Huawei looks all set to launch the Mate 9 and Mate 9 Pro with dual-rear camera setup on November 3. Here’s all we know about the smartphones so far.
After Xiaomi launched the Mi Note 2 today with a curved display, there is another smartphone in line to sport a curved display. The Huawei Mate 9 Pro has long been anticipated and it is rumored to flaunt a dual-edge curved display. Huawei is scheduled to host an event on November 3 in Germany where it is expected to launch the Mate 9 (codenamed Manhattan) and the Mate 9 Pro (codenamed Long Island) smartphone. Ahead of the launch, Huawei has teased the upcoming smartphones in a post on Weibo.
The teased poster, which is only partly in English, shows a silhouette of what seems like a speeding car with light glistening off its top and trunk. The speeding car in the teased poster could be symbolic of a faster processor. Even many recent leaks have speculated the smartphones to come powered by a Kirin 960 chipset. Above the car is a slogan that reads, ‘A Step Ahead’. Other than that the image reveals November 3, 2016 as the date of the release and 8PM as the scheduled launch time.
Up until now, we know quite a bit about the upcoming smartphones. A couple of days ago, a Huawei Mate 9 Pro leaked renders hinted at a Samsung Galaxy Note 7-like dual-edge curved display. The renders shared by leakster Evan Blass revealed that the Mate 9 Pro will flaunt a 5.9-inch display with QHD (2560×1440pixels) resolution. In comparison, the Mate 9 is expected to feature a full HD (1920×1080pixels) display. The reason for the upturning in resolution is because the ‘Pro’ variant is expected to support Google’s Daydream VR, and it makes a lot of sense since a 1080p resolution stretched on a 6-inch display would mar the overall virtual reality experience. Besides the difference in display resolution, both the Mate 9 and Mate 9 Pro share a lot of the same specifications and features.
Huawei Mate 9, Mate 9 Pro specifications
In comparison to the Mate 9 Pro, the standard Mate 9 could feature a 5.9-inch full HD display. Under the hood will Huawei’s homebrew Kirin 960 octa-core chipset paired with 4GB of RAM is expected. The smartphones could be offered in three storage options — 64GB, 128GB and 256GB. On the software front, the Mate 9 Pro is expected to run on Android Nougat 7.0 out-of-the-box wrapped under Emotion UI 5.0.
Among the talking points will surely be the dual-camera setup at the back complete with Leica branding. While the overall functionality of the cameras is expected to be same as the recent Huawei P9 flagship smartphone, the resolution could be bumped up to 20-megapixels. The setup consists is likely to include a monochrome and an RGB sensor. Along with the picture quality algorithm developed by both the companies, one sensor calculates the color information, while the other picks up light. The result is a photo that has relatively better colors, details and sharpness, even in low light conditions. ALSO READ: Huawei P9 shines with its design and dual cameras: Hands-on and first impressions
One of the surprises on the Huawei P9‘s camera was the missing optical image stabilization support (OIS), but that is likely to change with the upcoming smartphones. The rest of the camera features expected are f/2.0 aperture, 4x optical zoom, laser auto-focus, hybrid auto-focus feature, contrast focus and depth focus.
Additionally, according to Blass, the Mate 9 Pro will be the highlight of the launch event on November 3, but all this would cost a bomb. The top-end Mate 9 Pro variant could be priced at a crazy $1,300 which is approximately Rs 93,600. Prices for the Mate 9, on the other hand, are expected to start from $480 (Rs 32,100 approximately) for the 64GB variant and go up to $700 (Rs 46,800 approximately) for the 256GB variant.