Recent reports revealed that Huawei is planning to launch a new flagship smartphone in the United States within the year which would challenge the high-end devices of Apple and Samsung.
The smartphone is thought to be the Huawei P9, a smartphone that has been a mainstay in the rumor mill over the previous months. Whether the rumors are true or not can finally be confirmed, as the company has now officially announced the Huawei P9 in an April 6 event in London.
In a press release accompanying the smartphone's unveiling, the company claims that the Huawei P9 is the first smartphone that was co-engineered with Leica Camera AG, an iconic global photography brand. The result of the collaboration is a dual-lens camera for the Huawei P9, which looks to set a new standard in smartphone photography.
The dual-camera design of the Huawei P9 takes advantage of the smartphone's Leica optical lenses, with the two rear-facing cameras working in tandem to be able to take pictures with superior color, depth and detail. There are also three film modes that will be available to users, namely Standard, Smooth Colors and Vivid Colors, which can be easily switched depending on the user's preference. There is also the monochrome mode, which transforms the Huawei P9 into a true monochrome camera to take high-quality black and white pictures.
The Huawei P9 is not just all about its camera, though. The smartphone also features Huawei's trademark minimalist design for its flagship devices, with a superior-grade glass and aerospace-class aluminum body.
The smartphone features a 5.2-inch 1080p display and is powered by the Kirin 955 chipset with a 3,000 mAh battery. Huawei also announced the Huawei P9 Plus variant, which has a larger 5.5-inch Press Touch display with a likewise bigger 3,400 mAh battery. Both models will also have Huawei's biometric fingerprint recognition technology, an expandable memory option, and will ship with Android 6.0 Marshmallow with the company's EMUI 4.1 interface pre-installed.
The price of the 3 GB RAM, 32 GB model of the Huawei P9 is set at €599 (about $683), while the 4 GB RAM, 64 GB model will be sold at €649 (about $740). The 4 GB, 64 GB model of the Huawei P9 Plus, on the other hand, will carry a price tag of €749 (about $854).
Huawei said that the first wave of the launch of smartphone will begin on April 16, though unfortunately, the United States is not among the listed countries. The release of the Huawei P9 into the country will be soon enough, and it will be interesting to see if the smartphone can indeed function as an iPhone and Galaxy killer.
