Friends+Design
- Unique, striking glass rear panel design - one of the best looking phones in this price range, with its Sapphire Blue finish combined with Honor’s trademark reflective geometric tiles (the Midnight Black colour option is much more subdued though)
- The front is modern and cutting edge too, with a 'full screen' notch-less display thanks to the pop-up selfie camera mechanism (its the cheapest pop-up selfie camera phone, as of today)
- There’s a fingerprint sensor on the back that works well
- The Honor 9X is a gargantuan handset - it certainly isn’t built for small hands or pockets - also a bit heavy at 197gm
- Face Unlock is not available on the Honor 9X
Display
- Large, surprising bright, 6.59-inch Full HD+ IPS display - overall quality of the display is really good for an affordable smartphone
- The lack of a notch makes watching video and playing games much more immersive
Software
- Honor's EMUI based on Android 9 Pie (with all Google services and access to Play Store) is in a good place these days and is one of the better custom Android skins - there are no ads here and a decent assortment of useful extras (the lack of Android 10 at the time of the launch is a letdown)
- This might also be one of the last Honor phones to provide access to the Google app ecosystem (because of the ongoing ban on Huawei by the Trump administration, future models of Honor might not have access to Google Play Services)
- If you are an Android purist, and prefer stock like Android and minimal bloat, you should look elsewhere
Performance
- Good, fast mid-range performance with the Kirin 710F SoC (similar to the Snapdragon 660) - Honor 9X will do for lag-free daily operations and stutter-free gaming
- Sadly, Honor 9X is far from being the most powerful smartphone at this price range, there are better options available, like the Redmi Note 8 Pro with MediaTek G90T & the Realme 5 Pro with Snapdragon 712
Camera
- Good triple camera setup at the rear - 48-megapixel primary + 8-megapixel wide-angle camera + 2-megapixel depth sensor
- In good lighting, the primary camera can shoot decent 12MP pixel binned photos - exposure is good in most environments, white balance and the colours are pretty accurate too - there's an AI mode that can boost colours even more
- Low-light performance is good for a phone in this price bracket - noise is kept reasonably in check even in very dark shots - Night Mode also helps boost the phone’s low light capabilities, provided you have steady hands
- Depth sensor works pretty well and produces some good portrait shots
- Good 16MP pop-up selfie camera - shots are detailed, colours are accurate, and the contrast is nice
- The image quality from wide-angle camera is disappointing (however, it does provide exaggerated perspective shots on the cheap)
- Video performance is average from both primary and wide-angle cameras - there's no 4K here and no electronic stabilisation at Full HD
- Overall, while the Honor 9X offers good cameras for the price, Xiaomi & Realme offer even better cameras
Audio
- The phone’s single speaker is average at best
Battery
- Very good battery life with a 4000 mAh cell - will easily see you through a full day and a half of moderate use
- The phone doesn’t sport any nifty fast-charging technology - it takes a painfully long 128 minutes to fully charge the 4000 mAh battery
Verdict
- Honor 9X continues Honor's tradition of making good quality, desirable, but affordable phones with its eye-catching looks, notch-less display and good set of triple cameras (it's far from perfect though, with the lack of fast charging and the year old processor)
- If you're looking for an all-rounder, you'll have better luck with the Redmi Note 8 Pro or the Realme 5 Pro, especially in terms of processing power and faster charging
