One of the biggest technology events, the CES 2013 has kicked off and it seems that the year ahead will be very promising when it comes to bigger-sized smartphones. Huawei officially launched its much-rumored 6.1-inch Ascend Mate, which is currently "the largest smartphone" around.

Before the Ascend Mate, Samsung Galaxy Note 2, held the crown for its 5.5-inch display. Now it seems that the Galaxy Note 2 has a worthy rival in the ginormous Ascend Mate, which makes the former look puny by comparison .

Huawei Ascend Mate sports a mammoth 6.1-inch display with 1280 x 720 pixels HD resolution and IPS display technology. A 1.5 GHz quad-core Hi-Silicon K3V2 processor powers the smartphone.

"Even though it is a larger screen phone, it is still comfortable to hold. It can go in any of your pockets, it's very convenient still," said Richard Yu, CEO of the consumer business group, Huawei, at the launch event.

The Ascend Mate features an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera, a 1-megapixel front-facing camera, and packs in a 4050mAh battery. Huawei claims that the battery can give up to 22 hours of talk time, 14 hours of web browsing, and 10 hours video playback.

The Ascend Mate includes 16GB of on-board storage and 1GB of RAM. Information regarding expanding the memory is currently not available. The smartphone measures 6.5 x 3.4 x 0.4 inch and weighs 6.98 ounces. Additionally, the device is both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi capable.

Yu also demonstrated the "Magic Touch" display of the Ascend Mate where you can use the touch capacitive display of the smartphone using any gloves and not just touch-capacitive gloves. The Ascend Mate also features "One-Hand UI," which enables a user to access the big screen of the device using just one hand. The device will run on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean with the company's "EmotionUI" on top.

Huawei confirmed that the Ascend Mate will be available in China from February onwards and will make its global appearance in March this year. The company did not reveal the price of the smartphone.

The Ascend Mate is an impressive device which can give stiff competition to other bigger smartphones available in the market. We will have to wait and see if Huawei is successful in attracting smartphone users to its latest Ascend Mate.

What are your views on the latest Ascend Mate, do you think the device will redefine the smartphone market?