Huawei has kicked off the new year with a bang this morning, officially introducing the gold version of the Nexus 6P and announcing a new version of the Huawei Watch for Women among other things. Included in Huawei’s announcement was one of their newer phones called the GX8 which they showcased at their recent CES event, a mid-range device with a 5.5-inch display set to launch in the first quarter of 2016 inside the U.S. with availability from multiple retailers. Huawei’s initial announcement for the phone happened in the Fall of 2015 but this marks the first time U.S. consumers will get the chance to buy the phone directly inside of the region.
At $349.99, Huawei is offering the phone in a selection of a few different colors including Gray, Silver, and Gold, and it sports a sleek looking body design along with the rear-mounted fingerprint sensor (which Huawei states has a 94 percent unlock success rate) and a 13MP rear-facing camera. The 5.5-inch display features Full HD resolution, which puts it on par with other mid-range devices, and it comes powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 octa-core processor with a modest 2GB of RAM. Internally it holds 16GB of storage but users can expand on that by up to 128GB via the microSD card slot if they need more than what’s included with the device.
Although Huawei hasn’t stated the exact release date for the phone in the U.S., they have given consumers a leg up for now on where they’ll be able to buy it. When the GX8 launches in the U.S. later in the first quarter, it will go on sale at Huawei’s online U.S. store as well as Best Buy, Best buy.com, and Amazon for those who are prime members and do their shopping with the mammoth online merchant. There was no mention of the phone coming to any other retailers than what’s been listed above, physical or not. Other specifications for the GX8 include Android 5.1 Lollipop with Huawei’s EMUI 3.1, a 3000mAh battery, a 5MP front camera, and connection support for Bluetooth 4.0 as well as WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Gorilla Glass 3 to protect the display, and an aluminum unibody design.