Huawei Mate 9 Specs, News and Release Date; 2016’s Most Powerful Flagship Phone Is Yet to Arrive

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If you thought all the year’s flagship devices had been released, well, think again. Huawei is yet to launch their biggest device on the Mate series. The Chinese manufacturer is prepping to release the Huawei Mate 9 after the successful launch of its predecessor, the Huawei Mate 8 late last year.  

The Mate 9 is shaping up to be quite an impressive phone if you take the rumours floating around it seriously, but nothing is official just yet. Here is everything that we know about the Mate 9 so far.

Huawei has revealed official teasers for the device, drawing a lot of attention to the camera, with rumours of a 20MP/12MP dual-lens snapper with 4x optical zoom, battery, the last of which is a feature that's sounding ever more impressive and the release date. This high-end device could, however, cost you an awful lot of cash.

A Pro Version

The Huawei Mate 9 which is expected launch early November will have a pro sibling, the Huawei Mate 9 Pro. The Mate 9 Pro is rumoured to be dual curved screen variant that seems a lot like the Galaxy Note 7 while the mate 9 is a flat screen. The Huawei Mate 9 and Mate 9 Pro may lack the brand appeal of the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge or iPhone 7 Plus but with impressive features like a 6GB RAM, 4x optical zoom, a curved screen and a 20MP dual-lens camera; it could pose stiff competition for the top tiers. 

The device could also be in competition with the Google’s Pixel and Pixel XL as the alternative for the recently cancelled Samsung galaxy note 7. 

Huawei Mate 9 release date

No official communication regarding the release date of the Huawei Mate 9 but the company has scheduled a press event in Munich on the 3rd of November 2016. The company, during the announcement, hinted that they would launch a flagship device on the said date. Earlier, rumours had suggested that the device would launch in December.

Huawei Mate 9 specifications

The details on the device’s specifications are still skimpy. What we know for now is that specs of the Mate 9 are rumoured to consist of a dual Leica camera setup (20 MP resolution with a wider f/2.0 aperture), 6 GB of RAM with 256 GB of internal storage, an octa-core Kirin 960 chipset clocked at 2.6GHz and a 5.9-inch Full HD or QHD display. 

The device will boot with Android 7.0 Nougat with the Huawei Emotion UI (HEUI) on top and a 4000mAh battery (with fast charge technology). Stay tuned for more updates on Huawei Mate 9’s specs.

Huawei Mate 9 Key features

Screen 

There is much speculation about the screen on the Mate 9 with rumours about a curved variant with QHD screen and a flat variant with the 1080 HD screen we saw on the Mate 8. The device will, however, most likely arrive with a 5.9-inch 1080 x 1920 display and a pixel density of 373ppi. 

It is a reasonably crisp display though most people would want to see the sharper QHD resolution. It makes more sense for the company to upgrade the 1920x1080 screen on the mate 8 and the Huawei P9 to QHD since the Mate 9’s screen is larger. 

Build and design

Similar to the Huawei P9 and the Mate 8, the Huawei Mate 9 is expected to have a metal body.  The pro version of the smartphone is rumoured to have a slightly curved rear and housing the antennae bands, the device is rumoured to have strips along the top and bottom. Interestingly, images of the flat screen version appear to have no button, just a Huawei logo while the curved screen version shows an oblong home button below the display. 

The device has larger bezels on the top and bottom sides while there are minimal bezels to either side of the screen. The Mate 9 may come in nine different colours namely sky grey, shiny black, pink gold, silver, mocha gold, ceramic white, champagne gold, amber grey and amber gold. 

Dual lens Leica camera

Up from 12MP for dual cameras on the Huawei P9, reports indicate that the company will pair the rear camera with a 20MP and a 12MP lenses presenting a significant megapixel upgrade on the Leica-branded dual-lens camera. It is, however, important to understand that increased megapixels don’t translate to higher image quality.  

The 4x optical zoom will make the Mate 9 camera stand out, though, given that only a few smartphones have the optical zoom feature, leave alone the 4x optical zoom. The device is expected to come with an 8MP front camera. 

Battery 

Given the size of the screen, we should expect a big battery. Rumours suggest a 3000mAh or 4000mAh battery but let us wait and see.  

We will update this article when we have more details about the Huawei Mate 9’s availability and price in Kenya.

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