We have seen many hints regarding the Huawei Mate 9 release here in Australia to suggest it was imminent. Huawei have now announced that the highly anticipated and highly regarded Mate 9 will be available for Australians to purchase from February 7.

Following on from the success of the Mate 8 in 2016 Huawei have announced that from February 7 the Mate 9 will be available from JB Hifi, Harvey Norman and other “participating retailers”, as well as carriers Optus and Vodafone. The SRP for the phone is $999 placing it right in the flagship price range (although not in the Pixel XL range). At this stage it is unclear what plans etc Optus and Vodafone will be offering the phone on but expect it to be equivalent to other flagship phones on their networks.

The Huawei Mate 9 comes with some impressive specs including Huawei’s own octa-core Kirin 960 chipset incorporating Huawei’s Machine Learning Algorithm to provide a smooth experience “even after 18 months of continuous usage” and a “Second generation Leica dual-lens camera with 12-megapixel RGB sensor, 20-megapixel monochrome sensor and Hybrid Zoom, featuring a superior 2x magnification”. The Australian version arrives with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage memory that can be expanded further with a microSD card.

The Huawei Mate 9 is running Android 7.0 underneath EMUI 5.0 (which learns the users preferences over time and prioritises these apps with the system’s resources) and a massive 4000mAh battery with Huawei’s new SuperCharge Technology. The new SuperCharge technology offers a 50% improvement over the previous generation of fast charging. At this stage there is no mention of the Australian version including Amazon’s Alexa integration as it does in the States.

All this hardware packed inside a good looking design incorporating unibody metal frame and a 5.9″ FHD display. Available in Space Grey from Optus and Vodafone and Mocha Brown from JB Hifi and Harvey Norman for $999 it is definitely a phone to keep an eye on if you are in the market for a new device. Keep an eye on Ausdroid for the review in the coming weeks.

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GrKTcB

$999? No thanks, Huawei.

They’ve gone from $699 for the Mate 7, to $899 for the Mate 8 to $999 for the Mate 9. While other high end phones [Samsung, LG and Apple] have slightly increased in price due to certain factors, Huawei have taken the cake in this.

I’d love to see how quickly they drop the price due to lack of sales.

Cough, ZTE Axon 7 for $699 anyone?

Cheers

Major Sceptic

It looks good to me , the basic poverty pixel costs nearly 100 dollars more than the mate 9 .
That being said I hope the mate 9 Pro makes its way here .

Joshua Hill

So you do agree tech prices have been going up??? That’s not what you hypocritically claimed in a different comment to me.

Alex Gerontzos

Glad it’s coming to Optus. I love my P9, the only thing that it lacks that it’s not a 5.5′ Phone. So this will suit me well.

Major Sceptic

Just be aware Alex , if you buy the handset from Optus even unlocked ….. it will probably have have Optus advertising installed on the device which despite your best efforts can’t be removed by you ……… And Optus staff will not remove it for you. !
I can tell you ….. It will be a cold day in hell before I buy another phone from OPTUS..

Alex Gerontzos

Cool.. Something that doesn’t concern me.

Major Sceptic

Fair enough mate , personally I don’t like it ,
if I go to sell my nearly thousand dollar device down the track and every time it boots up the annoying Optus ad rears is ugly head , to me it doesn’t look good.
Too each his own.

Kirk

Pfft, $1000 for this. The software is terrible and ugly, full of issues such as notifications not working! Yes, this happened to me on the Mate 7 and 8! No third time for you Huawei!!

TT

I prefer mate 9 pro which is curved display than this.

Sachin

Hi Scott – Any news/rumours on whether it will launch with any freebies like the Huawei Fit etc? Or maybe freebies with Pre-orders? Seems to have become the norm now for flagship phone launches.

This will drive if people (including myself) just buy the international version on Ebay for less than $A900 or wait it out for an official launch with freebies.

david

Cant wait to have a play with it but i will be waiting for Samsung’s next BIG thing b4 making a move.

Morkai

Yep, same as me. I can upgrade before Feb 7, but I’ll wait till the end of Feb to see if the S8 is revealed then.

Morkai

Finally! I’ve been hanging out for carrier info for weeks! Good news it’s on Voda too, I’m due for an upgrade now as well.