Huawei Mate 8 ripping up the rules with 2K display

Sporting a 6.6-inch display the Huawei Mate 8 looks set to be a monster of a phone but not only that one of the first Huawei devices with a 2K display.

For a few years Huawei had always resisted the switch from FHD panels to QHD 2K screens but with the advent of VR and the move (once again) to larger display’s it looks like they are finally adding more pixels.

New teasers clearly confirm that the upcoming Huawei Mate 8 will feature a 2K display, and judging by the actions in the GIF’s we might also see a few new innovations or break from the norm.

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TENAA leaks have shown up 2 versions of the Mate 8 with slight different specifications. A 3GB RAM version with 32GB memory will get a Kirin 950 chipset with dual LTE support, while a 4GB RAM model with 64GB internal memory and Kirin 955 chipset will allow users the choice of more 4G LTE networks.

Both versions of the phablet will feature an 8 mega-pixel front camera, 13 mega-pixel rear, 4400mAh battery and all metal chassis.

We’ll have more details and and hopefully a launch date for the Huawei Mate 8 in the coming days.

Disclaimer: We may be compensated by some of the companies whose products we talk about, but our articles and reviews are always our honest opinions. For more details, you can check out our editorial guidelines and learn about how we use affiliate links.

About the author
Andi

Maybe you have to call it Honor Note 8?
realjjj
July 20, 2016
Note 8 not Mate and you forgot to mention that it’s 6.6 inch.
yalok
July 20, 2016
I would call that a tablet already..
- realjjj
  July 20, 2016
  If they price it at 1999CNY (299$) as rumored, it would be the phone of the year.
  Ofc i highly doubt they go for that price, maybe 2999CNY.
  - balcobomber25
    July 20, 2016
    Might be your phone of the year, for a lot of people it will be too big.
Simon
July 20, 2016
- balcobomber25
  July 20, 2016
  I think he does, the Mate 8 is already a phone and an excellent one too. Other sites are reporting it was originally called the Honor V8 Max, but they changed it to Honor Note 8.
  - Simon
    July 20, 2016
    Ah fair enough. Honor Note 8 sounds better anyway.
    I guess you are waiting for Xiaomi’s Mi Note 2 Pro to arrive ?
    - balcobomber25
      July 20, 2016
      I am waiting for a lot of phones lol. The new Xiaomi phones have to have full LTE support or I won’t consider them. There is hope as the RN3 Taiwan edition had bands 2, 4 and 20.
      - Muhammad Yasir
        July 20, 2016
        “i am waiting for a lot of phones lol”
        wait till your significant other finds out about the money you’re trying to blow 😀
        that ‘a lot’ in the phrase will change to ‘a specific , economical phone’
        balcobomber25
        July 20, 2016
        Haha no she’s pretty good when it comes to me spending money.
        Muhammad Yasir
        July 20, 2016
        correction :
        when it comes spending money for HER favorite phone too 😀
        balcobomber25
        July 20, 2016
        More than just her favorite phone. About twice a month on Fridays she will buy me a new Xbox Game or a new movie or something similar and then while I am playing it all day Saturday she will be at the mall with my credit card lol.
        Muhammad Yasir
        July 21, 2016
        awww …. that’s cute AND crafty 😀
      - Simon
        July 20, 2016
        Lol. I might go for the new HTC Nexus Marlin, unless the Xiaomi Mi Note 2 Pro blows it out of the water.
        
        balcobomber25
        July 20, 2016
        For me it’s down to:
        Alacatel Idol 4s
        ZTE Axon 7
        Honor 8/Huawei P9 (essentially the same phone with slightly different specs)
        Huawei Mate 8
        Simon
        July 20, 2016
        Oneplus is out of the equation for me until the OnePlus 5. At the end of 2018 I might consider them.
        How will you decide between Honor 8 and Huawei P9 ?
        balcobomber25
        July 20, 2016
        Reviews of the Honor 8 and hopefully a chance to use it. I spent 2 weeks with a P9 on a trip to China courtesy of a friend who works at Huawei.
        
        Simon
        July 20, 2016
        How was EMUI 4.1 ?
        balcobomber25
        July 20, 2016
        The last time I used was on the P6 and it was Terrible, ended up selling that phone after a few months because of it. On the P9 it was improved a lot. Still not as polished as MIUI but very close behind.
        Nam Dang
        July 20, 2016
        No more OnePlus 3 and Zuk Z2 Pro on your list?
        balcobomber25
        July 20, 2016
        No wasn’t impressed with the reviews
        Assefa Hanson
        July 20, 2016
        why the mate8 with the 9 coming around the corner?
        balcobomber25
        July 20, 2016
        Until the 9 is released can’t say anything about it.

Assefa Hanson
July 20, 2016
VR seems like a joker ight now AR is being adopted much faster than it currently
- Muhammad Yasir
  July 20, 2016
  - - HOLY S***
      Pokemon Go 2 will be PEARFECT ON THIS !
      we only need wild battles , pvp and a few other hardcore Pokemon features from the originals to make a Magic Leap PoGO version (aka PoGO 2) a MASSIVE SUCCESS !
      - realjjj
        July 20, 2016
        Sorry i don’t have a clue about Pokemon Go, or any other kind of Pokemon.
        Ignoring things that are huge one day and dead tomorrow is more amusing. If it’s still a thing in a year from now i might make the effort to figure out what it is lol.
        A combination of these 2 scenarios would be fun
        Muhammad Yasir
        July 20, 2016
        i have to ask man … are u a prof. ?? a phd something ?
        look , its bad enough i don’t have a phone to play PoGO but u DEFO should try it out for sometime. get a short walk in a while :p
        oh and your posts are top-notch , so don’t get too addicted to PoGO 😀
        
        balcobomber25
        July 20, 2016
        I play it on my morning jog lol.
        realjjj
        July 21, 2016
        Maybe i’ll try it this winter when skiing but if it kills me, you are to blame lol.
  - Assefa Hanson
    July 20, 2016
    - July 20, 2016
      while im here … sitting in front of the laptop -_-
      siblings have placed their phones off limit since i might brick their smartphones… also mobile snatching is a norm in Karachi
      - Assefa Hanson
        July 20, 2016
        how normal like someone will run and grab it out of your hand even in your own yard?
        
        Muhammad Yasir
        July 20, 2016
        no , not in my own yard (we don’t have a garden , lawn , backyard … more like a solid cemented space for parking ~3 cars)
        but i leave my street or maybe just walk down my street off to a spot where there’s no streetlight near the houses (and the place is a bit darker) , my spidey senses will start tingling out of apprehension. tbh , you can get robbed anywhere , be it a public place or a deserted , lonely bus stop.
        and there’s no grabbing actually. more like a forced handover. 1,2 or even 3 guys on a bike (or it could be 2, 3 , 4 , 5 or 6 guys on 2 bikes) will move around , case you (sometimes there’s no casing but a rapid theft , since the biker knows you’ll prolly be carrying a cell and the goods) and eventually close in … sorta trapping you on the side-walk. one or more of those pigs will brandish a handgun , prolly a 9mm TT pistol or the like and ask you to hand over the phone while pointing the firearm at you , sorta like taking you on gunpoint. they’ll also be blabbering out all sorts of expletives in an attempt to make you hurry and intimidate you. they’ll pat you down to check for any more valuables you MIGHT have on you (mostly cash , a watch etc) and scurry away really fast once they’re done depriving you. oh and you can’t stall or risk resisting them , they’ll shoot you out of the fear , panic and confusion of getting caught and lynched by the public 😀
        That’s the usual scenario of mobile snatching in Karachi. i know its not a good thing to say something like this about your own country but im compelled. i know that similar things have started happening in Holland (2 guys were robbed while PoGOing) and in US there have been PoGO related muggings. but robberies are really common in Pakistan but i have never visited any other city/country so i know about Karachi (which is where i have lived my entire life so far) only and robbery has always been an issue here.
        
        balcobomber25
        July 20, 2016
        I faced that issue in Cambodia. A pack of kids (usually teenagers) would approach you on side streets or allies and demand your phone. They didn’t care about your wallet or anything just wanted your phone. I never personally ran into them but heard countless stories from other Expats.
        Muhammad Yasir
        July 20, 2016
        MaxPower
        July 20, 2016
        I heard that too.
        I also heard that you better run for your life if they find out your phone has a Pentile display.
        
        balcobomber25
        July 20, 2016
        That’s only if a certain someone is around. Because you know “pentile is a fake” screen!
        MaxPower
        July 20, 2016
- Stef
  July 20, 2016
  VR is here to stay though. Current implementations of AR only exist due to their novelty. Pokemon Go will die as fast as Ingress. In 6-9 months nobody will care, it’s not that good of an idea.
  AR is harder than VR because it has to implement the real world to the virtual one. VR is coming first with AR following mid next decade…
  - Assefa Hanson
    July 20, 2016
    i disagree seeing how expensive VR is, sure pokemon go will not be the only thing to take advantage, based on what im seeing the cost and system requirements is like a wall to many VR still hasnt picked up momentum to this day
    - Stef
      July 20, 2016
      VR is expensive for a reason. The hardware needed is cutting edge tech. The reason that AR is cheap is mostly that that’s a veeery preliminary application which is why it won’t catch on.
      If you find VR expensive wait ’till you see true AR’s cost (s).
      In fact would be the first to break it into the mainstream *because* of the cost issue (by 2020 it will be cheap enough, while true AR has to wait for mid to late 2020s).
      Pokemon Go is not actually pokemon, it’s a mini game based on pokemon. It lacks the depth of a real game. People will get rid of this fad by early 2017 at the most. Just wait and see.
      Fads are alright to make quick money though, all I’m saying is that they never start trends. AR is a very hard tech and it’s at least a decade away, btw, a lot of people already turn off their cameras, the AR part of the game already suck for many. Guess why. (Hint: premature tech is always baaad).
      - Assefa Hanson
        July 20, 2016
        Stef
        July 20, 2016
        The fact that AR is harder is not speculation though. AR needs much smaller components for one (as it is used in the world thus cannot use the grunt of a PC) and much greater power on the other. Those two are at odds, the best AR can achieve at this point is mini games (like Pokemon Go) while VR already produces full fledged worlds where you can move around.
        My belief is that AR is a decade away from VR is based on the very state current hardware is. By mid 2020s I speculate that hardware would be strong enough to house full fledged AR for the first time, before then it would all be gimmicks and mini games…
      - realjjj
        July 21, 2016
        The hardware used in current VR is not at all expensive or cutting edge, that’s a flat out lie.
        The tracking software is cutting edge.
        The parts and manufacturing for Oculus are about 200$ and that’s only because they add the bloat with the Xbox controller and external cam while the cost of the screens is still too high due to low volumes.
        Oculus is just a tiny monitor with sensors and a webcam.
        
        Stef
        July 22, 2016
        The sensors used in both the Rift and the Vive are used in no other consumer product (not even close). The amount of PR spend there is basically most of what makes the product expensive at this point. VR solutions are battling sea-sickness and it’s an uphill battle. If they fail that would be the foremost reason…
  - balcobomber25
    July 20, 2016
    I think VR will be here to stay but it will always be a niche product that caters to a specific segment. There’s nothing wrong with that though it can be very successful within that segment.
    As for Pokemon Go we will see how well it does in the long run. There have been games people said would die out and are still going strong today, like Candy Crush.
    - Stef
      July 20, 2016
      VR has more application than AR, but that is of course for the far future where glasses would be less bulky and things like the interactive Web become a thing. Until then both are niche categories. IMO VR will become big before AR.
      What Pokemon Go is great because it shows how great AR can be, but it’s more of a showcase than an actual game. It lacks the detailed battle system of pokemon games, to hatch the eggs you need to walk a lot, and catching pokemon in your home gets old eventually. I give it 6-9 months tops.
      Candy crash survived because of its actually gooD mechanics, but above all lazy game play (all it needs is flicks), none of which pokemon go (or really any current AR game) has.
      Again I love the scene (both AR and VR) it’s just premature to call either money fountains. 2020s will be their era in my honest opinion … and first VR (the tech is almost here
      , and then AR.
      - balcobomber25
        July 21, 2016
        What Pokemon Go is doing is appealing to people who had no interested in Pokemon before. People who could care less about battle systems and don’t want something that in depth but just something they can pick up play and no matter where they are. It is a simple game that anyone can play and it gets kids outside. They are only scratching the surface of what they can do with it.
        
        Stef
        July 21, 2016
        Nintendo Wii did that too, look where it is now. That’s why I called it Fad, it does not seem to be something based on a strong base, it works because it is novel, once its novelty value wears off people will abandon it in droves … exactly like it happened with Wii or similarly gimmicky technologies of the past.
        The games that actually sell a lot (and I mean A LOT) are the ones with depth. Games like WoW, the call of duty series (and similar shooter style games) are games that pretty much made the gaming industry into the colossus it is now.
        Even in casual games, the ones that survived are the ones that offered solid mechanics, albeit simple ones. Pokemon Go has none of it, people literally play it because it is something novel, it’s not a good game. In 6-9 months we will be here, we’d see how it goes then … then.
        
        balcobomber25
        July 21, 2016
        Nintendo sold over 100 million Wiis, more than both Xbox 360 and PS3. Thats not a fad, Nintendo won. Pokemon Go could have that same success.
        Pokemon Go is the definition of a game with simple mechanics that anyone can pick up and play. You may not personally like it but millions do.
        We will see who is right next year.
        
        Stef
        July 22, 2016
        Nintendo Wii lost by far. The gross sales of titles was far higher in the other two consoles. The fact that the console sold yet its titles didn’t show exactly my point . Nintendo is actually in deep trouble and many analysts believe that their next console would be their last. That is what you get by fads.
        As for pokemon go, I’m neutral, I’m not much of a gamer anyway, all I’m saying is “it won’t last”. Like you (and I) said “we will see”.
        
        balcobomber25
        July 22, 2016
        Fourth highest selling console in history is very far from losing and not even close to being a “fad”. As for sales of titles, Mario Kart Wii sold 36 million copies. The top selling game on both PS3 and Xbox 360 was GTA V, combined they sold 39 million copies. That was the only game for either console that sold more than 15 million copies. The Wii had 6 games that sold more than 20 million copies. I don’t think you know the definition of the word, fad.
        
        Stef
        July 22, 2016
        Nintendo only sells first party games. I was talking total sales you reversed it into single title sales.
        Nintendo motion controls was btw very much a fad, even they took it back. Their games could easily be played without it which is why they mostly removed it next gen.
        Not to say that motion controls or AR are fads. They only seem so when they are developed and released to the public prematurely. Pokemon Go and Nintendo Wii controls were fads, I’m sorry. Nobody plays a Wii anymore, in the same way nobody would remember pokemon go in a year…
        
        balcobomber25
        July 23, 2016
        The motion controls were largely a fad, although one that prompted both Sony and Microsoft to come up with an alternative, but the Wii itself was one of the most successful consoles of all time.
        “Nobody plays a Wii anymore” Do you have any stats to back that up? I know several people that still use one and love it. Just like I know people that still use the 360, PS3 and even PS2.
        
        Stef
        July 23, 2016
        Yeah, and where did Sony’s and Microsoft’s alternatives go? Oh yeah, they failed as well. Nintendo Wii was first in sales, last in usage times. There was an article I was reading a couple months back showing exactly this effect I’m talking about. Initial enthusiasm taken over by lukewarm responses and eventually abandonment of the platform. *Exactly* how fads live, exactly what I’m expecting Pokemon Go will see.
        I’ll try to find the article (with the usage time), ’till then keep in mind that I’m *for* motion controls, *for* good AR or VR. I just think that bad implementations of them actually keep back their eventual establishment (which I’m of the stern belief that it will happen within our lifetimes).
        
        balcobomber25
        July 23, 2016
        There are many in the tech community who think VR itself is a fad. Personally I think niche product that will always have a following but never be mainstream
        Stef
        July 23, 2016
        VR can’t be a fad . It has more applications that computing itself (as we currently know it).
        It’s the opposite of a fad, it’s just too early in its life (the only tech that allows telepresence which is huge for both work, education, tourism, research) … which is basically my argument against (current implementations of ) AR and motion sensing as well (it’s too early for anything important to happen there, only fads).
        
        balcobomber25
        July 23, 2016
        It can’t be a fad because you are a fan of it. There are plenty in the tech community who disagree with your view.
        Stef
        July 23, 2016
        I’m not a fan of it. I don’t care that they disagree, I care for their reasons. Both the military, social networks, gaming giants and educational institutions are greatly interested to VR. It seems to be the next big thing with anything else falling far behind by far.
        Telepresence is huge, it will probably transform everything we know about thE world, I just don’t expect it to happen soon (it will start in 2020s, but we will practically start seeing the tranformation in 2030s)…
  - realjjj
    July 21, 2016
    VR as a dedicated device will have a very short life as AR and VR are already merging.
    Glasses that do both are what matters.
    - Stef
      July 21, 2016
      I doubt it , they’re a different tech. AR has a small field of view (by definition). VR offers total immersion and to do that they would always have to go for the ski mask look, which in turn will never fly in public.
      AR and VR are very distinct technologies that will get even further apart as they get more specialised niches…
      - realjjj
        July 21, 2016
        AR has a small field of view by definition ? LOL that’s hilarious.
        Standalone VR is just the early stage we suck at this kind of tech and because it was delayed for so long, it’s almost dead.
        Stef
        July 22, 2016
        There is no AR with more than 40 degrees right now (either proposed or in the market). So yeah low FoV is its hallmark.
        VR is much more advanced tech wise. But you are right, it’s early days. I think early 2020s will be its heyday. AR? A decade away at least.
tauerman
July 24, 2016
WTF?
The Mate 8 is laying right in front of me and it has a 6.0 inch screen with 1080p.
Will they bring a new one with the same name and different specs?
Or shouldn’t the device in this news be called Mate 9?

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