Huawei Mate 9 now costs less than $500

First announced in November 2016, the Huawei Mate 9 was released in the US in January this year, being sold unlocked for $599. Now, the handset is at least $100 cheaper, depending on where you're buying it from.

Amazon is currently selling the Huawei Mate 9 for just $478.89, while Best Buy and B&H are asking a bit more for it: $499. It looks like these are permanent price cuts - a wise decision from Huawei, as there are now plenty of newer high-end smartphones on the market.

In case you're not familiar with it, the Huawei Mate 9 is a powerful metal-made handset that sports a 5.9-inch 1080p display and relies on an octa-core HiSilicon Kirin 960 processor clocked at 2.4 GHz. Other highlight features include 4 GB of RAM, 64 GB of expandable internal memory, a dual rear camera, and a 4000 mAh battery. For more details, you can check out our Huawei Mate 9 review.

Currently running Android 7 Nougat, the Mate 9 will definitely be updated to Android O. While it's not clear when Huawei will be ready to release a stable version of the update, the Mate 9 could be among the first non-Google devices to get Android O.

P.S.: The Mate 9 does not work on Verizon, Sprint, and US Cellular, but it's fully compatible with AT&T and T-Mobile.

sources: Amazon, Best Buy, B&H via Android Police