The Huawei Mate 9 will launch in the U.S. on January 6th?

A tweet disseminated today by tipster Evan Blass states that the high-end Huawei Mate 9 will be launched in the U.S. on January 6th. That will be a couple of months after the phone's overseas launch on November 3rd. The Mate 9 carries a large 5.9-inch LCD screen with a 1080 x 1920 resolution. The chipset powering the phablet is Huawei's own home grown Kirin 960 which features an octa-core 2.4GHz CPU, and the Mali-G71 MP8 GPU. 4GB of RAM is inside along with 64GB/128GB of native storage. A 256GB microSD slot is available for those seeking additional storage.

On back is a Leica branded dual camera setup, which includes a 12MP camera and a 20MP shooter. The front-facing camera weighs in at 8MP, and a 4000mAh battery provides the power. A fingerprint scanner can be found on back, and Android 7.0 is pre-installed.

The phone is expected to go on sale in the states on the morning of January 6th, which is the opening day of this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Now, you might be asking yourself what the excitement is all about, especially since the Mate 9 is available to U.S. consumers on Amazon ($799 for the 64GB model, $899 for the 128GB version). But there is talk that Huawei has received interest from U.S. carriers who want to offer the flagship model to their customers. Introducing the Mate 9 at CES will also generate publicity for the device in the states.

Currently ranked as the world's third largest smartphone manufacturer, Huawei says that it will top Samsung and Apple's output within the next five years. For that to happen, Huawei might need to play nice with the U.S. carriers in order to reach all of those wireless network subscribers, the majority of whom choose a smartphone from the models being offered by their carrier.


source: @evleaks, Amazon