After trying, and mostly failing, to make a splash towards the end of 2015 with its Force Touch-enabled Mate S, Huawei is back in the smartphone game at CES 2016 in Vegas.
The Chinese brand has just introduced its latest edition to the Mate line – the Mate 8. Now, those of you thinking Huawei has gone completely bonkers and released an 8-inch smartphone can just relax – the Mate 8 actually sports a still pretty gargantuan 6-inch screen.
This is something we haven’t really seen since Motorola’s derided Nexus 6 a couple of years ago.
Related: CES 2016 Live
Bizarrely, that display is only 1080p – although it does offer 95% colour gamut. We’d expect quad-HD at this size, but nevertheless, there’s plenty of oomph coming from a Kirin 950 chipset and 3GB or 4GB of RAM. This is the first device to use Huawei’s latest in-house chip, so it will be interesting to see how it fares.
Battery life shouldn’t be an issue either. Tucked inside this sleek, slightly curved, metal device is a beefy 4,000mAh cell bolstered by quick-charge technology. This will get you out of the red and to about 40% in around half an hour.
Considering there isn’t a super high-resolution display to power, this could be a real winner in the battery department. Huawei says you’ll get more than two days of use – but that’s something we’ll have to test.
Related: Huawei P9 release date
A circular fingerprint scanner sits underneath the 16-megapixel rear-facing camera, which should be pretty decent going by Huawei’s previous devices. It’s a Sony sensor with f/2 aperture, hybrid-autofocus and OIS.
Now, Huawei is still sticking by its fairly average EMUI Android skin, but at least we’ve got Marshmallow running on it out of the box rather than having a lengthy wait. The latest edition of EMUI features split-screen multitasking – great for that big display – but it still lacks an app tray, plus the icons are still downright ugly.
We’ll have a hands-on with the Mate 8 for you soon, so stay-tuned.
Huawei MediaPad M2
Huawei’s second CES product is a new tablet, featuring Harman Kardon sound for an immersive movie-watching experience. It has a 1080p, 10-inch display and fingerprint scanner. There’s even a built-in stylus that works with the 2,048 levels of pressure sensitivity in the screen.
Huawei Watch for the ladies
Huawei has just announced that it’s expanding its Watch line with a couple of wearables aimed at women. Two options are available – Jewel and Elegant – and they have unique watch faces and come in rose gold with a blue leather strap.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
