Announced back in Nov. 2015, Huawei recently launched its much coveted Mate 8 for international customers at the CES 2016 last week. The premium phablet is believed to reign as the most premium handset in the market, leaving behind coveted devices like Samsung Galaxy Note 5.

Display

Samsung’s brilliant 5.7-inch Super AMOLED QHD display screen will surely conquer more audiences as compared to the Huawei Mate 8. The device features a 6-inch Full HD LCD display with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels.

Available in White Pearl, Black Sapphire, Gold Platinum, Silver Titanium , the Galaxy Note 5 sports a stunning resolution of 1440 x 2560 pixels which results in 518 ppi (pixels per inch). The Huawei Mate 8 is shipped with four unique colour models including Champagne Gold, Moonlight Silver, Space Gray and Mocha Brown.

Hardware and memory expansion

The Mate 8 is the first smartphone with Huawei’s own octa-core Kirin 950 chipset clocked at 1.8GHz. The company claims the SoC to be 125 percent better GPU performance and 70 percent more power efficient than its predecessor.

The results on GeekBench reveal that the chipset fares better than Samsung’s Exynos 7420 which powers the Galaxy Note 5, with a whopping 1,710 points on single-core performance and 6,245 points on multi-core performance. Samsung’s Exynos 7420 is one of the top processors powering flagship devices like Galaxy S6, reports Android Pit.

Samsung Galaxy Note 5 is shipped with 4 GB of RAM along with 32 GB and 64 GB internal storage options. However, with the premium phablet, the company decided to drop the option of expandable memory.

On the contrary, the Mate 8 has two versions; housing 3 GB (32 GB of native storage) or 4 GB of RAM (coupled with 64 GB or 128 GB of internal storage) and a microSD card slot for memory expansion up to 64 GB.

Software

Huawei mate was launched with the latest Android 6.0 Marshmallow on board. Samsung launched its premium handset with Android v.5.1.1 Lollipop. However, a report in GSM Arena states that Samsung will be rolling out the latest version of Android operating system for Galaxy Note 5 in Q1 2016.

Camera

The Huawei Mate 8 adopted the all new 16MP IMX298 camera sensor by Sony with optical image stabilisation (OIS) and phase-detection auto-focus (PDAF).

Just like Galaxy S6 edge+, in Note 5, Samsung has also used a 16 MP Sony IMX240 camera sensor for the main camera along with its homegrown ISOCELL sensor for the front-facing camera unit. The combination of both the industry appreciated camera sensors has produced excellent results.

Battery and Stylus

Huawei’s premium phablet comes with a massive 4,000 mAh battery as compared to the 3,000 mAh juicer of Samsung Galaxy Note 5. Moreover, Huawei’s advanced six-layer thermal mechanics allows higher heat dissipation and lower power consumption. It is believed that Marshmallow will bring in better battery optimisation features to the Note 5.

There is somthings special about the Note 5 which makes it unique and enticing. The handset is shipped with a stylus pen that makes life easier.

Availability

Samsung Galaxy Note was initially available in the US and Canada. There are reports that the device will soon be launched in the European markets in January. At the CES 2016, Huawei announced the global launch of its Mate 8. The device is available in 30 countries including Spain, Germany, France, United Arab Emirates, Mexico and Australia.

Price

The 3GB/32GB variant of the Huawei Mate 8 is priced at 599 euros (AU$921) and the 4GB/64GB model will come with a price tag of 699 euros (AU$1,075). Currently, Amazon is selling the Black 32 GB (International Version) of Galaxy Note 5 at US$621 (AU$888).

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