LAS VEGAS—Huawei just introduced the biggest phone of CES. Literally. The 6.1-inch Huawei Ascend Mate is currently the world's largest smartphone (or phablet, according to our definition). Yes, you read that correctly: 6.1 inches. It's significantly larger than the gargantuan Samsung Galaxy Note II—this thing is practically the size of an iPad miniSee it at Amazon UK! We got a chance to take a look at it, as well as the smaller 5-inch Huawei Ascend D, at CES.

There's no getting around it. The first thing you notice when you look at the Ascend Mate is that it's almost comically large. At PCMag, we define a phablet as any phone with a screen size of 5 inches or larger. At 6.1 inches, the Ascend Mate makes me wonder if we should add a maximum size to that definition as well, because this phone truly borders on tablet size.

Huawei seems to realize that a phone this large can present some usability issues, and to that end, it has created what it calls one-hand UI, which essentially squishes the keyboard or number pad over to one side of the screen, depending upon which hand you type with.

As far as screens go, this one is okay, but not great. It offers 720p resolution, but at 6.1 inches, you're only getting 241 pixels per inch. It's bright and vibrant, and it doesn't look bad, but it's no match for the 1080p displays we're starting to see, like on Huawei's own Ascend D.

Inside, there's a 1.5GHz quad-core processor, 8MP rear camera, and a whopping 4050mAh battery. Huawei claims it should be good for 10 hours of watching video, 14 hours of Web browsing, or 22 hours of talk time, so there's no need to worry about that giant screen zapping all your juice.

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Perhaps it's because it was tethered to the demo station, but the Ascend Mate doesn't actually feel too heavy. And by using what Huawei calls Magic Touch, you can still use the phone with gloves. I was able to get it to work through my shirtsleeve.

Not to be upstaged by its big brother, the 5-inch Huawei Ascend D is another large phone, though it looks downright puny in comparison to the Mate. Luckily, there's really nothing puny about it otherwise. It too is powered by a 1.5GHz quad-core processor, but it features a full-on 1080p display (like the HTC Droid DNA) that looks absolutely gorgeous in person.

The Ascend D also has a 13-MP rear camera with HDR video capture, and it's dust and water resistant. Along with Android 4.1.2, it could be a contender if we ever get to see it stateside.

Really, the biggest question here is not necessarily how big is too big, but if these phones will ever make it to the U.S. We never saw last year's CES announcement, the lovely Ascend P1 S make it over, and I'm afraid the same may happen with the Ascend Mate and the Ascend D. Huawei says that it is in talks with U.S. carriers, so hopefully we'll get to take a closer look at this phones at some point later this year.