Specs Comparison: Huawei Mate 9 vs Mate 8

Huawei has just announced its latest flagship, the Mate 9. Despite the similar design with its predecessor, it’s got some great upgrades. Let’s check them out in this comparison.

Summary of advantages

Huawei Mate 9:

• New and faster processor
• Better GPU
• Dual rear cameras
• Upgraded Leica camera optics
• 4K video recording
• Speedy LTE Cat12 radio
• USB Type-C
• IR Blaster
• SuperCharge feature
• Latest Android 7.0 and EMUI 5.0 version

Huawei Mate 8:

• Will be cheaper

Looks like Huawei has outdone themselves with the new Mate 9 handset. While it’s almost physically identical, even the display is of the same resolution, the Chinese tech giant made the phone better in its other major aspects.

It’s running a home-baked Kirin 960 octa-core chipset with a Mali-G71 MP8 GPU. The boost mainly goes to the GPU with triple the performance from Mate 8. It’s optimized for the Vulkan platform too. Of course, Leica optics are to be expected from their partnership. Like the P9, there are two sensors onboard — an RGB and a monochrome. It can record 4K videos now too. While the battery is still at 4,000mAh, Huawei introduced SuperCharge, which is their fast-charging feature that can fuel up to 60% in just 30 minutes through the new USB Type-C port. Lastly, Android 7.0 Nougat with EMUI 5.0 on top is loaded out of the box.

This doesn’t necessarily leave the Mate 8 in the dust as it will become cheaper when the Mate 9 gets released, at least locally. Huawei even offered a trade-in promo recently. The Mate 8 will still get the EMUI 5.0, so it’ll be on par with Mate 9 in terms of UI.

While we wait for Mate 9, read our review of the Huawei Mate 8 here.