Huawei has been part of IFA for a couple of years now and
for the most part of their participation, they focused on introducing their
newest products without the intent of going after a specific manufacturer. But
this year, it seems the company is drawing the battle lines against one very
popular player in the industry – Apple.
For instance, its newest flagship model the Mate S has a new
feature that was taken from Apple’s playbook – Force Touch. The device uses a
Force Touch sensor, which rumor has it will also be incorporated in the
upcoming iPhone 6S.
Looking at the rest of the device’s specs sheet, we see a
5.5-inch AMOLED panel with 1080p resolution and a screen color saturation of
105 percent. There’s also a Gorilla Glass 4 panel on top of the screen, a Kirin
935 chipset with two quad-core processors, 3GB of RAM and up to 64GB of onboard
storage.
The Mate S uses a 13MP BSI sensor that is complemented by an
f/2.0 lens and a dual-LED flash. Huawei has also equipped the camera with
optical image stabilization and a sapphire crystal front element. The selfie
camera on the device has an 8MP sensor with an f/2.4 lens and LED soft light.
Energy is provided by a 2700mAh battery while Android 5.1.1
runs the software department. There’s also a fingerprint sensor at the back,
just like the Ascend
Mate 7 from last year. The phone will be available starting October
starting at $723 (before taxes and subsidies).
Also announced at the event are details about the company’s
smartwatch – the Huawei
watch. Although the device was originally unveiled at Barcelona earlier
this year, has provided more details about the watch including its pricing and
has offered the device on pre-order.
The watch is now available for pre-order and will retail
starting at $349. Just like the Apple watch, Huawei’s will be offered in
different models at different price points. All models will feature a
high-definition 1.4-inch AMOLED display protected by sapphire crystal,
cold-forged 316L stainless steel casing and a multitude of straps made from
different materials.
Huawei has put a 300mAh battery on the watch, which it
claims can last up to 1.5 days on a single charge. The device also comes with a
6-axis motion sensor, a heart rate sensor, a barometer and a vibration motor.
As for memory and storage, the watch will come with 512MB of RAM and 4GB of
ROM.
The device will come in three different case: stainless
steel, black-plated stainless steel and rose gold-plated stainless steel.
Finally, we’ve got the Huawei G8, a more affordable
alternative that doesn’t compromise much on specs. The phone sports a 5.5-inch
Full HD display, a Snapdragon 615 chip with an octa-core processor, 3GB of RAM
and 32GB of expandable storage.
There’s a 13MP+5MP camera combo, dual-SIM functionality, support
for 4G LTE connectivity and a 3000mAh battery. The handset will be offered in
three color options: dark silver, white and gold. It also sports a fingerprint
scanner at the back and Android 5.1 Lollipop.
We don’t know when Huawei will start shipping the device,
but we got info that it will be sold for around $445 without contract.
