The Mobile World Congress 2017 is expected to spring a few surprises with lots of rumors and leaks swirling online as OEMs gear up to debut new devices.
The latest buzz suggests that Huawei is set to beef up its Honor brand lineup of smartphones. Renders of the alleged Honor 8 Lite smartphone have now leaked online, offering a peek into the handset.
Noted leakster Roland Quandt of WinFuture.de shared the images of the Honor 8 Lite on Twitter. The image shows off the smartphone in a plastic clear case. While not much can be garnered from the leaked image, it shows off the handset donning a blue hue.
Honor 8 Lite leaked (in a case), repost for US timezones, good morning guys! https://t.co/eFUxKg0XEE
— Roland Quandt (@rquandt) January 31, 2017
The device is expected to come in gold, black, white, and blue color variants.
Possible Specs And Features
The recently leaked images also indicate that the device will offer support for a microUSB port, which is located at the bottom of the device, as opposed to the usual trend of the USB Type-C port.
Chances are high that the device may offer a single rear camera, as opposed to the dual-camera setup, which is present on the Honor 8. The Honor 8 Lite may also include a fingerprint reader, which is located on the rear of the handset. The price for the Honor 8 Lite is expected to be about $300.
The Honor 8 Lite is estimated to be the downgraded variant of the Honor 8 smartphone. The company is likely looking to lure more consumers with a more affordable offering. The Honor 8 Lite will likely be able to cash in on its siblings' popularity.
Such a strategy has also been implemented by ZTE, which released the Axon 7 Mini a few months after launching the bigger sibling. If the same trend is followed by Honor 8 Lite, one could expect to witness some minor downgrades from the Honor 8 only to justify the lower price tag.
Release Date
Huawei is slated to hold a press conference on Feb. 26, just a day prior to the official start of the MWC 2017.
The company has shared that the press event would see the "the global unveiling of a new flagship device."
The Honor 8 Lite may not be the only Huawei smartphone to be introduced at the event as the successor of the Huawei P9 — the P10 and P10 Plus — could also debut this February.
Quandt has revealed that the new smartphone could possibly be released in early March post its MWC debut.
