As touched on in this morning’s hands-on, the Mate 9 is a big phone in just about every way imaginable. But just in case, Huawei’s taking things a step further. The company that brought you a pair of watches called the Jewel and Elegant has teamed with Porsche Design to give the world a really expensive version of its new flagship.
The limited edition device harkens back to a time when nearly every smartphone had some ultra luxury equivalent. And while the Porsche Design Mate 9 isn’t encrusted in gold or jewels, it’s certainly got the pricing bit down at €1395 ($1,533) in Europe.
Need convincing that you need to spend that much on a smartphone? We’ll defer to the language in the device’s announcement for this one,
Porsche Design Huawei Mate 9 features seamless curved edges, a graphite finish and stylish black coloring combined with the latest technology. This is perfectly complemented ‘under the hood’ by a unique, intuitive user interface that exudes sophistication thanks to Porsche Design’s signature design language. With a shared commitment to functional design, innovative craftsmanship and cutting-edge technology, the collaboration delivers highly discerning customers an unrivaled, premium smartphone experience; with revolutionary speed, extensive battery life and luxurious design cues.
Now if that doesn’t make you want to spend $1,533 on a phone, I don’t know what will. Design language aside, the handset features a few improvement over the standard Mate 9, including 256GB of storage and 6GB of RAM (vs. 64 and 4). The same camera and massive 4,000mAh battery are still on board here, though, weirdly, the screen has been shrunk from 5.9 to 5.5 inches – though you still get a higher resolution at 2560 x 1440 (vs. 1920 x 1080).
It’ll be available in January through Porsche Design Stores pretty much everywhere but the US.