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Huawei's midrange GX8 phone heads to the US (hands-on)

Originally announced in September 2015, this Android handset is making its way stateside for $350.

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There's a problem with Huawei new GX8, and it certainly has nothing to do with the phone's all-metal build, fingerprint reader or even midrange features. The problem is its price. $350 isn't terribly much to ask for a midlevel phone with these features -- you even expect a few concessions, like an older version of the Android software and a lower megapixel camera.

What you don't expect is a handset that has the same specs as the $200 Honor 5X, which Huawei also announced at the CES conference in Las Vegas -- and which also comes to the US, starting January 31. That grates on us because it smacks of dishonesty, and it's hard to get excited about that.

Regardless, we got to spend some time with the GX8. It is heavier and more solid-feeling than the Honor 5X, and some of the styling looks a little different, like the GX8's all-over metal look compared to the Honor 5X's metallic back and white front.

Already announced globally, the GX8 is headed to the US in Q1, which means you should expect to see it by the end of March.

Here are the specs:

  • 5.5-inch 1,920 x 1,080-pixel resolution display
  • Android 5.1 Lollipop with Emotion UI (EMUI) 3.1
  • Cameras: 13-megapixel, 5-megapixel front-facing
  • 16GB of storage with a microSD slot to expand up to 128GB
  • 1.5GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor
  • 2GB of RAM
  • 3,000mAh battery

Interested buyers will be able to find the phone at Best Buy, Amazon or GetHuawei.com.

Article corrected January 8, 2016, at 8:37am PT: The Honor 5X will come to the US.