Huawei Australia officially launches the P8 smartphone, available from Vodafone and selected retailers

We kind of beat them to the punch late last week, but today Huawei Australia has officially announced availability for their high-end smartphone, the P8. The phone will be available outright from selected retailers as well as launching as a carrier exclusive on the Vodafone network.

The phone will be available from tomorrow (29th of July) in Titanium Grey for $699 from JB Hi-Fi, Dick Smith and Harvey Norman, and from Vodafone for $0 on the $70 RED Plan from Vodafone over 24 months (conditions apply) from the 5th of August. JB Hi-Fi began taking pre-orders for the phone last week, offering a bonus of a Talkband B2 though this offer has now expired.

The Huawei P8 offers premium design, in a compact aluminium unibody with a massive 5.2″ Full HD display, that is packed tightly into the frame leaving minimal bezel either side.

Huawei have taken specific pride in the camera on the P8, with low-light OIS and 4-colour RGBW sensor which will capture bright, vibrant, colour rich pictures on the 13MP sensor. The camera comes with software which offers the ability to capture star trails and light painting offering opportunities for unique artistic expression.

Vodafone Sales Director, Ben McIntosh, is excited to have the P8 available on contract from Vodafone, saying

The Huawei P8 has all of the modern features you’d expect packaged within an aluminium body that has a premium look and feel. It’s also available for $0 upfront on Vodafone’s $70 Red plan, so it really does offer a premium smartphone experience without the premium smartphone price tag. We’re excited to be offering our customers such a high quality smartphone on our value packed plans.

As a reminder on specs for the P8, the phone has:

• 5.2″ IPS-NEO FullHD 1920x1080P display
• Hisilicon Kirin 930/935 64-bit Octa-core in big.LITTLE (A53 4×2.0GHz and A53 4×1.5GHz)
• 3GB RAM
• 16/64GB on-board storage with microSD Card
• 13MP Rear camera with OIS and dual-tone flash and 8MP front-facing camera
• 802.11n, Bluetooth 4.1 LE, GPS/A-GPS/Glonass/BDS(BeiDou Navigation Satellite System)
• G-sensor; Gyroscope sensor; Ambient Light sensor; Proximity sensor; Compass, Accelerometer
• Radios:
• GRA_L09:
• TDD LTE: B40
• FDD LTE: B1/B2/B3/B4/B5/B7/B8/B12/B17/B18/B19/B20/B25/B26/B28
• UMTS: 800(B6,Japan)/800(B19,Japan)/850/900/1700/1900/2100MHz
• GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz
• GRA_UL00:
• TDD LTE: B38/B39/B40/B41 (2555MHz~2655MHz)
• FDD LTE:B1/B3/B4/B7
• UMTS: 850/900/1700/1900/2100MHz(B8/B5/B4/B2/B1)
• GSM :
• Main card: 850/900/1800/1900MHz;
• Second card: 850/900/1800/1900MHz

The Huawei P8 has some great hardware and comes with Android 5.0 with Huawei’s customised EmotionUI overlay on top. The EMUI version 3.1 is an interesting take on the launcher, with no app drawer, but quite a few features and tools packed into the ROM.

The Huawei P8 will launch with a great bonus for anyone who has experienced an accident with their phone, offering a free screen replacement for any screen damage done within the first 12 months of purchase for phones purchased before the 31st of December. This is a fantastic bonus for P8 owners, as Shawn Marsh, Head of Marketing at Huawei Australia, said

It is estimated this year, over 200,000 smartphone handsets will be repaired or replaced costing Australians approximately $50 million fixing cracked screens on their devices. That’s why we’re introducing Huawei Screen Promise. We’re putting our money where our mouth is. We believe in challenging the big smartphone brands to give consumers more for their money.

The Huawei P8 has been my phone of choice since launch, and I look forward to delivering my full review shortly. If you’re in the market for a new phone, the Huawei P8 is definitely worth a look, head over to the Huawei P8 product page for more information.