First launched in China last year, then making an appearance at CES 2016, the Huawei Mate 8 is now officially in Malaysia. The Mate 8 features Huawei’s signature premium design and build, with performance to match.
Designed to impress
If you loved the Mate 7 and the Mate S, then you’ll love the Mate 8. Both offer a similar design language and exudes a premium feel. You’ll get the familiar all-metal unibody with chamfered edges and 2.5D glass. It’s a phablet but feels less bulky thanks to its thin 7.99mm side profile and relatively lightweight 185g.
Finishing and material build, as you would expect, is top notch. It feels expensive.
What you’ll notice is that the camera bump has been given a ‘nip-and-tuck,’ so now much smaller than on the Mate S. It has also taken a round shape instead of rectangular.
On the display side of things, it packs a 6-inch Full HD IPS-Neo screen, protected by Gorilla Glass 4. Nothing fancy about 368PPI, but it’s still a great screen – sharp, bright and works well in sunlight.
Power to boot
Powering Huawei’s best phablet is the kick-ass octa-core Kirin 950 SoC, clocked at 2.3GHz. This is paired with a high-end Mali T880MP4 GPU that also supplies the Cat.6 4G LTE radio. Built on the 16nm manufacturing process, the Kirin 950’s big.LITTLE platform delivers 40% better performance yet uses 60% less more compared to the Kirin 930.
In early benchmarks, the chip scored over 80,000 in AnTuTu. A pretty impressive score.
Onboard, there’s 3GB (Standard) or 4GB (Premium spec) RAM with either 32GB or 64GB of storage.
Shoot to kill
The Mate 8 uses the Sony IMX298 sensor for its main shooter – 16MP f/2.0 with OIS and PDAF (phase detection autofocus). This is the same module used on the Nexus 6P, as you know, also made by Huawei.
The front features a 8MP f/2.4 unit that should deliver some outstanding selfies.
EMUI 4.0 has some outstanding camera software features, and the Mate 8 benefits from the plethora of modes and filters. Light Painting (first seen on the Huawei P8), Timelapse, Panorama and more are key highlights with the camera app.
Keep it running is the large 4,000mAh battery, and coupled with Android 6.0 Marshmallow should deliver all-day battery life.
In the connectivity side of things, there’s Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.2 LE, NFC and GPS.
It’s a 4G LTE, dual-SIM, dual-standby device taking nano-SIM, with support of microSD.
Pricing and availability
The Huawei Mate 8 comes in two variants:
- Mate 8 Standard (3GB RAM, 32GB storage) – MYR2,099
- Mate 8 Premium (4GB RAM, 64GB storage) – MYR2,399
Colour options include Moonlight Silver and Space Gray (Standard); Champagne Gold and Mocha Brown (Premium).
The device goes on sale today from Vmall.my and Lazada. Orders will be shipped on 10 March and 11 March for Vmall and Lazada, respectively. The Mate 8 will also hit all authorized Huawei retailers on 11 March 2016.
For the first 100 purchasers of the Mate 8 (Standard/Premium) online or offline, Huawei is offering free engraving service. Details here.
Committed to great customer service, Huawei is offering a three-hour turnaround time for walk-in repairs, as well as door-to-door pickup and delivery service for Mate 8 customers.
Gallery of launch
