Huawei has tapped Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot as its brand ambassador in the United States.
From the look of things, this is one of the Chinese smartphone maker's ways to penetrate the U.S. market and perhaps dethrone Samsung and Apple as the top mobile brands in the country.
Considering the deal with AT&T to sell the Huawei Mate 10 Pro didn't pan out, this move is vital for the company to establish a strong local presence.
Wonder Woman To Sell You Huawei Phones
Officially designated as Huawei's Chief Experience Officer, Gadot's role is to chat up fans and make appearances at public events to promote products.
Historically, companies having brand ambassadors has been a hit or miss, but in this case, there's a good chance for it to be a success because Gadot is really a Huawei phone user since the P8.
That said, other phone companies and high-profile celebrities also established a similar relationship recently, including but not limited to Jessica Alba and Microsoft and both Will.i.am and Alicia Keys for BlackBerry.
On an interesting note, Huawei and Gadot have something in common that sort of takes the "connection" between them up a notch: Most people don't know how to pronounce their names correctly. For the curious, Huawei is pronounced "wah way," while Gal Gadot is pronounced like "gall guh-dot."
Huawei Mate 10 Pro Release Date, Price
As mentioned earlier, AT&T won't be selling Huawei phones anytime soon, but Huawei isn't giving up there. Instead, the Chinese brand will sell an unlocked version of the Huawei Mate 10 Pro directly for $799.
It's expected to go up for preorder on Feb. 4, and it'll be available at Amazon, B&H, Best Buy, Microsoft, and Newegg on Feb. 18.
Huawei Mate 10 Pro Specs
The Huawei Mate 10 Pro is powered by the company's own Kirin 970 processor that's paired with either 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of native storage or 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of space, along with a 4,000 mAh battery to keep the lights on. It runs on Android 8.0 Oreo skinned with EMUI 8.0 out of the box.
It sports a 6.0-inch AMOLED display with a 1,080 x 2,160 resolution, pushing out 402 ppi. It's got a dual-camera setup built in collaboration with Leica, boasting a 12-megapixel sensor and a 20-megapixel one to boot. Meanwhile, the front-facing snapper is an 8-megapixel sensor.
Just like most flagships, it's IP67 certified, meaning that it's dust and water resistant and capable of surviving submerged up to 1 meter and last 30 minutes. It supports USB Type-C and has a rear fingerprint scanner.
The Bottom Line
Huawei is out to get a slice of the pie that is the U.S. phone market, and it's naming Gadot as its brand ambassador — or Chief Experience Officer, in the company's parlance — to do just that. However, it might run into difficulties since U.S. consumers typically purchase their smartphones through carriers.
For the record, Huawei is the third largest smartphone maker in the world. It managed to zip past Apple and place in second back in September 2017, but that didn't last.
