At the ongoing CES 2017, Huawei has launched a new addition to the Mate lineup – Huawei Mate 9 at $599 (approx. Rs 40,700.) The smartphone has already been launched in China last year and comes with top-notch specifications. Interestingly, the variant launched in the US today at CES comes with Amazon’s Alexa powered voice-interactive app. As per the company, Alexa will give customers ‘a natural, convenient user interface’ to get information or perform tasks. However, if you have already purchased the Mate 9, you will soon receive an OTA update which will bring the above-mentioned Alexa integration. 
Meanwhile, the Mate 9 Pro and the Porsche Design Mate 9 will soon support Google Daydream. Currently, only a handful of Android devices in the market are Google Day-dream ready including the Pixel devices.
Coming back to the Mate 9, the device comes with a huge 5.9 inch Full HD 1920 x 1080 display. The entire device is made out of metal and sports a fingerprint scanner lies at the back. On the inside, the Mate 9 sports a 2.4 GHz Octa-Core Kirin 960 processor with Mali-G71 MP8 GPU for graphics and gaming. The device comes with 64 GB internal storage which is expandable up to 256GB irrespective of whether it is a Dual SIM device or not. In other words, if it’s a Single SIM device then it will come with a dedicated microSD card otherwise a hybrid Dual SIM slot.
For the camera, the Mate 9 comes with dual-camera set up one being a 12-megapixel sensor and the other one being a 20-megapixel sensor with f/2.2 aperture, OIS, 2x zoom, Leica optics, phase detection & laser autofocus, dual-LED (dual tone) Flash. At the front, there is an 8-megapixel shooter with f/1.9 Aperture and 1080p video recording capabilities. Huawei is known to give good cameras in smartphones, and with Leica partnership as we saw in the P9, the game will only improve.
Now for the battery, Huawei’s Mat 9 sports a 4000 mAh battery which is non-removable but given it sports a 1080p screen, battery life shouldn’t be an issue on this device. The device comes running on Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box with EMUI 5.0 on top. Connectivity options such as Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth v4.2, GPS, NFC etc are there with USB Type-C connector which supports quick charging.
Nothing has been revealed about the India release as of now but we expect the company to make the device available in India soon. On the other hand, the earlier launched Honor 6X is all set to hit the Indian shores on January 24, click here (https://www.themobileindian.com/news/20945_Huawei-Honor-6X-is-expected-to-be-launched-in-India-on-January-24) for more.