Huawei and Xiaomi are currently the top 2 smartphone manufacturers in China. These two companies have had a really successful year thus far, and actually hold an almost identical market share in China. They’ve announced a number of compelling handsets this year, but are expected to announce two additional ones. Huawei is expected to release their long awaited Mate 8 phablet, while Xiaomi will probably unveil the Mi 5 flagship handset before the end of this year.
Now, according to the info we’ve already covered, Huawei’s Kirin 950 SoC will be announced on November 5th, which means that we might see Mate 8 unveiled soon after that or perhaps even during that announcement. The Mate 8 will almost certainly going to be powered by the HiSilicon Kirin 950 SoC, which is probably the reason why the company has been waiting for so long to release this phablet. Anyhow, a China-based industry analyst has said that the Mi 5 will almost certainly going to see the light of day before the end of this year as well. He has also added that the Mi 5 will probably going to be priced at around 1,999 Yuan ($314), which is quite optimistic, especially if the rumors are accurate and this smartphone gets to pack all that goodies on the inside.
As far as the Mate 8 goes, that very same analyst has mentioned that the phablet might be priced around 3,000 Yuan ($471), which also seems a bit weird considering that would mean the Mate 8 would be more affordable than the Mate S. All this info is somewhat confusing, and it’s going to be interesting to see how accurate are these pricing tips, but if these two companies actually manage to pull off this price, those two handsets will quite probably sell really well.
Both the Mate 8 and Mi 5 are expected to be made out of metal, and will sport top of the line specifications. The Mate 8 will be powered by the Kirin 950 SoC, while the Mi 5 has been rumored to sport either the Snapdragon 820 or the Helio X20 processor. You can also expect 3 or 4GB of RAM to ship inside of these phones along with a rather capable rear-facing shooters. Stay tuned for additional info, we’ll report back as soon as something pops up.