8,000 nits, 7 km comms: Huawei Mate 80 is a phone built for survival

Huawei's latest flagship phone, the Mate 80, is tailored for outdoor activities.

At the company's release event on Tuesday, Huawei stressed extensively on the phone's new features targeting adventurers, including a hardened chassis, a screen glass that's 20 times more durable compared to previous products, brightest ever screen on a phone that can shine at 8,000 nits, highest level resistance against dust and water, and more importantly: a dedicated outdoor mode.

With the new mode on, the phone will turn into a field instrument that can track its precise location for 33 hours straight. Additionally, the mode can extend battery life to as long as 13 days, not hours.

If you are in the wild with no signal bars on your phone, you can still reach other Huawei users with phone-to-phone direct communication on the 2.4-gigahertz band. This feature has a max range of 7 kilometers.

If, unfortunately, you are trapped in debris and 2.4 GHz cannot penetrate the walls, this phone supports China's new 700-megahertz rescue signal. You will likely be one of the first to be found by rescue teams.

Also, don't forget Huawei is one of the first companies to put satellite messaging in normal phones. You no longer need a dedicated satellite phone during your cruise trip.

What's more, the phone's base price is about 14 percent lower than previous models.

But the phone is far from perfect. Huawei is currently unable to equip the phone with the best chip because the U.S. threatened all chip makers to not tape chips for the Shenzhen-based telecom equipment giant.

The phone is pre-installed with the company's self-developed HarmonyOS software, which only has limited support for Android apps – a problem for non-tech savvy people going overseas. Huawei didn't say if the phone can be downgraded to Android like previous models.

The final verdict: The lowered price is a good signal. The strategy of targeting outdoor adventurers is smart. But the software problem may hold many people back.