The ultimate Huawei Mate 9 Pro hits stores in Malaysia today

In terms of smartphones, Malaysians are a lucky lot. We tend to be in the first tier, or wave, when it comes to smartphone launches and announcements (except for a certain fruit brand, and its clone). Huawei continues to make Malaysia a key focus market, bringing its latest Mate 9 Pro here, just weeks after its announcement in Berlin. Malaysia, in fact, is one of the first countries in the world to have all three devices in the new Mate 9 series.

If you think that the Mate 9 Pro is merely a suped up version of the Mate 9, you couldn’t have been more wrong. While the Mate 9 retains the familiar look of the Mate series, the ‘Pro’ is curvier overall. It’s Huawei’s first ever smartphone to sport a curved screen, adding a new flavour to its portfolio of premium devices. And it’s beautiful. The 5.5-inch 2K AMOLED display is bright, vivid and crisp.

The most beautiful Huawei device to date

On the outside, clad in either Haze Gold or Titanium Grey, it is impeccably-built – boasting a shiny all-metal body with curves to boot.

Under the hood, it gets the best from Huawei’s chip factory – the top-of-the-line Kirin 960, built on a 16nm FinFET technology. It’s the world’s first to use the ARM Cortex A73-based octa-core CPU. That can only mean power efficiency and running cool. For gaming enthusiasts, you’ll be chuffed to know that the Mate 9 Pro gets the world’s first Mali-G71 MP8 GPU, which supports the cutting-edge Vulkan API. The new GPU delivers 400% better graphic performance compared to previous generation.

This is coupled with a whopping 6GB RAM and 128GB of storage. Packed with storage, the Mate 9 Pro makes do without microSD expansion. The good thing about it is that it frees up the dual-SIM slots to give you access to 4G LTE and 3G data. Speaking of 4G LTE, the Mate 9 Pro supports 4G LTE Cat.12 (download speeds of up to 600Mbps). The great thing about the dual-SIM capabilities of the Mate 9 Pro, is that it supports dual social apps. For instance, you can run two instances of WhatsApp or Facebook, using different accounts. Pretty useful if you have SIMs and if you’re traveling.

The dual-cameras, co-engineered with Leica make a return. But only to be better and improved over previous. The second generation camera system features a 20MP monochrome camera with a 12MP RGB shooter. Both feature OIS, and PDAF, ensuring snappy focus and steady photos and video. You’ll also love the creamy bokeh with Wide Aperture Effect 2.0, and 2x Hybrid Zoom. Huawei claims the new camera setup also performs better in low light, thanks to pixel binning and OIS working in tandem. In terms of video, the Mate 9 Pro shoots up to 4K.

Future-proof

Huawei is also touting EMUI 5.0, it’s latest user interface update based on Android 7.0 Nougat. EMUI 5.0 has over 2,000 optimised user interaction flows making accessing information and navigation much simpler and more efficient. EMUI 5.0 retains Knuckle Sense for an additional user input.

In the audio department, the Mate 9 Pro optimizes audio based on the orientation of the device. In portrait mode, it uses a vertical audio profile where the top speaker takes care of the treble, while the bottom speaker covers bass. Rotate the device into a horizontal orientation, and the speakers will work in tandem to give you a surround sound experience.

To further enhance system efficiency, the Mate 9 Pro uses the new F2FS file system, that overcomes fragmentation. Huawei has built in a machine learning algorithm to manage memory, CPU and storage optimally, based on user behaviour. This ensures the Mate 9 Pro performs efficiently, even 18 months down the road. Yes, no ‘Android slowdowns.’

The Mate 9 Pro is armed with a generous 4,000mAh battery. This will keep it juiced for over a full day’s use. In case you need to charge up quickly, there’s Huawei SuperCharge tech built-in, utilising a proprietary charger and USB Type-C cable. It’s the world’s fastest 4.5V/5A charging tech. It can give you a full day’s worth of regular use with just 20 minutes of fast charging. 30 minutes of charging will give you 58% of charge. Huawei ensures its charging technology is risk-free and safe, with 15-layer safety features to give you peace of mind. Which is good to know!

Pricing and availability

The stunning Huawei Mate 9 Pro is available starting today, retailing at MYR3,399. Grab one from all Huawei Authorised Dealers, as well as from Vmall.my.