed to root my X1 using root genius thanks to Joytest.

Have not tried Xposed framework yet.

Thanks

This post has been edited by cphilip: May 28 2015, 02:26 AM

--------------------------------------------------------------

The latest Malaysian rom

7D-501L V100R002C209B017_Client Software_Malaysia_operatorValue_android 4.4_EMUI 2.3_05012JLC.zip

VS

The latest German rom

HUAWEI_MediaPad X1_SDCard_Upgrade_B102.zip


----------------------------------------------------------------

So, benny888, you are saying that it is better to use the B102 instead of B017?

benny888,

From your experiences, is there any real benefits to upgrade from Android 4.2.2 to Android 4.4.1 (Kit Kat)?

I understand that Upgrading to Lollipop would be good because one of the benefits as discussed in several forums point to how Lollipop has better handling of battery life.

But as far as Kit kat is concern, it appears that there is an issue of having to patch with "sdcardfix" or something because of a restriction implemented by Google for whatever reasons (perhaps trying to copy Apple Ipad, which I was using for a while but finally got frustrated with it).

So, is there real benefit to upgrade to Kit Kat or should I keep ANdroid 4.2.2 until Lollipop becomes available?

Thanks

Thanks for sharing.

One problem is that the x1 android 4.2.2 stock firmware is rather hard to find. It looks like the only way is to

1. Use flashify to backup the x1 stock recovery o sd.

2. Use flashify to install cwm recovery so that I can use cwm recovery to back up the Android 4.2.2 for x1 501L to sd,
(problem with this step is how do i know if my Huawei x1 boot-loader is unlock so I can use flashify or fastboot methods to install cwm recovery? A device must be unlocked before custom recovery can be installed, right?)

3. then use flashify to restore back the x1 stock recovery in order to enable the device to flash the latest stock Kit Kat firmware for the x1.


Easiest way is to just move up to Kit Kat and forget about cwm recovery and backing up the Android 4.2.2 firmware.
What did most of the x1 owners do? Did they just move on to Kit Kat and skip the steps to back up the Android 4.2.2 because they have no intention to move back? Or is there any where I can download the Android 4.2.2 firmware from Huawei website achives?

This post has been edited by cphilip: May 31 2015, 04:49 PM

Thanks so much benny888.

You have been a great help!

Thanks Joytest.

I will download the B003 and keep it just in case I upgrade to kit kat and want to downgrade back.

Your compilations of information about the Huawei X1 is very very helpful to all x1 owners.

Djiban

Thanks for correcting me about the latest European rom. It is indeed B103 and not B102.

If I do upgrade, I think I will most likely be considering the latest Malaysian Rom since it has been pointed out that there are not much differences between the available Kit Kat roms. I wonder why in my device, OTA update is not detecting any new updates. Is it because I have rooted my X1?

After reading through many pages in this thread and in the xda forum, I am a bit concern about the issues of

1. 400DPI display
It appears that many owners are not fully satisfied with the 400dpi although there is a way to change to 320dpi by Deleting or renaming "set_immutable.list" and by editing the "build.prop."

2. the rooting methods for latest kit kat rom of the X1.
(I could only download vroot 1.7.9. My pc blocked me from downloading vroot 1.7.8 because it labeled the file as a threat. Also, I don't read chinese and the vroot program is in chinese I believe.)


Now that Huawei has finally released the kernel sources for the X1, I don't know if there will be some custom roms coming out for this device. Before owning he device, my mind was focused on reading positive points for the the X1 and it is true that the X1 is indeed a great hardware of its own class - Smallest 7 inch with great battery and other useful features.

After owning the X1, I realized that Huawei is not very good at listening to customers and very slow in providing updates of firmwares to keep up with what Google has made available. Yes, there are things that I loved about the hardware of Ascend Mate 6.1 and the Huawei X1 but I think I will try not to be tempted by Huawei again for my next device even though the hardware features might be out of this World impressive. No point in supporting a company who is only happy with their own abilities to create interesting hardwares but not interested in taking care of customers on the software side.

This post has been edited by cphilip: Jun 2 2015, 02:13 AM

Djiban,

Thanks for the helpful post regarding

# methods of changing DPI

# methods of rooting Kit Kat

# ROm b011

Regarding my confidence in Huawei, I will have to wait and see how Lollipop for X1 will be like.

I have good experiences with Sony Xperias and now I like Sony even more now because Sony has become very open, friendly and cooperative with Custom Roms developing commnities like Cyanogenmod , Omni, and others. They are not afraid of letting others scrutinize their kernel source code and improve on it.

This post has been edited by cphilip: Jun 3 2015, 06:35 PM

Yes, Huawei X1 is definitely a great device to use as a portable Tablet with 7 inch screen, good resolution, great battery, external microsd support and reasonable camera.

The screen is a 7 inch diagonally measured which means it should be the same size screen as the Nexus 7. This I am saying although I haven't really compared the Nexus 7 and the X1 side by side to see if the screen is indeed the same size.

I do like the device very much. Thanks to people like benny888 and Joytest who shared many useful information about this device. You can definitely trust their opinion when it comes to what is available in the market because they have not only read much and also experienced much with different devices.

This post has been edited by cphilip: Jun 5 2015, 05:36 PM

So, I guess this thread will be quiet for a while until Lollipop 5.1 comes for Huawei x1 sometimes in August and September.

Even though the kernel source for x1 is released, it is sad that no one is attempting to develop lollipop 5.1 custom roms ahead of Huawei's official Android 5.1 rom for this device.

Well, guess we can enjoy what we have at the moment and can meet up again in this thread sometime in August or September.

Thanks benny888
Thanks joytest
Thanks Djiban
Others ...

Hi hhng,

Good to hear that this latest Lollipop firmware has improved your X1.

My X1 is 501L malaysian latest Firmware V100R002C209B017_Android 4.4_EMUI 2.3

Can you share some guidance on how you manage to flash the latest 503L Android 5.1.1?

Is it still a beta? Any idea when the official final release for 501L devices will be available?

Thanks