Huawei USA announces there will be no KitKat update for the Ascend Mate 2

A blog post at gethuawei.com, the webshop that was set up specifically for US customers, has announced that the Jelly Bean-loaded Ascend Mate 2 will not be getting an update to Android 4.4.4 KitKat. This has made quite a few customers unhappy, to say the least, as the mid-ranger is less than 6 months old, and anyone who bought the device was expecting that it'll be getting updates for at least a year.

To make matters worse, there is absolutely no reason given on why the company decided to not update the phone. This has led to a lot of angry customers, which is not something you want when you are trying to expand into the US markets. The phablet is not an incredibly powerful one, but there are no hardware limitations to stop it from running KitKat – it's powered by a Snapdragon 400 SoC, coupled with an Adreno 305 GPU, and has 2 GB of RAM. So, of course, angry owners of the handset were fast to accuse Huawei of a “get the money and forget the device” strategy, which is not a blotch a manufacturer wants on their reputation in today's highly competitive market.

Aside from the mid-range SoC, the Ascend Mate 2 also has a few plus sides – such as the huge 6.1” display (although – with a low 720p resolution), or the generous 3,900 mAh battery. It doesn't lack in the camera department as well, with a 13 MP back shooter, which we thought was pretty good for the device's class, and a 5 MP selfie cam. All this with a price tag of $299 – needless to say, quite a few large-screen lovers went for the the mid-range phablet.

Naturally, there will be many who will now turn to custom ROMs for their device. Do you own an Ascend Mate 2? Are you already bulldozing through CyanogenMod's website?


source: GetHuawei blog via Android Authority