The Huawei Mate 8 is due for a replacement and thanks to @evleaks, we now have a clearer picture of Huawei’s latest flagship, the Huawei Mate 9. Following the success of their P9 series, the new Mate 9 will also carry a dual-camera setup that’s co-engineered with Leica.
There will be two models – the standard Mate 9 and a higher spec Mate 9 Pro. Both comes with a slightly smaller 5.9″ display (Mate 8: 6.0″) with the Mate 9 pushing a Full HD resolution while the Mate 9 Pro gets a higher Quad HD resolution unit with dual curved edges.
Under the hood, it gets the latest 16nm based Kirin 960 processor with 4GB of RAM and at least 64GB of storage on board. There’s a chance that Huawei may introduce a higher 6GB RAM variant with 256GB of storage.
In terms of design, it looks sleek with an all metal build with rounded corners and edges. Based on @evleaks renders, both models get a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor but the front of the Mate 9 Pro gets an additional home button as shown below. It would be interesting if Huawei puts a fingerprint sensor for both front and back. Unlike the P9, the dual cameras are now positioned vertically and word has it that it could boast a higher resolution than the current 12MP f/2.2 shooters on the P9.
According to @evleaks, the Huawei Mate 9/Mate 9 Pro may feature 4X Optical Zoom and a full spec’ed version could cost as high as US$1300, which is over RM5,000. Out of the box, it is expected to run on the latest Android 7.0 Nougat and the Mate 9 Pro should support Android’s Daydream VR. Both models are expected to be announced officially on 3rd November.
