Huawei announced their flagship Mate 9 smartphone earlier today, successor to the Mate 8 we reviewed a few months back. A hair smaller than last year's phablet design, the Mate 9 boasts improved internals and the dual-lens Leica camera recently introduced with the company's P9 phone.

The biggest change inside the Mate 9 is the new Kirin 960 SoC, which makes use of the latest ARM Cortex architecture in an 8-core big.LITTLE design. Importantly, the Kirin 960 also includes the latest Mali-G71 MP8 graphics, and with GPU power a low point with the Kirin 950 this is a welcome change.

Specifications:

  • Display: 
    • 5.9” FHD display
    • 2.5D glass
    • 1080p (1920 x 1080), 373ppi
    • 16.7M colors, Color saturation (NTSC) 96% High contrast 1500:1 (Typical)
  • CPU: HUAWEI Kirin 960; Octa-core (4 x 2.4 GHz A73 + 4 x 1.8 GHz A53) + i6 co-processor
  • GPU: Mali-G71 MP8
  • Memory and Storage: 
    • 4GB RAM
    • 64GB Storage
    • microSD card slot, supports up to 256GB (uses secondary SIM slot) 
  • Camera: 
    • Front: 8MP AF, F1.9
    • Main: Dual, 20MP Monochrome + 12MP RGB, F2.2 OIS (Optical Image Stabilization)
    • 4K video
  • 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)
  • Battery 4000 mAh
  • Operating System: Android 7.0 (Emotion UI 5.0)
  • Colors: Space Gray, Moonlight Silver, Champagne Gold, Mocha Brown, Ceramic White, Black
  • Size and Weight: 
    • (H x W x D): 156.9 x 78.9 x 7.9 mm
    • Approx. 190 g

The other major improvement for the Mate 9 vs. the 8 is the primary camera, which now incorporates a dual-lens system. The dual Leica lenses in the Mate 9 are backed by two different cameras, with separate color and monochrome image sensors. This unusual setup has the potential to offer more detailed images, and the camera system can also produce simulated depth-of-field effects.

We have day-one review hardware in hand here at PC Perspective, so stay tuned for the full review!