Huawei Mate 9 on sale from February 7

Huawei's latest flagship smartphone - the Mate 9 - will go on sale locally from February 7 priced at $999. You'll be able to buy the phablet outright through JB Hi-Fi and Harvey Norman, or on a contract through Optus and Vodafone. Optus and Vodafone have yet to announce their Mate 9 plans, but we'll be keeping our eyes peeled.

In addition to a super-sized 5.9-inch 1080p display, the Mate 9 features the second generation version of the dual-camera setup Huawei collaborated with Leica on for the P9 earlier this year. The configuration is made up of a 12MP colour sensor and a 20MP monochrome sensor.

Since the second camera only shoots in black and white, Huawei says it can take it far more light information than a conventional camera, which in turn improves low-light performance and contrast. As with the iPhone 7 Plus, the Mate 9's dual-camera setup can also be used to simulate bokeh (the soft, out of focus areas typically produced by DSLRs when shooting at wide apertures).

Other key specifications include Huawei's in-house Kirin 960 eight-core processor, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of expandable storage, a USB Type-C port for charging, and a hefty 4,000mAh battery said to provide over two days of "standard usage" per charge. The Mate 9 will ship with Huawei's customised version of Android Nougat, referred to as EMUI 5.

Optus and Vodafone will sell the Mate 9 in black, while JB Hi-Fi and Harvey Norman will have the phone in "mocha brown".

Alex Choros

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Alex Choros is the Managing Editor of WhistleOut Australia and an award-winning journalist. He's been writing about consumer technology for over a decade and is an expert on the Australian telco sector, to the point where he knows far too many phone and internet plans by heart. In addition to leading the WhistleOut editorial team, Alex is responsible for ruining the office Sonos with his troubled taste in music.

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