Review of the Honor 9X smartphone (without wide-angle camera, but with NFC)

Honor 9X was one of the most anticipated new products on the domestic market. But, unfortunately, what arrived in Russia was not the smartphone that everyone was waiting for. The device was simplified on all fronts - from characteristics to body materials, and they also released the phone in extremely strange configurations.

Read our review of Honor 9X to find out why the company went for such a downgrade and whether it makes sense to buy something that is offered under the guise of a model that is showing record sales in Huawei’s homeland.

Characteristics of Honor 9X:

• Screen: 6.59″, IPS, FHD+ (2340×1080 px), 19.5:9, 391 ppi;
• Processor: Kirin 710F (8×1.7-2.2 GHz, 12 nm), Mali-G51 MP-4 graphics;
• Permanent memory: 64/128 GB (UFS 2.1), MicroSD support up to 512 GB;
• RAM: 4/6 GB;
• Main camera: 48 MP (f/1.8, efr 27 mm) + 2 MP (depth sensor), additional 8 MP (f/2.4) wide in the Premium version, video 1080p/60fps;
• Front camera: 16 MP (f/2.2), portrait mode, video 1080p/30fps;
• Battery: 4000 mAh, charging 10 W;
• SIM: x2 NanoSIM;
• Wireless communications: LTE, Bluetooth 4.2 (aptX HD), Wi-Fi dual-band 802.11ac, GPS/GLONASS, NFC;
• Ports: USB Type-C, 3.5 mm minijack;
• Security: fingerprint scanner;
• OS: Android 9 Pie + EMUI 9.1;

Honor 9X was released in Russia in two versions – standard and Premium. The price of new products is 16,990 and 18,990 rubles, respectively.

There are only three differences between the smartphones. This is the amount of memory - 128/4 versus 128/6 GB, the camera - the older version has an additional wide-angle lens, and the presence of an NFC module. For some reason, the more expensive version, which came to us for review, was deprived of contactless payments.

Software and interface

HONOR 9X comes with Android 9.0 Pie OS and EMUI 9.1 shell. The firmware is global and works with a fully functioning Google Play store. The interface is smooth and fast. However, custom firmware has a disadvantage: it has too many unnecessary pre-installed applications - fortunately, they can be easily removed.

One of the interesting features of the firmware is the built-in “Health” application. It allows you to connect branded fitness trackers or smart watches. Since the smartphone has a pedometer, it can count the number of steps while in your pocket. You can also highlight the HONOR brand store and a catalog of interface themes, some of which are dedicated to the holidays. There was also a built-in radio and compass.

The smartphone provides gesture control. For example, you can remove three navigation buttons, thereby increasing the workspace on the screen, leaving only one multifunction button. Moreover, you can remove it too by switching to full swipe controls.

Design, ergonomics

• 163.1 x 77.2 x 8.8 mm
• 206 grams
• Full-View screen
• plastic case

The global version of Honor 9X will be sold in two colors - Midnight Black and Sapphire Blue. The latter has a characteristic X-shaped pattern, which, in the right lighting, shimmers like a Christmas tree. This solution looks interesting, but, subjectively, it quickly gets boring. If you think it is too tacky, choose a strict black version that is devoid of any gradients.

Both versions of the 9X have an all-plastic body that flexes slightly when you press the back cover. This is not to say that this is a serious drawback for this price segment, but the Chinese version of the 9X has a glass back, which was also present in the predecessor 8X. In general, the thought “we saved money” appears in the head already at the first contact with the phone.

The triple camera module is located on the back; it protrudes slightly beyond the body, but this is enough to make the phone rock when lying on a flat surface. Next to it is a fingerprint scanner, which has no complaints - it works quickly and accurately.

Since in the Chinese version the scanner is integrated into the power key, all cases for the 9X on Aliexpress come with a side cutout, so there may be problems ordering accessories from China. It’s good that the manufacturer included a transparent silicone case in the package of the smartphone; it also includes a protective film, which is glued to the screen out of the box.

The display itself is devoid of any notches thanks to the use of a pop-up camera, but the bezels around its perimeter are still quite noticeable. Their thickness is 7 mm at the chin, 3.5 mm at the edges and 4 mm at the top of the display. Switching to the selfie camera is accompanied by an unobtrusive sound signal, and the pop-up module itself supports fall detection, which should protect it from damage.

Along with the waterdrop notch, the 9X also lost the notification LED. The card tray, like its predecessor, is hybrid, which forces you to give up one of the SIM cards in order to use MicroSD. But there is a Type-C port and a 3.5 mm minijack for connecting headphones, both connectors are located on the bottom end of the device.

Conclusion

HONOR 9X is a very pleasant device to use. It uses high-quality assembly components: protected glass and metal edging are rarely seen in this price segment. A fairly powerful processor is ideal for everyday tasks, and it will perform well in demanding games. A very colorful screen and a capacious battery are added to everything else. Among the shortcomings are the absence of a notification indicator and charging level, as well as the inability to assign gestures to the fingerprint scanner. Since the size of a smartphone may not be suitable for everyone, some may find it difficult to reach for the notification shade. However, this is a matter of taste. In addition, Huawei adheres to a very strange policy of releasing its smartphones in different countries with different equipment, without in any way indicating the difference in the name. And this is not the first time such a policy has been followed by the company.

Pros:

• Beautiful design;
• frameless display;
• bright and contrasting screen;
• good speed and performance;
• long autonomy;
• excellent picture quality;
• powerful communication module;
• presence of a separate audio jack.

Minuses:

• Fast charging mode is not supported;
• there is no way to assign gestures to the fingerprint scanner;
• selective presence of an NFC module;
• There is no notification indicator.

You might not like it:

• large dimensions;
• slow front camera extension mechanism;
• Lack of face unlock feature.

Display

• 6.59 inches, IPS
• FullHD+, 391 ppi
• aspect ratio 19.5:9

Honor 9X is a very large smartphone. At 6.59 inches diagonal and weighing 200 grams, it is not intended for small hands and pockets, but the huge Full-View screen, which occupies 91% of the front panel area, gives an amazing experience when viewing any content.

Huawei is silent about the type of glass used to protect the screen; it is probably not Gorilla Glass, but a product of some Chinese manufacturer, from which it is better not to remove the protective film.

There are no special complaints about the quality of the screen; it has a good brightness range (464 cd/m2 at maximum) and pleasant color rendering, which by default is a little blue-green. EMUI allows you to manually adjust white balance, so this shortcoming is easily corrected in the settings. In terms of other parameters - contrast, viewing angles, picture clarity, the 9X is not inferior to other smartphones in its price segment.

In the screen settings you can find a “reading mode”, in which the image becomes warmer, as well as the practically useless option of reducing the resolution from FullHD+ to HD+. There is no function to unlock the display using double tap on the 9X.

Equipment

Key clip, 5V/2A charger with Chinese plug, Type-C lanyard, silicone case.

Also in the box were a piece of glass for sticking on top of the screen and an adapter for our sockets. I suspect both are gifts from the store.

Charger and case close up

Performance, software

• Kirin 710F, Mali-G51 MP-4 graphics
• 128/6 GB memory
• hybrid slot for MicroSD up to 512 GB

The key advantage of Honor 9X was supposed to be the Kirin 810 processor - a 7-nanometer chipset, one of the best in its class in terms of performance and energy efficiency. However, devices based on the Kirin 710F have arrived on the Russian market, whose characteristics are completely identical to the regular Kirin 710. This processor was used in a lot of different smartphones from the company in 2018-2019, including the Honor 8X and Huawei P Smart Z.

The new product has a lot in common with the P Smart Z; even the model code is the same - STK-LX1. This was done so that the 9X passed certification and received support for Google services and applications, which the company’s latest smartphones are deprived of due to US sanctions. Thus, the Chinese cheated and, under the guise of an old model, pushed a new one, but in fact it is unknown how this may come back to haunt the future.

Tests AnTuTu, Geekbench, memory speed

If we talk about the performance of the Kirin 710F, it is still a good processor that provides sufficient speed and smooth operation of the interface. You will not experience problems with multitasking and will be able to play any games - at what settings depends on the optimization of a particular project for Huawei hardware. For example, PUBG runs without problems on 9X at medium settings, but in CoD: Mobile you will have to be content with the lowest graphics quality for a comfortable frame rate. The good news is that the device practically does not heat up under load; the body becomes only slightly warm in the camera area.

Introduction

Can you live without Google apps? Perhaps an answer to this question will soon be needed. Huawei is experiencing difficulties after being blacklisted by the United States. This means it can't work with local manufacturers and, among other things, doesn't get an Android license from Google for its new smartphones. One of the affected devices is the Honor 9X Pro, which lacks Google apps and services. Even if you don't use them often, sometimes it's necessary. You will have to look for workarounds, which will be discussed in this article.

Honor 9X camera

• 48 MP (f/1.8), main camera
• 2 MP (f/2.2), depth sensor
• 8 MP (f/2.4), ultra-wide-angle camera, only in the Premium version
• 16 MP (f/2.2), front camera (SK3P8SP)

The 9X is not the first Honor phone to feature a 48MP camera. Such a module was previously only available in the brand’s top devices: Honor 20 Pro and View 20, which use the flagship Sony IMX586. Our hero is equipped with a simpler IMX582 sensor, which also combines 4 pixels into 1 by default and takes photographs with a resolution of 12 MP. You can shoot in 48 MP, but there's not much point in doing so - the increase in quality does not correspond to how much the file size increases.

In good light, the 9X takes quality photos, but they're not up to par with the best in this price segment. When cropping images, average detail and aggressive sharpening are noticeable. There are also issues with contrast and dynamic range, but they improve significantly when shooting using HDR+AI processing. In almost all cases, white balance and color reproduction are quite accurate.

Ultra-wide-angle 8 megapixel photos are saved with automatic distortion correction. In terms of sharpness, contrast and DD, the wide lens is average at best, and since it has fairly dark optics (f/2.4) and does not support night mode, you shouldn’t count on decent results in low light.

But the main module shoots surprisingly well in difficult conditions. The image, of course, is not the most detailed, but the algorithms do a good job of suppressing noise even in very dark pictures, and the phone reproduces colors well at night.

The 9X has an additional 2MP depth sensor that does a good job of shooting in portrait mode. You can shoot with blur not only people, but also objects.

The 16 MP front camera has a fixed focus and also supports portrait mode. Selfies come out with contrast and accurate color reproduction, but in artificial lighting the detail of the pictures drops noticeably.

Video recording is the weak point of the 9X. The phone cannot shoot 4K; 1080p 30/60 fps is available (only 30 at wide) with a bitrate of 30 and 17 Mbit/s, respectively. The sound is recorded in mono with a bitrate of 192 kbps. The footage has fairly mediocre detail even during the day, and it degrades in proportion to the lighting conditions. Electronic stabilization only works at 720p.

No Google apps

If you are thinking about buying this smartphone, you need to take into account the lack of Google apps on it. We'll have to look for a replacement for them. No Gmail, Calendar, Google Photos, Chrome Browser, or Google Play Store. If the application uses Google Play Services, like Google cards, Google Pay and others, they will not work.

There is some good news. You can do without Gmail and calendar, since there are plenty of other applications for these tasks. You can do without the Chrome browser, since there are a great many browsers, including one pre-installed on your smartphone. When using the Phone Clone app to transfer programs from Huawei P30 Pro, all non-Google programs were transferred to the new smartphone without any problems.

By the way, there is no need to try to restore the system from a backup. Since you are not signed in to a Google account, you will need to use the Huawei Phone Clone app.

Now as for installing new applications. There are some options, but they cannot be called optimal. Huawei offers an AppGallery store, where there is a lot of stuff, but a lot of what you need is missing. Social networks like Facebook and Twitter don't work in China, so don't expect to download them from the Huawei store.

The second option is third-party app downloading. This works well, allowing you to install programs downloaded from sites like APKMirror.

The third option is to use third-party app stores. For example, Amazon Appstore, but for some reason I couldn't log in to it. There are many other app stores that you can explore on your own.

There is a good chance that when working with Honor 9X Pro, you will have to use all three options described above. In general, it will be a little more difficult to install applications than with the Google Play Store, but it is still possible.

Huawei's ban on smartphone sales in the US harms American consumers themselves. The American government has not proven in any way that these devices pose a threat to national security and are used for espionage. Apparently, it is not going to prove this, but is simply waging a trade war with China. On the other hand, China itself blocks American companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter.

Sound

• headphone jack
• mono speaker
• AAC, aptX, aptX HD support
• FM radio

The 9X is equipped with a modest mono speaker, which is lost against the background of the speaker in the same Redmi Note 8 Pro. It lacks low frequencies and volume, and the volume reserve here is not the highest. In a smartphone with such a screen, which is literally created for consuming multimedia content, I would like to see better sound quality.

When connecting wired headphones 9X there are also not enough stars in the sky. It produces rather inexpressive low frequencies, which you just want to raise in the equalizer. It’s good that there is such an option; the system equalizer in EMUI works in all applications. The phone paired with wireless headphones (Honor Flypods) without any problems, the connection quality is stable.

Screen

The smartphone is equipped with a large 6.6-inch IPS display with rounded corners; there is no notch for the front camera; it is located on a retractable platform. The matrix resolution is 2340×1080, which gives a pixel density of 391 ppi. There is not a word in the specifications about the type of protective glass, but most likely there is something like Gorilla Glass 3 here, since the 5th versions are always indicated.

During testing, the smartphone showed the following results with 100% backlight:

The screen on the Honor 9X is slightly worse than the Redmi Note 8 Pro in terms of brightness and contrast, plus it does not support HDR. But the screen is very accurate in the sRGB color space – its color rendering error DeltaE was only 2.6. This is a low value, so the white on your phone screen is truly white, without being too warm or cool.

Connection

• two NanoSIM, all current LTE bands in Russia
• Bluetooth 4.2
• dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
• NFC (basic version only).

Honor 9X can have two SIM cards, each of which will work in LTE networks. The device demonstrates consistently high quality signal reception and stable operation of all wireless interfaces. The GPS starts up quickly and confidently holds satellites (20-25 on the street), but the positioning error can reach 5-7 meters.

In addition to the already mentioned tricks with NFC, which is only available in the younger version of the smartphone, the Russian version of the 9X has an older Bluetooth: 4.2, versus 5.0 for the Chinese. In practice, they differ primarily in power consumption; with the 4.2 module constantly active, the phone drains faster.

Lyrical digression

As we mentioned in the title, we tested two HONOR 9X models. However, they cannot be called twins, since even in appearance there are differences. For example, on the back side of the younger version there is no camera responsible for wide-angle shots. It also has less RAM - 4 GB instead of 6 GB.

It is noteworthy that both modifications of HONOR 9X have identical names. Comparing boxes, the basic model only provides information about the amount of RAM. Because of this, there is a possibility of confusion when purchasing, so you need to carefully read the characteristics of the device.

What’s surprising is that the lightweight version is equipped with an NFC module, unlike the conditional PRO version. Quite a strange move.

Autonomy

• battery 4000 mAh.
• charging 10 W.
• Type-C.

Honor 9X is powered by a 4000 mAh battery, for charging which a 5V/2A adapter is included. It takes 128 minutes to fully replenish the battery resources; 27% of the battery is charged in 30 minutes. The indicators are extremely modest and, unfortunately, purchasing a more powerful 9X charger does not allow you to speed up the process.

Directly with autonomy, everything is not bad here; if you don’t play games, you can count on an average of 7 hours of active screen, which, with moderately intensive use, is enough for 2 days of work on a single charge. In games, the battery is discharged in 5.5 hours, with continuous video playback at 50% screen brightness with Wi-Fi turned on - in 11 hours.

Question of the year

New Huawei products are now either not entering global markets, or are entering them, but without Google services. Question. Does it make sense to buy such “Chinese” from China and for China? Devices that, in principle, are not represented on the global market. What will be the pitfalls? Hieroglyphs, problems with Google, incorrect LTE bands?

As it turned out, everything is not too scary. Aliexpress sellers try very hard to keep laowai happy. And, you know, they even succeed. Although one moment that made me jump did happen.

I loaded the Asphalt 8 toy onto the 9X and synchronized with the cloud. And she says to me in pure Russian - please provide real information about your person. Name, phone number and ID number. I was put off by such impudence and went to Google. I was surprised to find that I was alone. Those. in Russian there was only one mention of a similar situation (and quite an old one.) But it was unanswered.

I asked questions in communities - on VKontakte, on w3bsit3-dns.com. And there was a smart guy who exclaimed. “Dear man, you have the Chinese region set on your phone!”

And exactly. I go to the settings - there is China. And in China, if anyone is not aware, there is very specific legislation. Which prohibits children from playing with toys all day and night long. Everything is strict. So many hours on weekdays, so many hours on weekends. And, it seems, even with a time of day limitation.

And toys, in order not to be banned in China, are forced to check and control all this. I wonder what the mechanism is? Chinese government servers that track game time for each individual? You give the toy your passport number, and it contacts the government and then tells you if you have already chosen your play time limits. So, what? Well, then the toy regularly leaks data about your playing time and purchase amounts (yes, they are also legally limited for children.)

But, of course, the authors of the toy are great. We could actually focus not only on the displayed region, but also on the language, on my real location, in the end. If the base station to which I am connected is 4000 km away from the borders of China, then maybe the Chinese government can’t snitch on me? Well, or at least warn in human language what exactly is the matter?