This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on March 10, 2016.

Moving in tandem with Huawei’s concept of premium lifestyle choices, the newly launched Mate 8 is packed with various features for the business elite while maintaining the sleek aesthetics of the device. This smartphone, which operates on the latest Kirin 950 chip and Huawei’s EMUI 4.0 operating system based on Android Marshmallow 6.0, appears almost borderless — sans the home button option and with a 1.7mm bezel. It is a combination of beauty and strength with a 2.5D diamond cut glass joined with metal at 35,000 rpm.

 “In the past few years, the premium smartphone segment has been crying out for a new choice. This year, we have a few great products coming your way as Huawei will bring to consumers new styles and new choices,” said product marketing director Luke Au when revealing the Huawei Mate 8 at the recent launch in Suria KLCC. 

The long standby time and quick-charging ability of the 4,000 mAh high-density battery-powered device is enticing for the businessman on the go. It estimates 28 hours of talk time, 20 hours of Internet usage, 17 hours of HD video play and 98 hours of audio play, all of which can be translated into over two days of battery life on normal/regular usage. The quick-charging feature allows for a whole day of regular-usage battery life with only 30 minutes of charging. The Super Hands-Free technology enables users to multitask while having a conversation at a distance of up to 3m away from the phone.

The smartphone is equipped with Sony’s 16MP stackable sensor and 8MP front camera for your photography needs. It is coupled with image stabilisation at 1.5° OIS, Phase Detection Auto Focus (PDAF) for accurate focusing and fourth-generation smart image processing. 

In addition to the existing knuckle sense technology and omnidirectional recording and playback found in its predecessor, the Mate S, the Mate 8 comes with a new generation of the fingerprint-touch technology, featuring a circular fingerprint sensor on the back of the phone for an improved fingerprint-touch experience. The recognition speed is twice as fast as the Mate 7, with additional security mechanisms like keeping a file secure and locking applications. Another security feature is the firewall provided by the Kirin 950s TrustZone and secure OS, predicting data even if the phone is stolen.

The brand also revealed the Huawei MediaPad M2 and two Huawei watches for women — the Huawei Watch Jewel and Elegant, at its recent launch — all of which will be available at the end of next month. The first 88 buyers of the Mate 8 on opening sales day at the KLCC flagship store will also walk away with a Huawei TalkBand B2 worth RM668.

The Huawei Mate 8 will be available for purchase from tomorrow onwards at a recommended retail price of RM2,099 and RM2,399 (for the premium variant). The former comes in moonlight silver and space grey while the latter in champagne gold and a newly introduced mocha brown colour.