The new Huawei flagships have leaked ahead of their official launch. The notorious tech leaker Evan Blass posted a series of tweets over the weekend providing details of the upcoming Huawei Mate 9 and Mate 9 Pro.
The leaks come as the Android market finds itself in dire need of a new high-end king. Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 is out of contention following a series of incidents with faulty devices that forced the company to recall the handsets and stop production entirely.
Other competitors include the recently released Pixel and Pixel XL by Google. However, these have been the subject of mixed reception due to their high prices.
Huawei will reportedly unveil the new smartphones codenamed Manhattan and Long Island on November 3 at a launch event for U.S. consumers.
This is Long Island: Huawei's curved-screen flagship will be dubbed the Mate 9 Pro https://t.co/FIE0f3xf4v pic.twitter.com/dq3TsKrYme
— Evan Blass (@evleaks) October 22, 2016
Huawei Mate 9 and Mate 9 Pro: Design and display
The Huawei Mate 9 and Mate 9 Pro will share many of its core elements. Both smartphones will reportedly measure over 6 inches to fit its 5.9 and 6-inch displays respectively.
Rumors suggest that the fundamental difference between the Mate 9 and the Mate 9 Pro lies in their screens.
The Mate 9 will have a 1920 x 1080 IPS-NEO LCD with Corning Gorilla Glass 4. The Mate 9 Pro will pack a curved display with quad HD 2560 x 1440 resolution.
As for the body of the devices, they will look very similar to their predecessor, the Huawei Mate 8. Both will have physical power and volume buttons, but from the pictures, it seems like only the Mate Pro 9 will get a dedicated home button.
The two Huawei handsets will have a fingerprint scanner below the rear camera. The Mate 9 and Mate 9 Pro will reportedly be available in Amber Gold, Ceramic White, Amber Grey, Rose Gold, Moonlight Silver, Sky Grey, Mocha Gold, Champagne Gold, and Enamel Gloss Black.
Huawei Mate 9 and Mate 9 Pro: Specs, release date, and estimated price
Following its partnership with Leica, the Chinese giant brings new optics to its latest flagships. Just like the Mate 8 before them, the Mate 9 and Mate 9 Pro will have a 20 MP, dual lens Leica Summarit camera. Reports suggest that the front camera will be 8 MP.
Both flagships will run Android 7.0 Nougat and sport the latest processing tech from Huawei: a Hisilicon Kirin 960 chip. The Mate 9 and Mate 9 Pro will be available in configurations of 64/128 GB of storage with 4 GB of RAM, or 256 GB of storage with 6 GB of RAM.
Snap (no pun intended): Mate 9/Pro feature 4x optical zoom. But pricing on a spec'ed out Pro is enough to give you a heart attack: $1300.
— Evan Blass (@evleaks) October 23, 2016
Other notable features of the upcoming Huawei devices are their support of USB-Type C and, of course, a 3.5-mm headphone jack. No word on the battery life of the phones, except that they will be non-removable.
Huawei will debut the Mate 9 and Mate 9 Pro on Thursday, November 3. Reports from Evan Blass place the Mate 9 Pro with max specs at impressive $1,300. Details of the two phones’ pricing with base specs remain unknown.
Source: VentureBeat
