Huawei P9 on contract pricing revealed

Huawei's latest flagship smartphone, the P9, is now available through Australian retailers at an asking price of AUD$799, or on contract through all four big local telcos. If outright smartphone purchases aren't your thing, here's what you can expect to pay if you're happy to jump on a 24 month plan.

On Telstra, the P9 is available on plan starting at AUD$70 per month (a AUD$55 per month plan with a AUD$15 handset repayment fee). This gets you AUD$550 of talk, unlimited text, and 1GB of data. Those after more data will be better served by the AUD$95 per month option (with no added handset repayment fee). This includes unlimited talk and text, and 10GB of data (provided you subscribe before August 22; after that date, the data inclusion is just 6GB).

On Optus, P9 plans start at AUD$52 per month (a AUD$40 plan with a AUD$12 handset repayment fee). This gets you 1GB of data, and unlimited talk and text. Jumping up to the AUD$65 per plan axes the handset repayment fee, takes data to 3.5GB, and adds 150 international minutes. All P9 plans include access to a season of the English Premiere League if you subscribe before July 31. Optus is also giving away bonus Huawei Watches "while stocks last".

On Vodafone, the P9 starts at AUD$55 per month (a AUD$40 plan with a AUD$15 handset repayment fee). This gets you 500MB of data, and unlimited talk and text. Our bang-for-buck pick is the AUD$70 plan (with no additional repayment fees), including 6GB of data, unlimited talk and text, and unlimited international messaging. If you're willing to pay an extra AUD$10 per month, Vodafone will throw in a Huawei Watch. If you go for the AUD$130 plan (with 16GB of data), you'll get the Watch with no additional repayments.

On Virgin plans start at AUD$50 per month (a AUD$30 plan with a AUD$20 handset repayment fee). This gets you AUD$300 of talk and text, and 300MB of data. A much better value option is the AUD$70 per month plan, with unlimited talk and text and 7GB of data.

The P9 stand out from the crowd thanks to a unique dual rear-facing camera setup; Huawei's paired a traditional 12MP camera with a second, monochrome 12MP camera. Since the second camera only shoots in black and white, Huawei says it is able to take in triple the light information of the conventional camera it sits next to. This is said to improve low-light performance, and result in photos with better contrast across the board. The P9's camera is Leica branded, but is said to be "co-engineered" with the luxury camera company, rather than manufactured by it.

In terms of hardware, the P9 offers users Huawei's in-house Kirin 955 eight-core, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of expandable storage, and a 3,000mAh battery. Other specifications involve a heavily skinned version of Android Marshmallow, rear-facing fingerprint reader, and a USB Type-C connector.

Read more: Huawei P9 review
Read more: Huawei Watch review