Huawei brings the G8 to the U.S. and renames it the GX8

Huawei is ramping up its presence in the United States, and that doesn’t just mean porting over its devices spec-for-spec. Well, in the case of the GX8, it actually does.

The new Huawei GX8 is the exact same device as the Huawei G8, which the company launched globally in September of 2015. It wasn’t available in the United States, but that’s now the GX8’s purpose.

Updated on 02/08/2016 by Julian Chokkattu: Added news of the GX8 becoming available for purchase in the U.S.

The Huawei GX8 is now available to purchase in the U.S. at select retailers such as Huawei, Best Buy, Amazon, and Newegg. It’s available in gold, gray, and a “mystic champagne” color for $350.

It features the same aluminum build as the Nexus 6P, and like the G8 it has a fingerprint sensor — a feature usually seen on higher-end flagships.

Again, the specs are nothing new — the 5.5-inch display has a 1,920 x 1,080 pixel resolution, and is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 octa-core processor. It has 3GB of RAM, a MicroSD card slot, and a big 3,000mAh battery, but it’s not removable. The device has a 13-megapixel rear camera, and a 5-megapixel front-facing one. The only new addition is presumably support for U.S. bands.

Unfortunately, though Android 6.0.1 has been out for about a month now, the device will ship with Android 5.1 Lollipop, and of course will be layered with Huawei’s Emotion UI 3.1.

The GX8 was only one of a number of major announcements that the company made at CES. In addition to the budget-friendly smartphone, the company also announced two new Huawei Watch models — the Jewel and the Elegant — which the company is marketing as the first smart watches designed specifically for women, as well as a new tablet, the MediaPad M2 10.