Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Huawei Mate 9 leaks: 6 colors, 2 cameras, 6GB RAM and 256GB storage

November launch likely, with prices for the Nougat-powered slab rumored land between $480 and $700, depending on RAM and storage options.

It certainly looks like Huawei's leaving nothing on the table for the launch of its upcoming big-screened handset, the Mate 9. The latest details unearthed from Chinese social network Weibo by Playfuldroid show off what looks like six distinct colors and finishes for the phone, along with Leica branding for its dual rear cameras.

According to a pricing slide that's leaked alongside these renders, it looks like there'll be three tiers for the new phone. The base model has 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage and costs 3,199 Chinese yuan ($480). Mid-tier is 4GB and 128GB for 3,899 yuan ($580). And the highest-end Mate 9 packs a whopping 6GB of RAM and 256GB of storage for 4700 yuan ($700). As the slide shows, the model you choose will dictate the colors available, with the black Mate 9 only being available in the highest price tier.

The Mate 9 as shown here doesn't quite match up with what we've seen from some earlier leaks, which used a different style camera enclosure without any Leica branding. The photography brand's logo is plain to see in today's renders, which also appear to label the lenses as having an aperture of f/2.0. (An improvement on the P9's f/2.2.)

The Huawei Mate 9 is rumored to come with the company's unannounced Kirin 960 chip, featuring ARM's latest high-performance Cortex-A73 cores. Also look for the Mate 9 to be the showcase for Huawei's new EMUI 5, based on Android 7.0 Nougat, which does away with many of the more obnoxious customizations of previous EMUI versions.

As for availability, judging by the date on the phone in these renders — sometimes, but not always an accurate indicator — we should be looking at a launch sometime around November 18.

MORE: Why it's time to start getting excited about Huawei