Successor to very successful Mate 8, Huawei has launched the Mate 9 and a specially crafted curved screen Porsche Design edition at a global event in Munich, Germany. The good news in Malaysia is included as the market that will be receiving the phones under its first wave of distribution. You hear that Apple, Samsung?

The number three worldwide smartphone brand did not hold back on equipping the new devices with internal features that can’t be seen but felt by fitting in the powerful Kirin 960 processor, a new interface and a battery that keeps going for endless usage. Richard Yu, CEO, Huawei Consumer Business Group said “We know that for today’s business users, a fast and functional smartphone is just the beginning. Consumers also want a gorgeous design and intuitive features, so we created two new devices at the forefront of hardware and software innovation”

Huawei Mate 9 -Inner Layer

As the upgrade debuts, the Mate 9 uses a second generation Leica dual-lens camera whihc sports a 12-megapixel f/2.2 RGB sensor, 20-megapixel f/2.2 monochrome sensor and Hybrid Zoom, featuring a 2x magnification and also comes with OIS. First seen on the P9 editions, Leica lens are becoming a staple on the new phones, a big name that specialises in monochore and colour photography that has made Huawei possibly the best made smartphones for 2016. The 4-1 Hybrid Autofocus features laser focus, phase detection focus, depth focus and contrast focus.

Powering the device is the much touted Kirin 960 chipset hat features an ARM Cortex -A73/A53 Octa-core CPU and Mali G71 Octa-core GPU. This use of multi-core gets the best from the phone and at the same time helps reduce power consumption by 15 percent. The GPU boasts a 180 percent performance uplift and a 40 percent improvement in energy efficiency compared to its predecessor. Graphic performace is also boosted taking advantage of the Vulkan graphics standard on Android 7.0, increasing performance by up to 400 percent. Internal memory is 64GB with 4GB ROM.

Battery concerns has been seriously addressed by phone manufacturers after Samsung’s massive problem, Huawei has taken full precaution with its technology, the new phone supports 5A fast charging, enabling a 50 percent improvement over the previous generation. With Super Safe 5-gate protection users can view real-time voltage, current and temperature monitoring to eliminate safety hazards and safeguard battery life. Dual sim is supported.

Outer Layer

Using a metal frame unibody, the phone looks sleek, Huawei went through 50 unique proceses including an hour on the CNC milling machine to achieve the desired effects on the phone. At 5.9″ Full HD display, the Mate 9 will stand out among the crowds  with another winner in the stable. The colour available options vary from the Champagne Gold you see on the pictures in this post and Space Gray, Moonlight Silver, Mocha Brown, Ceramic White and of course Black, price is set at Euro 699.

Fast Car Meets Its Mate  

Collaboration with the popular German sports car Porsche, is not new in the mobile phone world, BlackBerry were first to tie-up with the P9983 Qwerty key smartphone which incidently sold well in the middle east. Huawei, to the step further with the new Porsche design Mate 9 which is a limited edition 5.5” curved AMOLED display with 534 ppi. Front facing camera is an 8MP f/1.9 while the rear is a dual lens  20MP and 12Mp F/2.2.

As for colour this baby is only available in Black and is priced at Euro 1399.

Huawei Mate 9 Porsche Design- Specs

Size Height: 152mm; Width: 75mm; Depth: 7.5mm

Weight About 169g

Color Graphite Black

Display 5.5″ Curved AMOLED display WQHD (2560 x 1440), 534ppi 16.7M colors,

Color saturation (NTSC) 100% High contrast 70000:1 (Typical)

CPU HUAWEI Kirin 960, Octa-core (4 x 2.4 GHz A73+ 4 x 1.8 GHz A53) + i6 coprocessor GPU Mali-G71 MP8

Operating System Android 7.0 (Nougat) Emotion UI EMUI 5.0

Memory 256GB ROM 6GB RAM

SIM Dual SIM

NFC-supported

Connectivity Wi-Fi 2.4G/5G, 802.11a/b/g/n/ac with Wi-Fi Direct support BT4.2, BLE support

USB Type-C (Hi-Speed USB)

Camera Front: 8MP AF, F1.9 Main: 20MP Monochrome + 12MP RGB, F2.2 OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) 4K video

Battery 4000 mAh (Typical Value)