Huawei Mate 8 Is Company's New Flagship PhabletHuawei Mate 8 Is Company's New Flagship Phablet

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Huawei took the wraps off its new flagship phablet -- the Mate 8 -- on Nov. 26 but the Android-based device is only available in China for now.

Huawei fans around the world will be pleased to know, however, that the release date for regions outside of China should be in the first quarter of 2016. North America will get a preview of the phone at the 2016 CES show in Las Vegas.

The 6-inch Mate 8 features a large 4000mAh battery, a full high definition (FHD) display with 1080p resolution, and an impressive display to body ratio of 83%.

The Mate 8 is the first smartphone to run on Huawei's recently announced Kirin 950 chipset and use TSMC 16 nm FinFET plus chip technology, according to the Android Central blog.

The architecture features redefined properties that are designed for more balanced power consumption, with four A72 2.3 GHz processors, and four A53 1.8 GHz processors.

In addition, the Mate 8's i5 intelligent processor supports speech recognition, low-power consumption MP3, all the functions of a sensor hub, fused location provider (FLP) navigation, and reduces location-based power consumption.

The handset will also come with a recently redesigned EMUI 4.0 interface from Huawei, which is likely meant to better integrate with the latest version of Android Marshmallow that will be packaged onto the Mate 8.

Its body is made from aerospace-grade aluminum and 2.5D curved diamond cut glass.

The Mate 8 comes in three different storage configurations: 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB. The smartphone also boasts a microSD slot for additional storage needs.

Users will be able to further personalize their handset with the choice of four colors, including Champagne Gold, Moonlight Silver, Space Gray, and Mocha Brown.

Shutterbugs will be happy to know the device features a Sony 16-megapixel rear camera and a front-facing camera with an impressive 8-megapixel capability.

Some of the Mate 8's other most notable features include voice controls, a power-saving firewall, a defragmenter and eRecovery, and the smartphone also offers improved roaming, navigation, and payment capabilities.

The Chinese company is currently the world's third largest smartphone manufacturer, moving 27.2 million units worldwide in the third quarter, trailing industry titans Samsung and Apple.

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Huawei, which now commands 7.7% of the global smartphone market, has continued its growth momentum, thanks to smartphone sales in both its home market and global markets and particularly Europe, where sales were driven by its ever-growing brand visibility.

The company recorded the highest growth in mobile phone and smartphone sales in third quarter of 2015 in a market which is being led by strong growth in emerging markets such as China.

Strong sales of the company's devices have also helped boost market share for the Android operating system, according to a recent Gartner report.

Global sales of smartphones to end users totaled 353 million units, a 15.5% growth over the same period in 2014, according to Gartner.

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