Huawei's Mate 9 took the smartphone arena by storm when it hit the store shelves in Nov. 2016, thanks to the device's premium build coupled with its tech muscle. However, Huawei has opted not to release the high-end smartphone in the United States yet --- despite rolling it out in other parts of the world.

But fret not! Huawei Mate 9 is all set to hit the U.S. shores early next year --- Jan. 6, 2017 to be precise. This information came from reliable phone leaker, Evan Blass, who took to his Twitter handle (@evleaks) the smartphone's exact release schedule, 9To5Google reported. However, Blass also specifically alluded to the base Mate 9 model in his tweet; meaning, the limited edition Mate 9 Porsche design model will not be up for grabs in the United States.

Huawei Mate 9 Specs & Features

To the casual eye, Huawei Mate 9 may seem to bear a striking resemblance to the now-defunct Note 7 smartphone --- owing to its screen real estate. The all-metal body phablet uses a mammoth 5.9-inch display coupled with Full HD resolution of 1920x1080 pixels, which is a fraction larger than the Note 7 smartphone.

An all-powerful Kirin 960 processor, which Huawei deems as the world's highest-performing mobile chipset, will fire up the Mate 9. The CPU dishes out unparalleled multi-core performance among all smartphone SoCs. Moreover, it provides a 180-percent performance uplift with a considerable 40 percent improvement in terms of energy efficiency as compared to its precursor, according to a blog post on the company's official website.

Huawei Mate 9 Pricing & Other Details

Citing the possibility that Huawei could still be striving to find a carrier partner in the United States based on earlier experience, it looks like the Huawei Mate 9 could hit retailers unlocked.

There's no word on the U.S. pricing for Huawei Mate 9 yet; however, taking the device's value in other markets into consideration --- €700 in Europe --- the Mate 9 is likely to bear a price tag of about $750, putting it in direct competition with Google Pixel smartphones and the Galaxy S7 Edge in the United States.