Huawei launches the Honor 9 in China, with a European unveiling expected later this month.
Huawei has taken the wraps off the Honor 9 smartphone, refreshing last year’s cheap but powerful dual-camera Honor 8 running on Kirin processors.
The Honor 8 was the first of Huawei’s Honor line of smartphones to launch in the US, offering some stiff price competition to more established players.
The Honor 9 brings a few key upgrades to its predecessor, including a larger capacity battery, larger camera sensors, more RAM, and more storage.
The metal-body smartphone features a 5.15-inch 1,080p display and runs on HiSilicon’s top chipset, the Kirin 960, which also powers Huawei’s flagship Mate 9 and P10 smartphones.
It also comes with a huge 6GB RAM with either 64GB or 128GB storage. That’s double the storage and RAM in the Honor 8.
The Honor 9 also gains the Mate 9’s 20-megapixel and 12-megapixel dual cameras on the rear, up from the Honor 8’s 12-megapixel and eight-megapixel setup, and features a slightly larger 3,200mAh battery. The new device also has an eight-megapixel front-facing shooter.
The phone will support Huawei’s recently announced Huawei Pay mobile payments platform.
GSMArena reports the Honor 9 will be available at several Chinese retailers on June 16. The 64GB model costs ¥2,700, which converts to $397/£312, while the 128GB model costs ¥3,000 or $441/£347. The smartphone will be available in grey, blue and gold.
It’s not clear whether Huawei will give the Honor 9 a wider release, although it is holding an event in Berlin on June 27 where it is expected to announce the new handset.
Huawei has grown to become the world’s third-largest seller of smartphones behind Apple and Samsung, according to analyst firm IDC, but it has yet to make significant progress in the US.
