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, very similar to the Honor 9X
- The front is modern and cutting edge too, with a 'full screen' notch-less display thanks to the pop-up selfie camera mechanism
- 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 202gm
- Face Unlock is not available on the Honor 9X Pro
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
- Software is one area where the Honor 9X Pro massively drops the ball - it ships without the Play Store and doesn’t support Google’s wide range of popular apps either - instead, it comes pre-installed with Huawei's own App Gallery, but it’s missing key apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Messenger, and Youtube
Performance
- Class-leading performance from Huawei's in-house Kirin 810 chipset (Similar to the new Snapdragon 765G) - it's impressively smooth in regular use and offers superior gaming performance
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
- The Honor 9X Pro is compelling as far as hardware is concerned, it offers excellent performance, good cameras and impressive battery life - however, the lack of Google services makes it incredibly hard to recommend - there are plenty of alternatives available from realme and Xiaomi, including the Redmi Note 9 Pro Max, Realme 6 Pro and Poco X2
