Skip to main content

Forget phablets, Huawei’s upcoming phone might as well be a small tablet

Huawei Honor 5C
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
The flagship Honor 8 may not be the only phone Huawei is set to unveil, as yet another Honor has made its way through China’s TENAA regulatory agency, reports GizmoChina.

Rumored to be the Honor 8 Max, the new phone, which bears model number EDI-DL00, seems to feature a gigantic 6.6-inch, 2,560 × 1,440p resolution display. In other words, unless you have baseball mitts for hands, we doubt you’ll be able to use the phone with just one hand. The aluminum casing should also make it slippery in the hand — and that much more difficult to hold.

Recommended Videos

Powering the beast that might be the Honor 8 Max is an octa-core 2.3GHz Kirin 950 processor and 3GB RAM, with the phone running Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box. Furthermore, thanks to the size, the phone can fit a large 4,400mAh battery inside, which should give the EDI-DL00 more than a day of use.

Unfortunately, the phone does not get treated to a dual-camera setup, instead opting for a single 13-megapixel shooter on the back and an 8MP selfie camera on the front. Along with this choice, the fingerprint scanner on the back is a weird design selection. Moreover, it is quite close to the top, a very strange choice for a fingerprint scanner, especially given the huge size of the EDI-DL00.

From just looking at the phone, it seems like the EDI-DL00 was created to compete against the Xiaomi Mi Max, another gigantic phone that features a 6.44-inch display. The former will have to also compete with the latter in terms of price, seeing how the Mi Max currently goes for anywhere from $230 for the base model to $300 for the higher-end version.

We should learn more about the rumored Honor 8 Max when Huawei officially unveils the smaller Honor 8 (which differs from the P9 in one important way) on July 11.

Williams Pelegrin
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Williams is an avid New York Yankees fan, speaks Spanish, resides in Colorado, and has an affinity for Frosted Flakes. Send…
Google warns users not to transfer Google apps on Huawei phones
huawei mate xs hands on features price photos video release date folded hand

Google apps and services won't be coming back to Huawei devices any time soon -- and based on a new post published by Google on its Android support forums, it may be difficult to side-load or transfer Google apps onto Huawei devices, too.

The new post details how, because of government restrictions, Google has been prohibited from working with Huawei on new phones -- and as such, you shouldn't expect to see apps like Gmail, YouTube, or the Google Play Store on Huawei phones any time soon.

Read more
Huawei Mate X2 folding phone patent shows big design change over the original
huawei mate x review hinge

The Huawei Mate X2 is rumored to be Huawei’s next major foldable smartphone release, and may potentially arrive toward the end of 2020. Rumors about the phone have been spreading, including some possible standout design features, and how it will differ from the current Huawei Mate X. Let's take a closer look at the Huawei Mate X2.
Huawei Mate X2, not the Mate Xs
Huawei is expected to launch a revised version of the original Mate X folding phone during Mobile World Congress 2020. It’s currently known as the Huawei Mate Xs, and isn’t the Mate X2. The Mate Xs is likely to be very similar to the first Mate X on the outside, but with the new Kirin 990 processor inside, an improved hinge, and a tougher folding display.
Huawei Mate X2 announcement and release
The Huawei Mate X2 has been rumored for release after summer this year, sometime between July and September, making it possible the phone will arrive soon after the IFA 2020 technology trade show. The timing may mean the Mate X2’s announcement will come at the same time as a Mate 40 phone from Huawei.
Huawei Mate X2 design

What will the Huawei Mate X2 look like? Unlike the Mate X, a patent filed by Huawei shows what could be the Mate X2 with a screen that folds inward, like the Samsung Galaxy Fold. However, the design will allow for a side bar down one edge, which makes the phone easier to hold with one hand, something we noted about the current Mate X. This bar has a display on one side, which could be used to show notifications. There doesn’t seem to be any other outer display.

Read more
Leak shows Huawei may put a hole-punch screen on a tablet
Huawei MediaPad M5 Lite hands-on review

Huawei is apparently working on a tablet with a hole-punch screen. The tablet has been revealed in leaks, but has not been made official yet, but when (or if) it does arrive, it will be the first major release to take the hole-punch design from smartphones to tablets. There are two names being rumored for the tablet, either the MediaPad M7 — which fits in with the company’s existing run of tablets — or a rebranding to MatePad Pro.

The hole-punch screen is what makes the tablet standout at the moment. The design is an alternative to the notch, which is easily hidden by your hand for a fullscreen experience when holding a phone in landscape orientation. This will remain true for a tablet, but notches have never become a common design trait on big-screen devices, and because the Huawei tablet still has bezels around the screen, it’s an unusual choice here.

Read more