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The electronics giant's previous plans to sell phones via US carriers went awry, but now it's selling its flagship through Amazon, Best Buy and more.

After years of trying to crack the US market, Huawei was poised to get a big boost via a partnership with AT&T that would grant carrier support to its flagship phone, the Mate 10 Pro. That deal was nixed at the last minute -- but the phone will still be sold in the US.

Preorders for the unlocked Mate 10 Pro opened on Monday on sites like Amazon and Best Buy. It'll sell for $799, plus for now you get a free $150 gift card at the retailer you bought it from. Shipping on Feb. 18, the 6-inch phone will be available in titanium gray and midnight blue.

The Mate 10 Pro, one of CNET's favorite phones from last year, is powered by Huawei's own Kirin 970 processor, which gives performance similar to what you'd expect from a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835-powered phone like the Samsung Galaxy Note 8. The model being sold in the US comes with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of onboard storage. 

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This time last month, Huawei was expected to announce at CES that the Mate 10 Pro would be sold through AT&T. This would be big for Huawei -- a company that's selling well in China and Europe, but has yet to find success in the US -- as 90 percent of phone purchases in the US come through carriers. But it wasn't to be: AT&T pulled out of the deal before CES. 

Later in January, it was revealed that Verizon put the kibosh on a similar deal out of political pressure. The Mate 10 Pro is pushed as one of the first phones to be able to take advantage of 5G networks, but some US agencies fear it could open up the country to security threats, given Huawei's links to the Chinese government. 

All info from: https://www.cnet.com/news/huawei-mate-10-us-preorders-open-amazon-best-buy/

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