Porsche Design Huawei Mate 9 revealed – meet the €1,395 phablet of Jeremy Clarkson’s dreams
Huawei unveiled a slew of new products at a special event in Munich, Germany – and for its sheer oligarchic absurdity, the Porsche Design Mate 9 may have been the star of the show.
While Huawei’s flagship phablet also received a significant upgrade – you can check out our hands-on with the Huawei Mate 9 here – all eyes appeared to be on its flashier, pricier and more curvaceous sibling.
Instead of just releasing a Note 7-baiting curved version of the Mate 9, Huawei went ahead and teamed up with Porsche Design – a subsidiary of popular mid-life-crisis car company Porsche.
Watch: Mate 9 hands-on
What you see here is the result.
The snappily named Porsche Design Huawei Mate 9 is a souped-up version of the base model. It has a slightly smaller 5.5-inch display, but one that has had its resolution upped to QHD. It’s curved now, too, just like a certain Samsung phablet that had a knack for spontaneous combustion.
Related: Huawei Mate 9 vs Galaxy Note 7
Powering the phone is a Kirin 960 CPU, 6GB of RAM and a whopping 256GB of internal storage – enough for even the most obsessive car nut to store all their pictures of bumpers, spoilers and sexy engine parts.
Most of the other specs mirror the standard Mate 9. There’s the increasingly requisite dual-camera setup that combines a 20-megapixel monochrome sensor and 12-megapixel RGB sensor, both of which are slapped with Leica branding as on the Huawei P9.
A 4,000mAh battery keeps the phone running for up to two days, according to Huawei, and Fast Charging is supported via the USB Type-C port on the bottom.
Related: Best smartphones 2016
Huawei is clearly going for brand image here, as there’s a stonkingly big Porsche Design logo slapped on the phone. It’s anything but subtle, but still manages to look rather sleek.
Oh, and did we mention the price? Well, it costs about the same as an actual Porsche. Sort of. This phone will cost you €1,395 when it hits Porsche Design stores later this year, which equates to approximate £1,235 before tax.
Unless your name’s Jeremy Clarkson, you’d better get saving.
Watch: Huawei Mate 9 hands-on
Has the Porsche Design Mate got your engine revving? Let us know in the comments below.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
