It has been confirmed that the new flagship from Huawei, the Mate 8, will be on sale today in China. Meanwhile, speculations say that the upcoming iteration from the China-based company will also be made available for global markets, with prices and release schedules to be revealed during the Consumer Electronics Show 2016.
According to Phone Arena, the announcement of the phone's availability today came from He Gang, head of the smartphone division of Huawei.
Reportedly, the new Mate 8 will be on sale in China today, with the price tag starting at CNY 2,999 ($470) for the base model, which has 3 GB of RAM and 32-GB internal storage. Meanwhile, the other version, a 4-GB RAM with 64-GB internal storage variant, is priced much higher at CNY 3,699 ($580). The highest price tag for what could be said as "regular editions" of the new Huawei Mate 8 is CNY 4,399 ($690), with the unit having 4 GB of RAM and a 128-GB storage.
Aside from the three variants, Gadgets 360 reported that the abovementioned prices are just for the regular editions of the new device. The industry follower added a fourth version, a premium Champagne Edition priced at CNY 6,888 ($1075).
Meanwhile, Gadgets 360 also mentioned that although the launch today is for only for the Chinese market, the Huawei Mate 8 might make it to western shores early next year. Huawei stated that the global release schedules, including pricing in different market locations, will be revealed in January at the CES 2016.
The new Huawei Mate 8's reported tech specs made it a contender for next-gen premium smartphone market. Powered by the company's homegrown all-new Kirin 950 chipset, it has a 6-inch, 1080p display with a massive 4,000-mAh battery. In addition, the new Mate 8 will also reportedly carry Android 6.0 right out of the box, layered with Huawei's own EMUI 4.0 OS.
