Huawei P8 has a 6.4mm all-metal unibody, 5.2-inch screen

The Huawei P8 was brought up on stage by the company's CEO who wants to ignite "infinite creativity" among users. The new flagship follows in the footsteps of its predecessors with a metal frame and a 6.4mm thick body.

The design focuses on a modern, premium build with a full-metal unibody (unlike the metal and glass build of previos models). It takes 810 minutes to craft the body out of aluminum. Special nano-coating makes the phone splashproof, guarding it against accidental damage.

   
Huawei P8

The Huawei P8 has bigger 5.2" 1080p display though thanks to narrow bezels keeps the phone compact. The screen takes up 78.3% of the front, wasting less space on bezels than the Galaxy S6 and the like.

Huawei introduced a unique new way to interact with the touchscreen - using your knuckles. You can double tap or just crop a part of the screen to grab a screenshot. This kind of functionality is usually reserved for a stylus. Anyway, the phone runs Emotion UI 3.1 built on top of Android 5.0 Lollipop.

The camera on the P8 utilizes what's allegedly the world's first 13MP phone camera sensor capturing light in RGBW (red-green-blue-white) pattern. This will help the camera in the low-light, but the 13MP camera also features optical image stabilization. It can offset vibrations with an angle of up to 1.6°, which is reportedly, double what the iPhone 6 Plus camera manages. Huawei has also included an independent image processor, which it claims is DSLR-quality. The ISP takes care of noise reduction, automatic scene recognition, advanced face recognition, better white balance and exposure.

The camera only records 1080p video though, which is a letdown for a 2015 flagship. At least you get an 8MP selfie camera.

The Huawei P8 is powered by a Kirin 935 chipset. An octa-core Cortex-A53 processor delivers performance at a lower power usage. The company promises its flagship lasts 2.3 days, regardless of how many apps you have installed. Heavy users can expect 1.5 days, this is on a 2,680mAh battery.

The Huawei P8 uses the company's new Signal+ tech. It features two antennas (one on top and one on the bottom) and it can switch between them in just 33.5µs so your calls and data connection are not affected. The phone takes the best out of local networks with Wi-Fi+ which will automatically pick the best Wi-Fi signal.

Two antennas, two SIM slots too. The second slot is a nanoSIM/microSD combo so you can pop in a local card when you travel abroad and use more storage at home. Both SIM cards can use 4G LTE.

Huawei will offer a number cases for the P8, but most interesting is the e-ink cover, which adds a 4.3" display that's perfect for reading out in the sun.

The Huawei P8 will be available in two versions, differentiated by storage and color options. The 16GB model is €500, while 64GB costs €100 extra. Europe, the Middle East and South Affrica will be the first to get Huawei's new flagship.