Folks in the United States may finally preorder the Huawei Mate 10 Pro, the Chinese company's flagship phone. The preorder going live is the result of a rough patch, however.
Huawei took a hit in January when AT&T and Verizon both ditched individual deals with Huawei to sell the handset in their stores, allegedly because of pressure from the government. Major U.S. retailers and other sites are even offering discounts toward a purchase of the device.
Huawei Mate 10 Pro Specs
The Mate 10 Pro was launched in November 2017, one of the first phones in Huawei's lineup to sport a nearly bezel-less screen. It features a 6-inch OLED display with a resolution of 2,160 x 1,080 and a 18:9 aspect ratio. Onboard is 4 GB of RAM with up to 128 GB of local storage. It boasts Huawei's in-house Kirin 970 processor instead of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835, the chip typically found on 2017 flagships. The phone is juiced up by a 4,000 mAh battery.
On the back are dual cameras — 12 and 20 megapixels — with Leica optics that can record 4K-resolution video at 30 fps. For selfies, users get an 8-megapixel shooter. Like any modern flagship device, it sports a USB Type-C port and ships with Android 8.0 Oreo baked in.
Although consumers can purchase unlocked variants of the Mate 10 Pro online, the now-canceled deals with Verizon and AT&T would have helped Huawei bring its flagship to a wider audience. Huawei has long been selling its phones in the United States online, which hinders mainstream audiences from knowing about its handsets. But with the Mate 10 Pro, a crop of major U.S. retailers — Microsoft, Best Buy, Newegg, B&H, and Amazon — will all sell the phone.
Free Gift Card
Those who will preorder between now and Feb. 17 will even get a $150 gift card from any retailer of their choosing, according to a press release. What's more, Massdrop, a service that slashes the price of a product when a certain number of people order it, is offering a whopping $100 discount on the Mate 10 Pro, which brings the price point to just $700.
Those who are looking for a bit more flair must know that there's a Mate 10 Pro variant called Porsche Design, which costs $1,255. The price is so high because the phone sports a diamond black body, 6 GB of RAM, and 256 GB of local storage. Huawei starts selling it in the United States on Feb. 18.
The Mate 10 Pro starts shipping Feb. 18. Customers can get it in either blue or gray, but a brown colorway will launch soon.
