1,000 people spent RM6,999 on a single smartphone from Huawei

You may have heard of Huawei’s crazy Porsche Design Mate 9 which costs RM6,999. When it came out, most of the reaction we got from you guys went along the lines of “SO EXPENSIVE, WHO’S GOING TO BUY THIS?!”.

Well, one thousand people did.

In an interview with Huawei Technologies deputy country director of consumer business group Malaysia Matthew Ng, he revealed that all 1,000 units have been sold out — if my math hasn’t failed me, that works out to about a total of about RM7,000,000 spent on Huawei smartphones.

If there was one consistent theme in the comments section of our launch post for the Huawei P10 and P10 Plus, it would be about how Huawei’s new flagships are “overpriced” and that people wouldn’t pay that much for a Huawei phone.

Well, this new bit of information seems to prove otherwise. Sure, you could argue that these are one-off smartphones with Porsche Design tacked to them, but they’re still Huawei phones running Huawei software with Huawei’s homegrown Kirin 960 processor inside. Add that to the fact that it costs RM6,999 and you will really have to want one to drop that kind of dough on it.

The Chinese company’s new flagships saw a price hike of about RM400-RM500 compared to last year’s P9 and P9 Plus — a hike that didn’t sit well with many. However, Matthew explains that one of the biggest factors for it is the weak Malaysian Ringgit — not a big desire to pad their profit.

I honestly think Huawei has come a long way and has shed the negative stigma of a “China Phone” especially when it comes to build and hardware specs. Even their software has improved a tonne though I admit it still needs some work — especially on security updates. Still, they have said that they’re working closely with Google to improve software too. My biggest problem with Huawei is how they present their products at big launch events — but that has nothing to do with the phones themselves.

Are Huawei’s new devices worth it? Well, I guess that ultimately depends on you because whether something is “worth” the price is totally up to the individual. I mean, 1,000 people thought the Porsche Design Mate 9 was worth RM7,000 and I definitely would never pay that much for a smartphone.