Huawei is a Chinese smartphone manufacturer that gained its ground rapidly and as it keeps growing, it now threatens other colossal companies involved in the industry, such as Apple and Samsung.

In fact, judging by the latest models, we’d say that Huawei’s new flagship smartphone, the Ascend Mate 8, seems to be targeting Samsung’s best phablet, the Galaxy Note 5.

So while the two companies are fighting for the first place in sales, it’s obviously up to us – consumers- to decide which one will be titled as the winner. But to do so, we need to test both handsets side by side and see which one earns its slice.

Don’t get confused in the process, both phones are exceptional, but what we’re looking for, is the one that makes the difference, even the slightest one. Let the games begin!

Design

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The Mate 8’s design is classy and adds a touch of prestige. The company’s continuous improvement shows in the device’s design, its aluminium body and the 2.5D curved glass.

Aside from the slimmer bezels and dimensions, the Huawei Mate 8 design is extremely similar to that of the Mate 7 and Mate S, while the most distinctive feature on the back of the device is a large circular camera unit at the top-centre along with a fingerprint sensor below it.

Τhe Note 5 follows the general guidelines of the previous Note smartphones, adding a little more size.

The one feature that makes the phone stand out among the competition – and influences the design up to a certain degree – is the S Pen Stylus, which made the company shape the inside based on that accessory. And, of course, the metal and glass construction that is conducive to an overall classy exterior design.

Display

Once again, Huawei has done a magnificent job with the screen to body ratio, as the Mate 8’s IPS LCD screen is 6 inches with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels (~368 ppi pixel density).

Moreover, with the Corning Gorilla Glass 4 screen protection on top, Huawei proves again its authenticity and the high-end technology it works with.

The Note 5 also sports an impressive display – which does not strike as a surprise, given that Samsung has been amongst the top three screen technology companies in the industry.

The phone comes with a 5.7-inch display and a resolution of 2,560 x 1,440 pixels (518 pixels per inch).

Colours look fantastic, there’s enough density to make sure you’ll never see individual pixels, and the brightness available ensures that the user can always see what’s on the screen.

Specs

The Chinese startup’s new flagship will run with a HiSilicon Kirin 950 Quad-core 2.3 GHz Cortex-A72 + quad-core 1.8 GHz Cortex A53 processor, accompanied by a Mali-T880 MP4 GPU. coupled with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of on-board storage, or 64GB/128GB of internal capacity along with 4GB of RAM.

For the record, the said processor found on the Mate 8, was tested on AnTuTu and got a total score of 79,131, which is considerably more than the S6.

In addition to performance, while it has not rolled out around the globe yet, a user is said to have tested the whole device on AnTuTu, where it scored 94,250 points.

The Note 5 features an Octa-core, 2100 MHz, ARM Cortex-A57 and ARM Cortex-A53, 64-bit processor with an Exynos 7 Octa 7420 system chip. It also comes with 32GB and 64GB of internal capacity and carries 4GB of RAM.

Camera

For its phablet flagship, Huawei seems to have taken every aspect of the phone a step further and same thing goes for the camera.

On the back, there is a 16 MP shooter at 1/2.8′ sensor size, with 1080p@30fps recording capabilities, while on the front there will be an 8MP camera.

There actually isn’t much new to talk about with the Galaxy Note 5’s camera, but that’s because the imaging here is a known quantity — this is the same 16MP camera, lenses and OIS from the Galaxy S6. On the front, you’ll find a 5MP one, which should be more than enough to let you participate in a group mobile conference.

Battery

Not a lot is known about the Mate 8’s battery other than that it will be a Li-Po 4000mAh battery. However, with the company’s latest radical innovation in the battery technology charging field, we trust that buyers will be in good hands.

The Note 5 sports a non-removable 3000mAh batter which, surprisingly, is enough to help the phone get through 17 hours of somewhat intense use – music streaming, taking pictures or video recording, interacting with social networks, etc.

Price

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In terms of pricing, an earlier report indicated that the Mate 8 will start at approximately $519 and go all the way up to around $613 for the 128GB internal memory/4GB RAM variant.

Starting at no less than $700 for the base model, the Galaxy Note 5 is obviously more costly. But that is nothing new, since Chinese companies are widely known to sell their products at lower prices – which up until now used to confuse consumers into thinking that the quality is proportionally low.

Which one to buy?

Huawei may be around the top-tier smartphone market for a relatively short period of time, but the firm’s phenomenal growth is not thanks to a series of fortunate facts and circumstances. All latest researchers in the field of smartphones indicate that soon Huawei will lead the cell phone market with innovative models and technologies.

But more particularly, between the two, the Ascend Mate 8 seems to be a better option, both in terms of specs and price.

Other than that, one could argue about the size, the design or the available colours, but that is totally up to you.

Feel free to share your thoughts and verdicts on the comparison of the two phones, in the comments below.