After launching the Mate 9, Mate 9 Porsche Edition, and the Mate 9 Pro this month, Huawei obviously wasn't done with the Mate 9 lineup as it has now announced the more affordable Mate 9 Lite. The Mate 9 Lite is now listed on the company's website without pricing, but the name and the specifications suggest it will be the cheapest in the Mate 9 lineup. We do know that the smartphone will be available in Gold, Grey, and Silver colour options.
The Huawei Mate 9 Lite comes with typical mid-range specs. The device runs Huawei's EMUI 4.1 on top of Android 6.0 Marshmallow. It sports a 5.5-inch full-HD (1080x1920) display with a 2.5D curved glass on top. A Kirin 655 SoC with an octa-core CPU means the device won't be too big on performance compared to its Mate 9 siblings.
In terms of optics, the Mate 9 Lite comes with a dual rear camera setup much like the other Mate 9s, but unlike the 20-megapixel and 12-megapixel Leica sensors found in the Mate 9 and Mate 9 Pro, the Mate 9 Lite comes with a lower 12-megapixel and 2-megapixel rear cameras minus the Leica branding. The front sports an 8-megapixel sensor. The 12-megapixel sensor features a 0.3 second PDAF focus, while the secondary camera captures depth for bokeh shots.
According to the Huawei website, the Mate 9 Lite will be offered in two variants - one with 3GB of RAM and 32GB storage and the other with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. The device is fitted with a 3340mAh battery. Connectivity options include GPS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The Huawei Mate 9 Lite measures 150.9x76.2x8.2mm and weighs 162 grams.