Huawei Mate 8 goes official: 6-inch monster phone with top-grade specs and 4,000mAh battery

Huawei has just taken the wraps off its next ‘big’ thing and by big, we literally mean huge: the new Huawei Mate 8 features a large 6-inch display and is the spiritual successor to the Mate 7.

It comes with thinner edges and 2.5D, slightly curved towards the edges glass that would make it more ergonomic to hold and hopefully, more comfortable to handle.

Here is a quick look at the Huawei Mate 8 specs highlights:

Platform: Android 6.0 Marshmallow with Huawei Emotion UI 4.0
Screen: 6-inch IPS LCD with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels
SoC: HiSilicon Kirin 950 with 4x Cortex A72s @ 2.3GHz, 4x Cortex A53s @ 1.8GHz
RAM: 3GB/4GB
Internal storage: 32GB/64GB
Camera: 16MP Sony IMX298 rear cam with f/2.0 aperture and 3-axis OIS, 8MP Sony IMX179 front cam with f/2.4 aperture
Battery: 4,000mAh



There are a few things worth going through here: first, the display. At its large, 6” size, it’s a bit of a surprise to see a resolution lower than Quad HD. The 1080 x 1920-pixel resolution works out to a pixel density of around 367ppi on this screen, which is below most of the competition (but we would not go on to say that it is not enough for the screen to appear sharp from regular viewing distance).

The Huawei Mate 8 will be on display at CES 2016

Also, the rear camera is a fairly capable Sony IMX298 unit with phase detection auto-focus for faster locking. Having 16 megapixels of resolution at its size means that pixel size is 1.12 micron, the lowest end on the market, and typically this would result in some issues with low light sensitivity, but we’re yet to see how Huawei has dealt with those theoretical issues. Interestingly, Huawei has also opted for tri-axis optical image stabilization (OIS), which should minimize hand shake in video and allow for faster shutter speeds and sharper images.

There is a new and improved fingerprint scanner on the back: Huawei says erroneous recognition rate on it is just between 2% and 1%, and the sensor is a 360-degree all-round reader that takes just 0.5 seconds to complete a one-touch unlock. It also packs added functionality: you can use it to pay for stuff (it seems that the feature is initially available in China only, though), to unlock securely documents, to lock applications, stop the alarm, access private photographs, and even answering calls (via a long press).

Finally, the combination of a 4,000mAh battery and the HiSilicon Kirin 950 will be what determines the performance and battery longevity of the Mate 8. Huawei officially says Mate 8 battery life will be 2.36 days with 'normal' use, while HD video playback time stands at up to 17 hours. The phone will also support QuickCharging, getting a day worth of battery life with a 30-minute charge. On the SoC side, the Kirin 950 is an octa-core chip with four high performance Cortex A72s running at up to 2.3GHz, it should deliver more than sufficient oomph. The chip itself will be built on 16nm FinFET silicon.