Week 44 in review Huawei Mate 9 most interesting of a bunch of new phones

A host of new phones were announced this week, but none shines brighter than the Huawei Mate 9 and Mate 9 Porsche Design pair. Huawei is all about collaborations recently (Leica being the obvious reference) but the Porsche Design came as a bit of a surprise, even if we were hinted of a dual-curved version of the flagship.

A brand new Kirin 960 chipset, a dual camera on the back (mismatched as it may be at first glance - 20MP monochrome/12MP color), a sizeable battery, and large display - the new Mates take the best from the old Mates and mix it with some P9 to make a truly intriguing high-end phablet pair.

The lower key announcements include the (apparently) China-only Samsung W2017 clam shell with a rumored price tag close to $3000 redefining the word exorbitant.

A trio of brand new Xiaomi Redmis sit on the opposite end of the price spectrum - the Redmi 4A, Redmi 4 Standard, and Red mi 4 Prime start at the equivalent of $74 in China.

Meanwhile, Meizu unveiled the Pro 6s - basically a Pro 6 with a new camera and larger battery, and the M5 to succeed the M3 (4 is not a particularly favorite number in Chinese culture).

For more details on these, as well as some of the other hot topics from the past week, click through the links below.

Smaller and more premium than the regular Mate 9.

Huawei Mate 9 phablet just went official in Munich, Germany - 5.9" 1080p screen, Kirin 960 SoC, dual Leica camera.

Xiaomi has just announced three different Redmi 4 models - Redmi 4A, Redmi 4, and Redmi 4 Prime.

Its powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 and boasts 4GB of RAM, so this is one high-end device.

Meizu Pro 6s just went official - it updates the camera with 4-axis OIS, while the battery is 500mAh beefier.