With the introduction of smartphones to the global market, the “budget-youth” division of Huawei, Honor, always has the same situation - the gadget has been on sale in China for a couple of months, and then the European premiere of the “completely new” device is held with pomp. The Honor 9X is no exception, the model was introduced in China back in July/August, but only got to us at the end of October.
Why in July/August? Here is the second snag, already unusual. The fact is that there are two versions of Honor 9X - regular and Pro. They differ in the number of cameras (two and three, respectively), the presence of NFC (the younger version has it, the older one doesn’t; why don’t ask, there is no logic), body color options. And both of them will be presented in Russian retail ... under the same names. Honor 9X - but with two cameras or three. At least at the time of writing the material dedicated to just the same version, known in China as Honor 9X Pro, the situation was as follows. Perhaps, at the time of the official presentation of the device, something will change - for example, the two-chamber version will not appear with us at all. Or they will come up with some kind of their own index, like Lite. Let's see.
Here - about Honor 9X. I will not mention that this is a Pro version. This is a smartphone of the lower middle class (price up to 20 rubles) - the most popular in Russia, if you do not take ultra-budget devices - with very noticeable characteristics: proprietary HiSilicon Kirin 000 platform, 710 GB of RAM, 6-inch display, three rear cameras , retractable (!) front camera, glass-metal case, full-fledged Android without docked Google Services. We are dealing with one of the main contenders for the title of bestseller in this extremely saturated segment of the smartphone market.
Where its main competitor will be, apparently, already on sale for a couple of months , to which the new Honor is very similar - both in terms of filling and external design; but there are differences - a triple camera and more memory.
Technical specifications
| Honor 9X | Redmire Xiaomi Note Pro 8 | ||||
| Display | 6,59 inches, IPS, 2340 × 1080 pixels, 391 ppi, capacitive multi-touch | 6,5 inches, IPS, 2340 × 1080 pixels, 396 ppi, capacitive multi-touch | 6,59 inches, IPS, 2340 × 1080 pixels (19,5:9), 391 ppi, capacitive multi-touch | 6,53 inches, IPS, 2340 × 1080 pixels, 395 ppi; capacitive, multi-touch | 6,3 inches, IPS, 1080 × 2340, 409 ppi; capacitive multi-touch |
| Protective glass | No information | No information | No information | Corning Gorilla Glass 5 | Corning Gorilla Glass 5 |
| Processor | HiSilicon Kirin 710F: eight cores (4 × ARM Cortex A73, 2,2GHz + 4 × ARM Cortex A53, 1,7GHz) | HiSilicon Kirin 710: eight cores (4 × Cortex A73 2,2GHz + 4 × Cortex A53 1,7GHz) | HiSilicon Kirin 710F: eight cores (4 × ARM Cortex A73, 2,2GHz + 4 × ARM Cortex A53, 1,7GHz) | Mediatek Helio G90T: eight cores (2 × Cortex A76, 2,05 GHz + 6 × Cortex A55, 2,0 GHz) | Qualcomm Snapdragon 710: eight cores (2 × Kryo 360 Gold, 2,2 GHz and 6 × Kryo 360 Silver, 1,7 GHz) |
| Graphics controller | ARM Mali-G51 MP4 | ARM Mali-G51 MP4, 650 MHz | Mali-G51 MP4 | ARM Mali-G56 MC4 | Adreno 616 |
| RAM | 8 GB | 4/6 GB | 4 GB | 6/8 GB | 4/6 GB |
| Flash memory | 128/256 GB | 64/128 GB | 64 GB | 64/128 GB | 64/128 GB |
| Разъемы | USB Type-C, mini-jack 3,5 mm | MicroUSB, mini jack 3,5 mm | USB Type-C, 3,5mm | USB Type-C, mini-jack 3,5 mm | Micro USB, 3,5 mm |
| Memory card slot | There is | Yes (dedicated microSD slot) | There is | There is | Yes (dedicated microSD slot) |
| SIM cards | 2 x nano-SIM | 2 x nano-SIM | 2 x nano-SIM | 2 x nano-SIM | 2 x nanoSIM |
| Cellular 2G | GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 MHz | GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 MHz | GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz | GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 MHz | GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 MHz |
| Cellular 3G | HSDPA 850/900/1900/2100 MHz | HSDPA 850/900/1900/2100 MHz | HSDPA 800 / 850 / 900 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100 MHz | WCDMA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 | UMTS/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA 850/900/2100 MHz |
| Cellular 4G | LTE Cat. 12 (600 Mbps), bands 1, 3, 7, 8, 20 | LTE Cat. 4 (150 Mbps), bands 1, 3, 7, 8, 34, 38, 39, 40, 41 | LTE Cat. 12 (up to 600/50 Mbps), bands 1, 3, 7, 8, 20 | LTE Cat. 6 (300/50 Mbps): 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 20, 28, 38, 40 | LTE Cat. 6 (300/75 Mbps), bands 1, 3, 5, 8, 38, 40, 41 |
| Wi-Fi | 802.11a/b/g/n/ac; 2,4/5 GHz | 802.11a/b/g/n/ac; 2,4/5 GHz | 802.11a / b / g / n / ac | 802.11a/b/g/n; 2,4/5 GHz | 802.11a/b/g/n/ac; 2,4/5 GHz |
| Bluetooth | 5.0 | 4.2 (aptX) | 5.0 | 5.0 | 802.11a/b/g/n/ac 2,4/5 GHz |
| NFC | No | There is | There is | There is | No |
| Navigation | GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou | GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou | GPS (dual band), A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou | GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo | GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS |
| SENSORS | Illumination, proximity, accelerometer/gyroscope, magnetometer (digital compass) | Illumination, proximity, accelerometer/gyroscope, magnetometer (digital compass) | Illumination, proximity, accelerometer/gyroscope, magnetometer (digital compass) | Illumination, proximity, accelerometer/gyroscope, magnetometer (digital compass) | Illumination, proximity, accelerometer/gyroscope, magnetometer (digital compass) |
| The fingerprint scanner | There is | There is | There is | There is | There is |
| Main camera | Triple module: 48 + 8 + 2 MP, ƒ / 1,8 + ƒ / 2,4 + ƒ / 2,4, phase detection autofocus, LED flash | Dual module: 20 ƒ / 1,8 + 2 MP, phase detection autofocus, LED flash | Dual module, 16 MP ƒ/1,8 + 2 MP ƒ/2,4, phase detection autofocus, LED flash | Quadruple module: 64 + 8 + 2 + 2 MP, ƒ / 1,9 + ƒ / 2,2 + ƒ / 2,4 + ƒ / 2,4, phase detection autofocus, dual LED flash | Dual module: 16 MP, ƒ / 1,7 + 5 MP, ƒ / 2,4, phase detection autofocus, LED flash |
| Front-camera | Pop-up, 16 MP, ƒ/2,2, no autofocus, no flash | 16 MP, ƒ/2,0, autofocus, no flash | Pop-up, 16 MP, ƒ/2,0, no autofocus, no flash | 20 MP, ƒ/2,0, no autofocus, with flash | 25 MP, ƒ/2,0, no autofocus, no flash |
| Food | Non-removable battery: 15,2 Wh (4000 mAh, 3,8 V) | Non-removable battery: 14,25 Wh (3750 mAh, 3,8 V) | Non-removable battery: 15,2 Wh (4000 mAh, 3,8 V) | Non-removable battery: 17,1 Wh (4500 mAh, 3,8 V) | Non-removable battery: 15,39 Wh (4045 mAh, 3,8 V) |
| Size | 163,1 × 77,2 × 8,8 mm | 160,4 × 76,6 × 7,8 mm | 163,5 × 77,3 × 8,8 mm | 161,4 × 76,4 × 8,8 mm | 156,8 × 74,2 × 8,3 mm |
| Weight | 206 g | 175 g | 197 g | 200 g | 172 g |
| Water and dust resistant | No | No | No | No | No |
| Operating system | Android 9.0 Pie, Magic UI skin | Android 8.1 Oreo, EMUI shell | Android 9.0 Pie, EMUI shell | Android 9.0 Pie, MIUI 10 shell | Android 9.0 Pie, ColorOS 6 shell |
| Actual price | 18 990 rubles | , , | , |
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Appearance, ergonomics and software
Honor 9X is currently the most inexpensive smartphone with a retractable front camera along with Huawei P Smart Z. It is surprising to meet a gadget with such a bizarre form factor in the “under 20 thousand rubles” segment - even after vivo V15 Pro “broke the bar” in 30 thousand. This decision can really become a serious trump card in the fight for consumer attention, Honor 9X stands out from the competition, which all as one received rather ugly, albeit familiar, cutouts of a wide variety of configurations.
The retractable module is implemented at the same time controversially. It takes him about two seconds to get out of the hull - and the same time to hide back. This is so far the slowest mechanism of all that I have seen - it is logical that the user's face identification system bypassed the Honor 9X, few would tolerate such delays. Another point concerns the issue of the physical safety of the module when the smartphone falls. Most likely, there will be a mention in the press release that, following the signal of the gyroscope, it will hide in time, but in practice this was not confirmed - I deliberately dropped the smartphone on soft surfaces, the module remained in its place.
At the same time, the developers could not completely get rid of the frames or, more likely, did not want to - after all, we are talking about a mid-budget device. The 6,59-inch screen occupies 84,6% of the front panel area. Particularly outstanding turned out, as often happens, the chin. But due to the absence of any inclusions in the display surface, we get the opportunity to watch full-screen videos with complete comfort - in the age of the victorious Youtube, this is a serious plus.
Another sign of more expensive smartphones, which is slowly moving into the budget segment, is a completely glass case with a metal frame. Here Honor 9X is no longer a pioneer, there are many more such devices. The smartphone tries to stand out against the general background with an unusual texture of the back panel and bright colors. The latter, however, applies more to the “younger” Honor 9X, presented in four colors. The older one, who came to us for a test, offers a choice between black and blue options - the second one looks very cool. Well, we note the obvious continuity with the older Honor - , и . The design roots of the Honor 9X are visible without any problems - and this is rather a plus for the zoo-minded Chinese.
The back panel is not only made of glass, but also, according to the latest fashion, slightly curved - the smartphone, albeit beautiful, is very slippery and is able to leave on its own from insufficiently even surfaces. Be careful, but it is better to immediately put the gadget in a complete silicone case. It is relatively thin, it will not add too much to a massive (206 g) and large (inevitably for a device with a 6,59-inch display) smartphone.
The good news is that despite the presence of retractable elements in the design, the 3,5 mm analog audio jack is preserved here. Pass it on to Samsung, which justified the lack of a mini-jack in the case of its . And then, without any even far-fetched reasons, she got rid of him in .
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Compiled Honor 9X traditionally, but with progress relative to its predecessor - here, unlike last year's device, a USB Type-C port appeared. MicroUSB is moving faster and faster towards eternity. But the fingerprint scanner was not located under the screen, but on the back panel - at least something should indicate the relative budget of the gadget? This is a capacitive sensor, it is located in a convenient place, it works instantly and without errors. To be honest, both the type of sensor and its location suit me more than the prolific optical / ultrasonic sub-screen sensors. The only drawback is that you cannot unlock the smartphone without taking it from the table.
Source: 3dnews.ru