When Huawei announced its P8 flagship Android phone back in April, it said that it was cooking up a more affordable version of the device for the U.S. Now that phone is here.
The Huawei P8 lite is launching in the U.S. today, June 3. The device features a 5-inch 1280x720 display and 5-megapixel wide-angle camera on its face, with a 13-megapixel f/2.2 aperture shooter on its rear. Packed inside of the P8 lite’s body is quad-core Snadpragon 615 processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, a microSD slot, and a 2200mAh battery. The P8 lite runs Android 4.4 beneath Huawei’s EMUI 3.0 custom user interface.
As far as connectivity goes, the Huawei P8 lite supports 4G LTE connectivity on bands 2, 4, 5, 12, and 17, which means it should play nicely with AT&T and T-Mobile. Interestingly, the P8 lite includes a dual SIM slot, which isn’t something that we see a lot of in the U.S.
The Huawei P8 lite is now available from Huawei’s own online store, Get Huawei, as well as Amazon. Pricing is set at $249.99 unlocked. For buyers that don’t want to pony up $250 upfront, Huawei is letting customers sign up for 3, 6, and 12-month financing options as well. After you’ve purchased the phone, you’ll have a two-year warranty with U.S.-based phone, chat, and social media support.
Huawei has been a major player in the international mobile arena for a while, but in the U.S., it’s typically associated with low-cost phones that have often been rebranded. It’s nice to see Huawei taking a more aggressive approach to the U.S. by launching an unlocked phone, especially because we need manufacturers to offer unlocked phones in the U.S. more frequently. And while the P8 lite isn’t exactly a high-end phone, it’s a decently-specced handset, and it’s priced appropriately. What’s disappointing is that it comes with Android 4.4 out of the box. That means that it’s already a couple of major versions behind, and though Android M won’t launch to the public for another few months, many folks will consider the P8 lite to be even farther behind now that M is official. Here’s to hoping that Huawei can update the P8 lite quickly.
