The Honor / Huawei group is one of the only ones that is trying to bring all-screen design to smartphones with a low cost. Just think of Huawei P Smart Z, smartphone that is certainly interesting in the range under 200 euros. Well, at the end of 2019 another device arrives that has this peculiar feature, Honor 9X, which after a thousand vicissitudes has also arrived in Italy at the price of 249.90 euros on the official website (you can also find a few tens of euros in less in the stores of the major electronics chains).
However, as we have already described in this news, for the Italian variant it was decided to make a processor change, inserting a slightly less performing one than the one used in China. Will the all-screen design be enough to create a good smartphone?
Design and unboxing
The sales package is the classic one expected from Honor: there are the 5V / 2A (10W) charger, a comfortable transparent silicone cover, the USB Type-C cable for charging and the pin for removing the dual nanoSIM compartment. In short, no news from this point of view.
Honor 9X has dimensions equal to 163.1 x 77.2 x 8.8 mm, for a weight of 206 grams. We are talking about above average numbers, which make themselves heard when using the smartphone, especially when holding it with one hand.
In any case, we are not talking about anything serious and we had already seen similar dimensions with Huawei P Smart Z, smartphone from which this Honor 9X takes a lot.
The main material used is plastic, but Honor 9X still provides a “premium” feel the constructive solidity is all in all good thanks also to the high thickness. The backcover is very classic: triple camera + LED flash in the upper left, fingerprint sensor in the center and Honor logo in the lower part. The coloring that we have been able to try is the Midnight Black, which perhaps does not exactly do justice to the design of the smartphone, going to insert it in a flood of devices all similar. Fortunately, the Sapphire Blue color is also on sale, able to offer certainly more interesting light effects.
Going back to the fingerprint sensor, the unlocking speed offered by the latter is average. One thing we didn’t like is the fact that the software doesn’t support face unlock. The choice of Honor is probably due to the presence of the pop-up camera, thus reducing the number of daily openings and extending its life cycle.
The front of the smartphone is made up of an all-screen panel with a 91% screen-to-body ratio, we are talking about a rather large screen, very similar to that of Huawei P Smart Z. Sometimes it almost seems to use a “phablet” rather than a smartphone.
At the bottom of Honor 9X we find the speakers, the USB Type-C port, the first microphone and the 3.5 mm audio jack for headphones. On the right are the power button and the volume rocker, while the left side is completely “empty”. At the top peeps the second microphone, the trolley for the SIM and the mechanism for the pop-up camera.
Summing up, Honor 9X cannot convince in terms of design, giving a constant sense of “déjà vu” and failing to stand out in any way, if not obviously for the all-screen look, compared to the devices we have already seen arrive on the market at the beginning of the year.
Technical features
Honor 9X is driven by a octa-core HiSilicon Kirin 710F processor operating at a maximum frequency of 2.27 GHz (2 x 2.27 GHz + 6 x 1.88 GHz), flanked by a Mali-G52 MP6 GPU and 4GB of RAM. We are talking about a slightly improved configuration compared to that offered by Huawei P Smart Z, pity that several months have passed since the arrival on the market of that smartphone and therefore the generational leap is too little marked. We are not talking about anything serious, it is clear, but in this range there are “ruthless” devices regarding performance.
The choice to bring the smartphone with a Kirin 710F in Italy compared to the Kirin 810 of the Chinese variant is felt and unfortunately this price range is full of valid competitors from this point of view. Well instead as regards the internal memory, since we find 128GB of ROM (expandable via microSD up to 512GB), enough for any type of use.
Moving on to the display, we find a 6.59-inch IPS LCD panel with Full HD + resolution (2340 x 1080 pixels), 19.5: 9 aspect ratio and screen-to-body ratio of approximately 91%. It is a display without infamy and without praise, which has a good maximum brightness, but flaws in the color balance and overall visual quality. In any case, there is the possibility of changing the temperature and color via software, so more “expert” users may be able to correct the shot a little, but the limitations of the panel are there.
Always taking up what Huawei P Smart Z did, Honor 9X mounts a 16MP pop-up camera (f / 2.0), which comes out from the top of the smartphone. There are still few devices that have this solution in the range below 300 euros, a welcome plus and which gives a more premium look to the phone.
On the back we find a triple 48MP camera (f / 1.8) + 8MP (f / 2.4, wide angle, 120 degrees) + 2MP (f / 2.4, for the bokeh effect). The three rear sensors can record videos in Full HD at 60fps, while the front one reaches Full HD / 30fps. Few news for the Camera application, where we find the functions Aperture, Night, Portrait, Pro, Slow Motion, Panorama, Light painting, HDR, Time-Lapse, moving image, filter and stickers.
In short, the classic complete package provided by the Chinese company.
The quality of the shots offered by the rear camera is not bad and here there has been a slight improvement compared to the past. The images are average with good brightness, while in low light it gets worse, losing a little too much detail. The front camera is discreet, but the end result isn’t exciting. The same goes for the videos, which unfortunately lack a stabilization made properly and cannot convince. In short, we are talking about a photographic sector with ups and downs: there have been improvements, but we still have to work to reach the competition. You can find some uncompressed photos in our Drive folder dedicated to Honor 9X.
Turning to autonomy, we find a 4000 mAh battery. The Chinese company is always a guarantee from this point of view and we often arrived in the evening with 25/30% of residual charge, in short, good results. However, a fast charge is missing, since it stops at 10W.
To note the absence of the NFC chip, which was instead present on Huawei P Smart Z. Moving on, we find support for 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 a / b / g / n / ac and Bluetooth 4.2. During our tests we did not find any problems regarding reception.
Software
The operating system is Android 9 Pie with EMUI 9.1.0, which at the time of writing has the security patches of August 1, 2019. There is essentially nothing to say here, the software is always the same we have been used to since the beginning of the year. Honor 9X still supports the Play Store, so from this point of view you can rest assured, and the excellent gestures, the Digital Management screen and all the other classic features have remained in place.
The fluidity of the operating system is all in all good, even if at some junctures there are noticeable obstacles, but nothing exaggerated. Really a pity, however, that the patches are stopped in August and that there is still no detailed information on the arrival of the update to the EMUI 10. We know that the Chinese company has started looking for people to try the Beta of the update at the beginning of December 2019, so it may still take some time before he arrives.
Performance and benchmarks
Honor 9X fails to stand out in terms of performance. The configuration has been slightly improved compared to the past, but the results are not exciting.
For benchmark lovers, the device has recorded a total of 172049 points on AnTuTu. On Geekbench, however, it reached 323 points in single-core and 1314 points in multi-core. Below average numbers, which cannot compete with those offered by other companies’ smartphones. To give you a concrete example, Realme X2, device sold at a price similar to that of this Honor 9X, recorded a total of 257545 points on AnTuTu during our tests. An important performance difference, which is also noticeable during daily use. The adoption of the Kirin 810 mounted by the Chinese variant would certainly have improved the situation, but unfortunately it did not go well.
Gaming
We tried Honor 9X with Call of Duty Mobile, Mario Kart Tour and eFootball PES 2020, even here the hardware of the best is noticeable. On the other hand, these are recently released titles, which require a certain amount of resources.
In fact, Call of Duty Mobile runs smoothly and without lag only with details on “Basso” and FPS on “Medium”, it is not really allowed by the game itself to select higher options. In short, even gaming confirms the not exciting performances. Turning to Mario Kart, a slightly less resource-demanding title, the latest addition to the Nintendo house works without any kind of problem on this Honor 9X, but we are talking about a game with a graphics sector that is not particularly “heavy”.
As for eFootball PES 2020, the latter adapts well to the big screen of the smartphone, allowing a wide view, but you can immediately notice that the game automatically “scale” the details down. In short, if you’re aiming for a gaming device, you’d probably be better off looking elsewhere.
