Huawei aims high and has introduced the high-end smartphone “Huawei Mate 9”. With a large 5.9 inch display, an even faster Kirin 960 and a dual camera system from Leica, the Huawei Mate 9 is a clear challenge to the major competitors in the smartphone industry.
Huawei Mate 9
Powerful interior
Who would have thought, Huawei also uses an in-house processor for the Mate 9. The Kirin 960 SoC was also introduced just a few days ago and should do significantly better than its predecessor, especially in terms of efficiency and graphics performance. The processor relies on the big.LITTLE processor architecture and offers a total of 8 cores, which are composed of 4 Cortex-A73 cores and 4 Cortex-A53 cores. The maximum clock rate of the cores is 2.4 or 1.8 GHz. Especially in the multi-core market, the Kirin 960 clearly outshines the Qualcomm and Apple competition. 4GB of RAM ensure smooth multitasking. The internal UFS 2.1 memory offers a size of 64GB and can also be expanded using a micro SD memory card.
The new Mali G71 GPU, which is based on the new Bitfrost architecture, is responsible for more graphics performance. This supports, among other things, up to 32 shader units, a 120Hz refresh rate and 4x MSAA (Multisample Anti Aliasing).
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- Source: twitter.com/HuaweiMobileDE
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- Source: twitter.com/HuaweiMobileDE
High-resolution 5.9 inch display
Huawei remains true to a large display with the Mate 9 and has installed a 5.9-inch Full HD IPS display. The point density is at least 373 PPI. The very small distance between the display edge and the housing frame is noticeable. Although there is no rounded display similar to a Samsung Galaxy S7, the Mate 9's small bezel is still an eye-catcher. The display is protected by a scratch-resistant surface.
Dual camera system from Leica
The new flagship smartphone should of course also score well with the camera, which is why Huawei is once again relying on a cooperation with the German company Leica. As with the Huawei P9, the Mate 9 is also equipped with a dual camera system. This camera system consists of a monochrome, 20 megapixel image sensor and a 12 megapixel color image sensor. The smartphone records videos in 4K. To help you take better pictures, the main camera is also equipped with an optical image stabilizer, hybrid autofocus, hybrid zoom and a dual LED flash. The front camera is comparatively unspectacular and has a resolution of 8 megapixels. An autofocus is available for focusing.
EMUI based on Android 7
Android 7 Nougat has only just been released and is already on the Huawei Mate 9. The interface from Huawei should be significantly "purified" compared to the previous versions and should be based more on a clean stock Android. However, what Huawei presented with EMUI 5 is still a long way from stock Android. The launcher is still reminiscent of Apple iOS. However, a lot has changed when it comes to navigating the operating system. Apps can be accessed even more quickly and the system appears clearer.
Battery and connectivity
A 4.000mAh battery ensures a long battery life. The smartphone is charged via a USB Type-C socket, which is also used for data transfer. With the new SuperCharge technology, the Mate 9 should be fully charged after 90 minutes. Other features include Bluetooth 4.2, NFC, dual band WiFi and a fingerprint scanner on the back. The Huawei Mate 9 supports all common LTE frequencies for mobile and fast data transmission.
The competition will have a tough time with the Huawei Mate 9. If you don't mind the oversized 5.9 inch display and are looking for a phablet anyway, you will certainly not be able to avoid looking at the Mate 9. The new Huawei smartphone should appear in November. The choice of colors is limited to silver and gray. The price should be 699 €.
