Review: When is a Honor 9x not a Honor 9x

The Honor 9X is the successor to the popular Honor 8X, of which 15 million copies have been sold worldwide. Because parent company Huawei is not allowed to release new Android devices, Huawei has come up with a trick for the Honor 9X.

The device is identical to the Huawei P Smart Z with an adapted camera module. Even the model number of the device is identical, which means that your device is recognized in the Play Store and in other places as P Smart Z. The Honor 9X looks very good.

The device is made of glass and metal and has light curves on the corners and at the back. The device has a large uninterrupted 6.59-inch screen thanks to a pop-up selfie camera. The 4,000 mAh battery is more than sufficient for a day of use. You can charge the battery approximately 30 per cent full in 30 minutes. The 9X also runs on a mid-range Kirin 710F, not the new Kirin 810 found in the Chinese version of the Honor 9X, with 4 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage memory. Strangely enough, there is no NFC, which means that wireless payment is not possible.

Sapphire Blue colour is indeed stunning, and probably the first we see with multiple X patterns spreading from the centre.

Camera
The Honor 9X has the same camera module as the Huawei P30 Lite. The camera consists of three modules: a 48-megapixel f / 1.8 main camera, an 8-megapixel f / 2.4 panorama camera and a 2-megapixel f / 2.4 depth sensor. A single LED flash provides additional lighting in dark situations. The main camera is a Sony IMX582, which combines 48-megapixels into a single 12-megapixel photo. During photography, Honor supports you with artificial intelligence (AI) to recognize 22 categories. You can easily turn the AI on and off when you need to.

Honor 9X specs

Body: Front and rear glass, aluminium frame, 206g.
Display: 6.59″ LTPS IPS LCD, 1,080 x 2,340px, 19.5:9 aspect ratio, 391ppi.
Rear camera: Primary – 48MP, 27mm, f/1.8; PDAF; Ultrawide – 8MP, 13mm, f/2.4; Depth sensor – 2MP. Video recording up to 1080p@60fps.
Front camera: Motorized pop-up with 16MP, f/2.2; fixed focus lens.
OS/Software: Android 9 Pie, EMUI 9.1.
Chipset: Kirin 710F: octa-core CPU (4×2.2 GHz Cortex-A73 & 4×1.7 GHz Cortex-A53); Mali-G51 MP4 GPU.
Memory: 4GB of RAM; 128GB storage; microSD card slot (hybrid).
Battery: 4,000mAh, 5V/2A charging
Connectivity: Dual SIM; Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.0; USB-C, 3.5mm jack.
Misc: Fingerprint reader (rear-mounted).

What’s in the Box

The Honor 9X comes with a 10W charger, a USB-C cable, and a transparent silicone case.

Camera Samples

1080p at 60fps

The Honor 9X is available in Midnight Black and Sapphire Blue with no UK pricing yet or available but with a price of 299 Euros in Europe. Honor 9X does really offer enough upgrades over the 8X, to make it a good sequel.