Hands-on with the humongous HUAWEI P8 Max

Every flagship needs a bigger brother or at least that’s how it seems smartphone manufacturers are thinking. Apple have the iPhone 6 Plus, Sony have the Xperia Z Ultra, HTChave the One M9 Plus and even HUAWEI are getting in on the act with the P8 Max.

Announced alongside the P8 in London, the P8 Max is a larger-than-life phablet that really pushes the size boundaries of a smartphone. Featuring an incredibly large 6.8-inch Full HD IPS-Neo JDI display, the HUAWEI P8 Max shares the same design philosophy as the P8 and brings a supremely thin metal unibody build that measures just 6.8mm thick.

Despite being only Full HD resolution – remember, we’ve previously heard that HUAWEI won’t sacrifice battery life for a Quad HD or Ultra HD display – the JDI screen appears vibrant in low light conditions with the 1500:1 contrast ratio ensuring an outstanding display visual experience. Above the display we have the 8MP front facing camera, which comes with a wide-angle view and HUAWEI’s Beauty Level feature to accentuate your best facial features when taking selfies.

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On the back, the P8 Max has a 13MP camera that comes with optical image stabilisation and dual-color dual-LED flash. HUAWEI has added software features to the camera including a new light paint feature (to capture light trails and really impressive night photos), a director mode that combines photos from multiple cameras to create a professional movie and a time-lapse feature that takes images captured at multiple intervals and stitches them together.

One of most impressive things about the P8 Max (and the P8) is that, despite the camera have a large sensor and optical image stabilisation, it sits completely flush with the super slim body and doesn’t protrude in any way. From first testing with the P8 (the P8 Max’s smaller sibling) which shares the same camera, the P8 Max camera is very capable and produces good quality images in any lighting.

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At just 6.8mm thick and weighing just 228 grams, the HUAWEI P8 Max is a lot nicer to use than you might guess from such a large handset. Powered by an octa-core 64-bit Kirin 930 processor (in big.LITTLE formation) with 3GB RAM, the P8 Max has smooth performance with no visible signs of lag.

The P8 Max will be available in two versions when it launches in a month’s time (both with 3GB RAM and a microSD card expansion slot); the standard version will have have 16GB storage and cost €549 (before taxes and subsidies) in either Titanium Grey or Mystic Champagne, whilst the Premium version costs €649, comes with 64GB storage and will be available in Titanium Grey or Prestige Gold.

With both the P8 and the P8 Max, HUAWEI isn’t waiting around to bring them to market. The P8 will launch later this month in 35 countries around the world before rolling out to 100 countries in total in a month’s time whilst the P8 Max will follow the same launch pattern but launch a month after the P8 is available.

Are you planning on buying either the P8 or the P8 Max? What do you think of the super slim body and design? Let us know your views in the comments below.