Honor 9X First Impressions: Brings style and pop-up camera on a budget
Honor 9X has just arrived in India and I got a chance to use it for some time. Here are my Honor 9X first impressions. Read on to know more
Budget smartphones are arguably the most preferred when it comes to India. Most Chinese tech companies have got this and are making devices for this, like a lot. One of these companies is the Huawei sub-brand Honor and its Honor X series. The Honor X series has got a new member in the form of the Honor 9X and it just entered India.
India TV Digital was at the launch event for the Honor 9X (the Honor Magic Watch 2 and the Honor Band 5i launched alongside), which took place in New Delhi and I used it for a while to see how I feel about it. Hence, Read on to know my very first impressions about the Honor 9X.
Honor 9X First Impressions
Honor 9X Design
The Honor 9X has a design that is currently being followed by various smartphones. Called dual 3D curved panel by the company, the back panel isn’t something that attracted me a lot. Nonetheless, the Honor 9X is still a stylish smartphone even though it doesn’t bring in freshness for us.
The smartphone is average in terms of weight; it is neither heavy nor lightweight and proves to be quite big, which is surprising as the bezel-less displays tend to create an illusion of small display size.
Aesthetics-wise, the Honor 9X has a triple-camera setup at the back, placed vertically on the top left corner. Below the camera module, there is an LED flash. The back has a fingerprint scanner and the ‘Honor’ branding. Upfront, we get a bezel-less display, although the chin has visible bezels. The bottom part of the smartphone has a 3.5mm audio jack, USB Type-C port, and speaker grille.
The top part has the SIM tray and a microSD card slot. The right side of the smartphone has a power on/off button and a volume rocker, while the left side is left blank.
The Honor 9X will surely be liked as it is a good-looking one, but with nothing so intriguing about the design department, I stay slightly unimpressed in this segment.
Honor 9X Display
The Honor 9X has a 6.59-inch LCD display, with a Full HD+ screen resolution. The display is a bezel-less one, which is possible due to the pop-up front camera. As mentioned above, the display is quite big and doesn’t fit quite well in my hands. This is the area which I didn’t like about the smartphone. With the trend of bezel-less, the habit of using easy-to-fit-in-the palm smartphones increased, and the Honor 9X doesn’t cater to the habit.
As for the brightness, the device is decently lit and viewing angles were fine too.
Honor 9X Cameras
The Honor 9X has the camera department as its USP and it has a reason for it. While being the first Honor smartphone with a pop-up camera, it is also the first budget phone with a pop-up shooter.
The smartphone has a triple camera module at the back (a 48MP main camera, an 8MP Super wide-angle camera, and a 2MP depth camera) and a 16MP pop-up front snapper.
As a usual scenario, I couldn’t click a lot of images and test the device deeply. However, the back camera performance appears decent and the front camera seems to be slightly over-process the images. We will have to test the smartphone thoroughly, so, stay tuned for a full review.
Honor 9X Specifications
The other specs include a Kirin 710F processor, a 4,000mAh battery, and two RAM/ROM variants: 4GB/128GB and 6GB/128GB. Additionally, the smartphone has a fingerprint scanner at the back.
The Honor 9X, with a starting price point of Rs. 13,999 (Rs. 12,999 is until January 19) brings in a pop-up selfie camera on a budget. However, I am not too sure if people are still intrigued by the camera tech, at least I am not. Additionally, the Honor 9X competes with the likes of the Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro, which starts at Rs. 14,999 and offers a quad-camera setup and gaming processor.
Having said that, there are other aspects too, which we have to test so that we can come up with a conclusion. Hence, wait for our full review of the Honor 9X review soon.
As a reminder, the Honor 9X will be up for grabs, starting November 19 via Flipkart. It will be available at a discounted price of Rs. 12,999 during its first sale, that is on January 19. If you wish to buy it, you may head to Flipkart for the same.