Huawei Mate 8 is a 6-inch behemoth with plenty of battery life

You know who’s been the world’s third biggest smartphone manufacturer for nearly three years? Huawei, that’s who. Despite strong competition from Chinese peers Xiaomi and Lenovo, the company just keeps on churning out solid handsets, both in China and overseas.

Its latest flagship, the 6-inch Huawei Mate 8, might be too big for some, but otherwise packs a lot of punch, specs-wise, and not at the expense of battery life.

First, the specs: The Mate 8 comes with a Kirin 950 octa-core processor and a Mali T880MP4 graphics co-processor. On the back, you’ll find a fingerprint reader and a 16-megapixel camera; there’s a 8-megapixel one on the front. The all-aluminum phone comes in several configurations; 3 or 4GB of RAM and 32/64/128GB of storage memory.

Interestingly enough, the phone’s 1080p screen doesn’t seem to feature Huawei’s Force Touch technology, which recognizes different levels of pressing force and is present in some variants of the Huawei Mate S. We’ve contacted Huawei to clarify but have not yet heard from them.

Now, about that battery life. The Huawei Mate 8 has a humongous, 4,000mAh battery which should, by itself, allow for plenty of time between charges. Perhaps even more importantly, Huawei’s new Kirin 950 processor saves battery life on several fronts, which in theory makes the Mate 8 a perfect device for those who hate charging their phone.

Huawei Mate 8 will initially launch in China in early 2016, starting at 2,999 ($469) yuan for the model of 3GB of RAM/32GB of storage. The 4GB/64GB variant will cost 3,699 yuan ($579), while the 4GB/128GB version will go for 4,399 yuan ($689). After being showcased at CES 2016, it’s expected to reach western shores as well.

Author: Stan Schroeder
Source: Mashable