Huawei’s latest flagship phablet, the Mate 9, is set to be launched in Malaysia by the end of this month. What’s more, the Chinese company is also aiming to price it as aggressively as possible, with an expected retail price of below RM3,000.
The Mate 9 is Huawei’s highest-end consumer smartphone, powered by its new Kirin 960 chipset paired with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of expandable storage as standard. The 5.9-inch Full HD display is slightly smaller than the 6-inch Mate 8 from last year, but the main feature is undoubtedly the inclusion of the Leica-certified dual-sensor setup.
We heard murmurs that Huawei wanted to bring the product to Malaysia sooner, but current political situations meant that the company could not fix a final retail price – the US Dollar could swing wildly as the presidential elections unfold. Nevertheless, Malaysia is among the countries in the first wave of availability around the world – a rarity, we must say, but not surprising considering its presence in Malaysia. After all, the dual-SIM variant of the Mate 9 has already been registered with SIRIM.
What has been confirmed is that Huawei is aiming for a sub-RM3,000 retail price, as it seeks to gain valuable market share in the premium segment. Given that the Mate 8 launched from RM2,099 (and the recent P9 and P9 Plus at RM2,099 and RM2,599 respectively), it won’t exactly be a tough task even if this is Huawei’s most feature-packed smartphone ever.
