SAN JOSE, June 16 -- Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei launched Thursday its new dual-lens P9 smartphone in Costa Rica for the Latin American market.

Huawei unveiled its new P9 at a shopping center in west San Jose, where potential buyers and the press also got a chance to view an exhibit of photographs taken with the smartphone's innovative Leica-made camera.

"Most people use their phone as a camera, that's why we developed the Huawei P9, a high-performance smartphone with cutting-edge technology and outstanding design," Andrea Corrales of Huawei Costa Rica said at the event, according to the daily La Nacion.

Huawei's partnership with German firm Leica has created a smartphone with a groundbreaking dual-lens camera that can shoot vivid color and crisp black-and-white to produce images with greater depth and clarity.

Costa Rican photographer Cristian Sanchez, who has gone on assignments for National Geographic, was tasked with capturing the country's famed wildlife and natural landscapes for the exhibit.

Huawei hopes to replicate in Costa Rica and Latin America in general the success of the P9, which runs on the latest Andoid operating system, Marchmallow 6.0., has had in other markets.

"We entered the market in 2013, when only 20 percent of Costa Ricans knew about us, but a study by (market consulting firm) Demoscopia shows today brand awareness is already at 91 percent, and they have a positive view of Huawei," Corrales told Xinhua.

Huawei accounted for 26 percent of Costa Rica's cellphones sales in 2015.