Huawei, the Chinese smartphone manufacturing giant targets at the premium segment of smartphones which is currently dominated by the tech giant Apple by unveiling a new smartphone under the Mate series. At the ongoing CES (Consumer Electronics Show) International Trade Show 2016, the Chinese firm has launched the Mate 8 smartphone globally. Huawei has launched the large-screen Mate 8 flagship smartphone alongside a tablet and a luxury smartwatch.

At the CES show 2016, the Chinese firm announced the launch of its premium flagship smartphone touting that the device offers pretty good performance and battery life than rival handsets manufactured by Apple and Samsung. With a six-inch Full HD display, the device, however, has a smaller overall footprint than similar smartphones, said Kevin Ho, who heads Huawei’s handset operations.

The Chinese company announced that it will launch the handset in markets such as Europe, the Middle East, Southeast China, South Africa and Mexico, among others. Huawei said it views a route for becoming the number two global vendor in the sector which is a spot now held by US-based Appl “Every year, every month, we are increasing our market share,” said Huawei consumer devices chief Richard Yu. “Within a few years, we believe we can be number two.”

Kevin Ho, President, Handset Business, Huawei Consumer BG said, “The Mate 8 is the ultimate high-end smartphone. It strikes the perfect balance between high performance and long battery life, enabling people to stay connected and be more productive in every facet of their lives.”

Specifications

Display: The new Huawei Mate 8 sports a 6-inch IPS display with Full HD display with 1080 pixel resolution and Gorilla Glass 4 protection.

Processor: The device is powered by the company’s own octa-core HiSilicon Kirin 950 processor which is clocked at 2.3GHz quad-core alongside 1.8GHz quad-core chipset. Both are clubbed with Mali-T880MP4 GPU clocked at 900MHz.

RAM & Storage: Huawei has unveiled the Mate 8 in three storage variants such as 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB variants along with an exclusive edition.

• 32GB storage and 3GB RAM
• 64GB storage and 4GB RAM
• 128GB storage and 4GB RAM
• Exclusive Champagne Edition

OS: The device runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow operating system.

Camera: On the Camera front, the device comes equipped with a 16MP rear camera with phase-detection autofocus, OIS, and two-tone, dual-LED flash while the front-facing camera has 8MP resolution.

Connectivity: In terms of Connectivity, the handset includes the following the connectivity options:

• 2G, 3G, 4G
• Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth 4.1
• NFC
• microUSB 2.0

Battery: The Huawei Mate 8 is power-packed by a 4,000mAh battery which supports fast-charging and can go from zero to 37% in just 30 minutes.

Color: The device will be available in four color variants that include Champagne Gold, Moonlight Silver, Space Gray, and Mocha Brown color variants.

Add-ons: The smartphone also includes additional features such as voice controls, firewall to save power, defragmenter for the storage, and eRecovery. Also, a circular fingerprint sensor is located below the rear camera of the Mate 8.

Price and Availability

As the company has unveiled the Huawei Mate 8 in three storage variants, the price will be varied for each variant accordingly. The 32GB variant coupled with 3GB RAM is priced at €600 (approximately Rs 43,000). The  64GB storage model clubbed with 4GB RAM is priced at €700 (approximately Rs 50,000).