Tech giant launches all-new Mate 8 smartphone, M2 tablet in Middle East

Last night at the Madinat Jumeirah Dubai, UAE, Huawei Consumer Business Group (CBG) revealed their latest Flagship devices - the Mate 8 and the M2 tablet to the Middle East region. Dubai became the second city globally for the Huawei Consumer Group to launch the new flagship devices, post the global launch last week at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The spectacular event saw over 400 attendees including media from across the region, VIP guests and partners who were all there to witness the unveiling of Huawei’s latest innovations.

Featuring the most powerful chipset, a high-capacity battery and stylish design – including a unique mocha brown color option – the Huawei Mate 8 is the ideal smartphone for today’s on-the-go professional. The Mate 8 is designed from the ground up for productivity and its hardware and software have been fine-tuned to provide an elegant, efficient experience.

Commenting on the launch of the devices, Sandeep Saihgal, Vice President of Huawei Consumer Business Group said, “2015 was a successful year for the Huawei Consumer Business Group here in the Middle East and we anticipate 2016 to be an even bigger one with immense growth in the region following the launch of these two flagship devices. The Mate 8 is the ultimate high-end smartphone designed for the professional, striking the perfect balance between high performance and long battery life. And when designing the M2, we equipped it with an impeccable sound system to take the user’s experience to the next level. Both of these devices reflect Huawei’s continued dedication to bringing the latest innovation and style to our consumers’.’

Featuring groundbreaking hardware, the Mate 8 is the first smartphone to run the Kirin 950 chipset, with CPU boosting power up 100 percent, GPU performance up 125 percent, and power efficiency up 70 percent vs. the Kirin 925.

Equipped with a 4000mAh high-density battery, the Mate 8 delivers industry-leading power efficiency offering over two days of normal usage. And with rapid charging technology, the phone is able to charge a day’s worth of power in just 30 minutes. In fact, regular users can go without charging their phone for 2.36 days, and heavy users can go without charging for 1.65 days. The Mate 8 also features an advanced six-layer thermal mechanics, which allows higher heat dissipation leading to an excellent holding experience and lower power consumption.

Running on Huawei’s EMUI 4.0, based on Android Marshmallow 6.0, the Huawei Mate 8 offers hundreds of user experience tweaks and improvements, including a built-in automatic defragmentation service that continues optimizing system performance. Additionally, the Mate 8 features a split-screen mode that enables enhanced multitasking between apps.

The Huawei Mate 8 introduces a new generation of fingerprint security with enhanced protection technology. The circular fingerprint sensor improves the effective identification area by 10 percent. In addition, the fingerprint friction ridge matching has three levels of security, providing higher protection for users. The new sensor design also increases the unlock speed by 100%.

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The Mate 8 maintains two sets of fingerprint interface standards to improve smartphone payment experiences—the Fast Identity Online (FIDO) and Android M standards. The strong CPU also supports real-time encryption of full storage for better data protection. The Mate 8 provides a microSD card lock, preventing anyone from accessing content in the card without a password. If a phone is stolen, user data cannot be obtained.

Huawei invested $98 million over three years to develop the first proprietary image sensor processor for faster focusing, higher clarity, and more accurate color shading. A leading team of 300 engineers was assembled in France to increase the processing speed of the camera, resulting in increasing the process bandwidth by four times with 14-bit precision.

In addition, the Mate 8 adopts the revolutionary, all-new Sony 16MP IMX298, increasing the sensor size by 23 percent for breathtaking images. The Mate 8 also features an 8 MP front camera with a new beauty algorithm for taking the perfect selfie. Additionally, the Mate 8 provides document readjustment camera mode, which automatically straightens images that are captured at an angle for better viewing.

The Huawei Mate 8 features “Super Hands-Free 3.0” technology that enables hands-free operation in a variety of environments. Whether you’re in a car, a conference room or at a crowded party, users can enjoy clear conversations from up to 3 meters away. With a 120 degree range of audio pick up and directional noise reduction mode, conference calls are crisper and clearer than ever before, no matter where they take place.

The Mate 8 features omnidirectional recording and directional playback. Three microphones automatically detect sound sources and record voices from all directions. During playback, people can choose any direction of the sound source they want to hear.

The Mate 8 supports global connectivity and more bands than any other dual-SIM phone, including 4 2G bands, 9 3G bands and 18 4G bands in 217 countries and regions with 1,334 operator settings. This makes it the perfect device for the global business traveler.

The Mate 8 features a refined, elegant design that highlights its beautiful 6-inch high contrast display. With a leading 83 percent screen-to-body ratio, the phone is able to stay sleek and compact without sacrificing a desired large display. The 2.5D curved diamond cut glass and aerospace grade aluminum metal are joined seamlessly, giving the device a sleek blend of beauty and practicality.

The Huawei Mate 8 will be initially available in four elegant colors: champagne gold, moonlight silver, space grey and mocha brown.

Those using the Huawei M2 Tablet will have an opportunity to enjoy the rich sonic experience of Harman/Kardon, as the result of a new partnership that integrates that company’s leading audio technology into the 10-inch tablet. Harman International, with its core brand Harman/Kardon, is the world leader for personal audio solutions at home, in the car and on the go and is known for its innovative design and enterprising spirit. In the M2 Tablet, Harman/Kardon will provide its cutting-edge Clari-Fi audio restoration technology designed to recover the lost details of compressed digital music. The resulting audio is clearer, crisper, wider and more dynamic - resulting in improved realism and fidelity.