Despite releasing a brand new flagship in the Huawei Mate family this September, namely, the Huawei Mate S, the company is all set to announce another device in the lineup, the much more powerful Huawei Mate 8. We have been hearing rumors about this particular device for the past few months, but finally we will be meeting this beast tomorrow, at the company’s official event in China.
Since there’s just one day for the official release, we decided to summarize the information about the Mate 8 that we know till now. We don’t expect much to change in a day, so most of the details mentioned here should be confirmed by the company tomorrow.
HUAWEI MATE 8 DESIGN
Huawei Mate 7’s design got a BIG YES from customers for its premium all metal design and refined looks. No wonder the company decided to build upon the same design on the Mate S and also the upcoming Mate 8. In the past few weeks, we have seen plenty of leaked pictures of the device, enough to get us an idea about how the device will look.
The pictures reveal that the Huawei Mate 8 will continue with the all metal build as the Mate S. In fact, the company has decided to stick with the basic design as the Mate S on the new flagship. This includes sleek body, gently curved corners and smooth metal back. However, there are a few differences that we can expected on the Mate 8. First of all, the camera sensor is now round instead of square. The company has also made the fingerprint sensor at the back circular. You also get the Huawei logo at the back near the bottom. The front remains more or less like the Mate S, with the Huawei branding on the bezel below the display.
The most interesting part of the design is going to be its display. From the leaked images that we have seen lately, the bezels are going to be super thin. This along with the sleek metal body makes the phone looks super premium.
Thanks to the Huawei Mate 8 advertisements leaked today, the design of the phone is confirmed.
HUAWEI MATE 8 SPECS
Its confirmed that the Huawei Mate 8 will come with the powerful Kirin 950 chipset. The chip is one of the first commercially available SoCs to use the new ARM Cortex A72 Cores and this will definitely be evident in the phone’s powerful performance.
There are expected to be at least two variants of the device, one with 3GB RAM and 32GB of storage and the other with 4GB RAM and 64GB of storage. According to a clue inside the invite, there probably won’t be a 16GB storage variant. However, there have been rumors about a third variant with an even larger 128GB storage variant.
As for the display, a recent benchmark listing revealed that the phone will continue to use the same 6-inch display as the Mate 7 with FHD 1080p resolution. However, there have been rumors about three different screen sizes, a smaller variant featuring a 5.7-inch screen and a larger variant with 6.2-inch screen and QHD resolution. But we are not quite sure of that at the moment. We still don’t know which all versions will use the company’s Force Touch feature.
As for the camera, expect a 16MP sensor at the back with dual LED flash and a 8MP shooter up front. The battery is expected to be at least 4000mAh to power these high-end specs. Like we saw in the images above, the phone will come with a fingerprint sensor at the back. Mate 7’s fingerprint was considered as the best of its time, so we expect an accurate sensor behind the Mate 8 flagship as well. Finally, for software, you can expect none other than the Android 6.0 Marshmallow based version of Huawei’s new EMUI (Emotion UI) version.
HUAWEI MATE 8 BENCHMARK
Luckily, even before the release, we have some benchmark figures of the device. The Mate 8 was recently spotted on AnTuTu benchmark revealing the true performance of the Kirin 950 under the hood.
On AnTuTu, the Mate 8 flagship scored an impressive 79,131 points which is even higher than the Exynos 7420 powered Meizu Pro 5. With such specs, we are sure that you won’t be disappointed with its overall performance.
HUAWEI MATE 8 PRICE
Huawei has never been the cheap and affordable smartphone maker like Xiaomi or Meizu. Instead, the company has always set its eyes up on top, alongside Samsung and Apple. So, don’t expect the pricing of the Mate 8 to be cheap. In fact, according to a report from China, the manufacturing cost of the device could go well above $266, which is higher than iPhone 6S. So, the final price could be a quite high.
According to the recent rumors, you can expect the pricing above 3500 Yuan. To be precise, expect the 3GB RAM + 32GB storage version to retail at 3499 Yuan (around $550) and the 4GB + 64GB version at 3899 Yuan ($610). If there’s a QHD display + 128GB storage variant, the price would be even higher.
HUAWEI MATE 8 RELEASE
Well, this one we know for sure. The Mate 8 flagship will be announced at the tomorrow’s event. Expect the phone to hit the stores a couple of weeks after that.
So, this was all we know about the Mate 8. Its turning out to be quite a powerful flagship. Expect more details at tomorrow’s launch event.
Meanwhile, let me know what you feel about the device. Do you think these specs justify a price tag of $550 and above? Would you consider buying one in the coming months?
