Huawei confirms Mate 9 for early 2017 Australian debut
Huawei isn't wasting time launching its next premium phablet.
Huawei only announced the Mate 9 back in early November, but it has just revealed that the high-end phablet will go on sale in Australia in the first quarter of 2017. Unlike competitor products which largely revolve around Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chipsets, the Mate 9 uses Huawei’s own Kirin chips, specifically the Kirin 960.
Huawei revealed two models of the Mate 9 at its November launch, with a standalone model as well as a considerably more expensive Porsche-designed variant with a higher resolution display, additional storage and additional RAM. There’s no sign of Huawei releasing that model here in Australia at this stage.
The Huawei Mate 8 impressed us earlier in the year by combining a decent sense of style alongside very solid battery life and CPU performance, making for an excellent high-end large screened device at a very competitive price.
Huawei hasn’t revealed what we’ll pay for the Mate 9 when it launches in Australia next year, but it’s likely to face stiff competition from the slew of phones expected to come out of Mobile World Congress, including Samsung’s Galaxy S8 phone. That may well be why it’s opting to announce the release of the new phone so early, in order to build up anticipation and line up buyers who might otherwise opt for another Android platform. Based on overseas pricing, we'd expect the Huawei Mate 9 to tip the scales at just over $1,000 locally, although that fancier Porsche variant would be closer to $2,000 outright if it ever comes here.
UPDATE: Here's what you'll pay for a Huawei Mate 9 on contract with different Australian carriers:
