Huawei unveils first smartphone for US

Chinese tech conglomerate Huawei released a new line of smartphone, Honor 8, in San Francisco on Tuesday, and vowed to use its first "flagship" phone in the US to give the top industry players a run for their money.

Huawei's Honor 8 will target the millennial generation, said George Zhao, Honor's president, at the press conference. "We've defined and developed our product for young people," he said.

Huawei has become the world's third-largest phone manufacturer - behind Samsung and Apple - since the launch of its smartphone operation in 2013 and is now in 74 countries worldwide.

By the end of June, Huawei had clinched 9.4 percent global market share in the smartphone sector, according to Statista.

Yet Huawei occupies less than 1 percent of the US smartphone market and is dwarfed by major industry players, according to Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.

"We focus on the international market," said Zhao, "but for us the US market is the most important one."

TechCrunch, a popular review site for tech products, compared Honor 8 with the recently released Samsung Galaxy S7. However, Huawei lags behind US competitors in terms of cell phone bundle sales with carriers. Currently, it has not signed any contracts with major carriers in the US market.

Incorporating culture and fashion trends into product design, Honor 8 features a dual camera system and a 5.2-inch high-definition display. In sapphire blue, white and black, the back of the phone is made with a 15-layer process that makes the body reflective.

The camera system, the key element, features two 12 MP cameras that can capture two photos simultaneously in color and monochrome and then process the two together. The system is able to capture three-times more light than a single lens camera. The camera also has 17 shooting modes catering to different environments, including night and slow motion.

Honor 8 is slightly bigger than the Samsung Galaxy S7 and noticeably smaller than the Apple iPhone 6S Plus. It weighs about the same as the Galaxy S7 at 5.4 ounces.

The Honor 8's smart key and multi-purpose fingerprint sensor is located on the back of the phone. Users can designate different sequences, including single-click or double-click, to personalize the fingerprint sensor to gain quick access to specific apps.

Huawei has set the price of the unlocked 32 GB model Honor 8 at $399.99 and 64 GB model at $449.99, prices higher than the same models sell for in China, at $346 and $422 respectively.

Congjiang Wang contributed to the story