Huawei Mate 9 was announced last month and although it has since then started selling in select markets, it could take some waiting before the flagship finally hits the American market.
According to famous leaker Evan Blass, the curved dual-edge Huawei Mate 9 will be shipping to the U.S. starting January 6. A previous report had indicated that the global launch of the Mate 9 will be somehow rocky due to issues with carriers and connectivity, but it seems the company, which boasts being the third in the world when it comes to smartphone shipping, only bettered by global leader Samsung and Apple, seems to have found a solution to the said issues.
If you live in the stateside and Huawei Mate 9 has really impressed you, the phone will be available for purchase beginning early next month. Despite the fact that the statement doesn’t come from the official Huawei channel, the person behind the leak, Blass, has a good reputation in this industry when it comes to early hands-on for such information.
As noted earlier, the Huawei Mate 9 was launched about a month ago and it comes with a huge 5.9-inch AMOLED screen, but you might be disappointed that there is no QHD resolution, instead, Huawei went for a Full HD (1080p) resolution. There is a Kirin 960 processor under the hood alongside a RAM of 4GB, 64GB storage, and 4000mAh battery unit. You also get a chance to enjoy the latest Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box, but this version comes with an EMUI 5.0 skin on top of the Android OS. Like other Huawei flagships launched in 2016, the Huawei Mate 9 also comes with a dual-lens camera setup on the back.
Huawei is still finding its way into the U.S. market and as of now, it has yet to forge any formidable relationship with a major carrier. As a result, we expect that the Huawei Mate 9 will make its debut as an unlocked GSM variant with support limited to the likes of AT&T and T-Mobile, but there won’t be room for CDMA carriers such as Verizon and Sprint.
Although Evan Blass did not mention a thing about the price of the Huawei Mate 9 in the U.S., the phone already costs €700 in Europe and this could mean the phone costs about $700 in the U.S., unless direct conversions apply, where we end up with about $750. This means the phone is coming to compete with the likes of iPhone 7 Plus, Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, LG V20 as well as Google Pixel XL.