It’s Honor’s turn now – time to wave Leica’s license fees goodbye and welcome the annual Huawei P flagship at a bargain price. The Honor 9 is shinier, arguably more powerful, and above all – way more affordable. And Honor 9 is not just a P10 for the masses, it’s also a OnePlus 5 killer. The bar is high, the expectations big, and this review has just started.
Huawei has never needed any of the Snapdragon chipsets in order for its phones to sell. Or even to achieve a flagship status. That’s where HiSilicon, Huawei’s subsidiary chip maker, has always helped – and its latest Kirin 960 is already proven to be tough to beat. The Honor 9 not only borrows this chip from the P10, but also pairs it with 6 gigabytes of RAM.
About Huawei Honor 9
Huawei Honor 9 smartphone was launched in June 2017. The phone comes with a 5.15-inch touchscreen display with a resolution of 1080 pixels by 1920 pixels at a PPI of 428 pixels per inch. The Huawei Honor 9 is powered by 1.8GHz octa-core Kirin 960 processor and it comes with 4GB of RAM. The phone packs 64GB of internal storage that can be expanded up to 256GB via a microSD card. As far as the cameras are concerned, the Huawei Honor 9 packs a 20-megapixel primary camera on the rear and a 8-megapixel front shooter for selfies.
The Huawei Honor 9 runs Android 7.0. It measures 147.30 x 70.90 x 7.45 (height x width x thickness) and weigh 155.00 grams. The Huawei Honor 9 is a dual SIM (GSM and GSM) smartphone that accepts Nano-SIM and Nano-SIM. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, NFC, FM, 3G and 4G (with support for Band 40 used by some LTE networks in India). Sensors on the phone include Proximity sensor, Accelerometer, Ambient light sensor and Gyroscope.
Huawei Honor 9 – Specification At a Glance
- Body: Dual glass body with aluminum frame, 3D Gorilla Glass 3 back
- Screen: 5.15″ LTPS IPS LCD with 1,080 x 1,920 px resolution (428ppi)
- Camera: Dual Camera: 20MP monochrome/12MP color sensors, f2.2, 27mm equiv. focal length, 4-in-1 hybrid autofocus (phase/laser/contrast/depth sensing); dual-LED, dual-tone flash; 2x hybrid zoom; 2160p and 1080p @ 30/60fps video capture;
- Selfie cam: 8MP f/1.9; 26mm lens; simulated bokeh effect; 1080p @ 30fps video capture;
- OS: Android 7.0 Nougat with Huawei EMUI 5.1 overlay;
- Chipset: Kirin 960 chipset: Octa-core CPU (4xCortex-A73@2.4GHz + 4xCortex-A53@1.8GHz), i6 co-processor, octa-core Mali-G71 GPU
- Memory: 4/6GB of RAM; 64/128GB storage; microSD slot
- Sound: Huawei Histen 3D sound
- Battery: 3,200mAh Li-Po (sealed); Fast charging
- Connectivity: Dual-SIM; LTE-A (Cat. 12 600/150Mbps); USB-C; Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac; GPS/GLONASS/Beidou/Galileo; Bluetooth 4.2; NFC; IR blaster
- Misc: Fingerprint reader
Huawei Honor 9 Detailed Specifications
GENERAL
Release date |
June 2017 |
Form factor |
Touchscreen |
Dimensions (mm) |
147.30 x 70.90 x 7.45 |
Weight (g) |
155.00 |
Removable battery |
No |
Colours |
Black, Blue, Amber Gold |
SAR value |
NA |
DISPLAY
Screen size (inches) |
5.15 |
Touchscreen |
Yes |
Resolution |
1080×1920 pixels |
Pixels per inch (PPI) |
428 |
HARDWARE
Processor |
1.8GHz octa-core |
Processor make |
Kirin 960 |
RAM |
4GB |
Internal storage |
64GB |
Expandable storage |
Yes |
Expandable storage type |
microSD |
Expandable storage up to (GB) |
256 |
CAMERA
Rear camera |
20-megapixel |
Flash |
Yes |
Front camera |
8-megapixel |
SOFTWARE
Operating System |
Android 7.0 |
Skin |
Emotion UI 5.1 |
CONNECTIVITY
Wi-Fi |
Yes |
Wi-Fi standards supported |
NA |
GPS |
Yes |
Bluetooth |
Yes, v 4.20 |
NFC |
Yes |
Infrared |
No |
USB OTG |
No |
Headphones |
3.5mm |
FM |
Yes |
Number of SIMs |
2 |
SIM 1 |
|
SIM Type |
Nano-SIM |
GSM/CDMA |
GSM |
3G |
Yes |
4G/ LTE |
Yes |
Supports 4G in India (Band 40) |
Yes |
SIM 2 |
|
SIM Type |
Nano-SIM |
GSM/CDMA |
GSM |
3G |
Yes |
4G/ LTE |
Yes |
Supports 4G in India (Band 40) |
Yes |
SENSORS
Compass/ Magnetometer |
No |
Proximity sensor |
Yes |
Accelerometer |
Yes |
Ambient light sensor |
Yes |
Gyroscope |
Yes |
Barometer |
No |
Temperature sensor |
No |