Huawei has secretly slid in a new variant of the Mate 9, its flagship killer, bringing the total variants to three with the Mate 9 Pro, the Mate 9 Porsche edition and now the Mate 9 Lite, the a new shrunk down version of Huawei's flagship, specs and size-wise.
The Mate 9 Lite has one major drawback, however, and it's the lack of Leica shooters in the back, since the product renders appear to have dropped the camera manufacturer's logo. Leica was a big collaborator for Huawei in the creation of its premium flagships, and it's unfortunate to not find hints of its prosperous partnership on the Mate 9 Lite.
Huawei has eschewed any proper unveiling for this mid-range offering, opting instead to list the Mate 9 Lite on its site unannounced.
Huawei Mate 9 Lite
The device's name should be enough indication to suggest that it won't come with top-tier and premium specs. Still, the Mate 9 Lite is still pretty decent. It obviously won't hold a candle to its more powerful siblings, but expect this to be the cheapest Mate 9 smartphone of the roster.
Huawei Mate 9 Lite Specs
The Mate 9 Lite has a 5.5-inch 1,920 x 1,080 Full HD display, an octa-core Kirin 655 system-on-a-chip and a 3,340 mAh battery, which is significantly lower compared with the 4,000 mAh battery found on the Mate 9.
Like its larger counterparts, the Mate 9 Lite will also have dual cameras, though it'll be a huge step down. From the Mate 9 Pro's 20-megapixel shooter, we're now down to a 12-megapixel rear shooter for the Mate 9 Lite and a 2-megapixel front shooter, which by today's standards is hugely abysmal, though rightly par for the course for a mid-range smartphone.
Unfortunately for Android 7.0 Nougat fans, the Mate 9 Lite will ship with Android 6.0 Marshmallow, with no official word whether it will receive a Nougat update sometime after release, but we're not holding our breaths for such a feat, considering that this is a mid-range Huawei offering. Still, we wouldn't be surprised if Huawei opts otherwise.
The Mate 9 will also come with Huawei's custom user interface called Emotion UI, or EMUI, but it'll be a step down from EMUI 5.0 to EMUI 4.1
Mate 9 Lite Pricing And Availability
Huawei will release two configurations of the Mate 9 Lite, one with 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of internal storage and one with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of internal storage. Surprisingly, it will have a fingerprint sensor on the back, a feature most commonly found on higher-priced smartphones.
It will be available in gold, gray or silver, but Huawei hasn't provided any details on pricing and availability, but expect this to come relatively cheap.
