Huawei Mate 9 Release Date, Specs, Features & News

Huawei is expected to come out with several new handsets soon one of which is said to be the Huawei Mate 9, the successor of the Huawei Mate 8 that was announced at CES 2016. It has been rumored for some time now that this handset is likely going to be unveiled at the company’s upcoming event in September but there has been no confirmation of that as yet by Huawei. If rumors are believed the Huawei Mate 9 is shaping up to be a fine flagship handset but whether or not those rumors hold true remains to be seen.

Design

Since the Huawei Mate 9 is believed to be a flagship smartphone it can easily be assumed that this smartphone is going to have a glass and metal build as it lends the perfect premium look and feel to the device. We may get to see leaked renders of the Huawei Mate 9 as the release draws near and that is going to give us a better idea of what this handset could look like when it finally sees the light of day. However, it may take a couple of months before leaked renders of this handset start showing up online.

Processor

Rumor has it that the Huawei Mate 9 is going to feature the company’s as yet unannounced 10nm Kirin 970 chipset. It’s also said that MediaTek is developing its Helio X30 processor which could be used in some variants of the Mate 9. The MediaTek Helio X30 chipset is said to feature a single 2.8GHz Artemis core, four 2.2Ghz Cortex-A53 cores, four 2GHz Cortex A-35 cores coupled with a PowerVR 7XT graphics processor. There’s little information available right now about the Huawei Kirin 970 processor so we’ll have to wait a bit to find out what it’s capable of. The processor is likely to be coupled with 6GB of RAM which is going to be the new standard for flagship Android smartphones later this year. Samsung’s next Galaxy Note flagship is also expected to arrive with 6GB of RAM.

Display

This is going to be a flagship handset from Huawei so you can expect it to have a great display. However, not a lot of information has been leaked online about the display so we’re in the dark about it for now. Most likely the handset is going to have a display that’s over 5 inches and has at least Quad HD resolution, that’s what you can expect from any high-end flagship handset these days so it’s quite unlikely that the Huawei Mate 9 is going to be any different. It may be a while before precise information about the Mate 9’s display is available.

Native Pressure Sensing Technology

Google has been working on incorporating native pressure sensing technology in Android which will enable devices powered by Android to have pressure-sensitive displays. It’s expected that Huawei is going to add a pressure-sensitive display to the Mate 9 which will enable the handset to have similar functionality that the 3D Touch display provides for the iPhone. This won’t be the first time that Huawei adds such a display to its smartphones, we’ve already seen the company offer a Force Touch-enabled display with the Huawei Mate S which exhibits the company’s willingness to adopt this technology, so it won’t be surprising to see Huawei opt for this technology for the Mate 9 as well. It’s actually going to be a feature that sets this new Huawei flagship apart from the rest of the pack.

Additional Features

A flagship handset offers a wide variety of features so it goes without saying that the Huawei Mate 9 is going to offer several additional features as well, which will include but may not be limited to a fingerprint scanner and a USB Type-C port which will enable fast data transfer and fast charging. It’s unclear at this point in time how big a battery this smartphone is going to have but it’s very well going to be over 3,000mAh as that’s the standard for flagship smartphones. Whether or not it’s going to support wireless charging remains to be seen.

Camera

Huawei has been focusing quite a bit on improving the camera quality of its smartphones. We’ve seen the company introduce dual camera setups and it’s expected to go with a similar setup for the upcoming mid-range Huawei Honor 8 smartphone. Nothing has been officially confirmed about this handset’s camera at this point in time but rumor has it that it’s at least going to have a camera setup that’s similar to the flagship Huawei P9 which also has dual cameras at the back. The Huawei P9 has a dual 12 megapixel rear camera with f/2.2 aperture, Lecia optics, dual-LED flash, phase detection autofocus as well as an 8 megapixel front facing camera.

Connectivity

Good connectivity features are very important for any flagship smartphone today that wants to hold its own against the rivals in the market. You can be sure that the Huawei Mate 9 is going to have support for 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 ac, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, GPS, and Near Field Communication which will enable users to make mobile payments. That’s the least amount of connectivity features that you can expect from a flagship handset these days.

Software

You can disregard any rumors about Huawei developing an alternative to Android which it can use for its smartphones. The company has said that it’s going to continue using Android as long as it remains open so it may be a while before Huawei feels the need to switch from Google’s mobile platform. As far as the software version of this handset is concerned, given that it’s expected to arrive later in the year it’s quite possible that it might be the first handset from Huawei that comes with Android Nougat straight out of the box. If that’s not the case then it’s certainly going to have Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow preinstalled. In that case, it’s likely going to be one of the first handsets from Huawei that receive the Nougat update.

Price

Price is an important factor that customers consider before they decide to spend their money on a smartphone and since this is going to be a flagship handset you can be sure that it’s going to cost a pretty penny, but how much, remains unknown. Pricing and availability information for this handset has not yet been leaked online but you may already have an idea of how much flagship smartphones cost. Huawei has not dropped any hints about this as yet so there’s a considerable amount of wait involved for those who want to find out how much they will have to pay for the Mate 9.

Release Date

Here’s the important bit of information that a lot of Huawei fans will be anxiously waiting to find out. It was initially said that the Huawei Mate 9 is going to be unveiled at the company’s September 1st event but that’s no longer said to be the case. Word on the street is that the Mate 9 isn’t going to be released so early in the year, a reference to the fact that the Huawei Mate 8 was released towards the end of last year, so that’s probably when its successor is going to hit the market. It’s too soon to say at this point in time which markets are going to receive this handset first, we’ll have to wait for official word on this from Huawei, so it’s going to be a long wait.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: Huawei, huawei mate 8, Mate 9