Honor 9N Detailed Review – A stylish all-rounder

Honor has been on a roll with back to back launches, the aggressive approach also propelled the parent company Huawei go past Apple as the second largest Smartphone vendor in the world and also push it the elite top 5 league in India. The key to success for any brand is to offer choices to the users in various price segments. Honor has a lot to offer in the 10K to 30K price segment in India and the latest Honor 9N at price starting at ₹ 11,999 hits the sweet spot. If you wonder why? go ahead read my Honor 9N detailed review.

Honor 9N box contents:

• The device,
• Sim Ejector Tool,
• A transparent Back cover,
• Power adapter and
• USB Type-C cable.

Design and Build quality of Honor 9N

• 149.2 x 71.8 x 7.7 mm
• 152 grams
• glass body with an aluminum frame

Honor 9 Lite is the most successful phones of Honor in India, having sold 1 million-plus units and still going strong. Honor 9N takes a leaf out of the 9 Lite with much semblance to it. Similarly, it has glass rear treated to a 12-layer of glass with mirrored finish premium design. Being glass, it also is thinner than the metal counterparts and is lighter on hands. For everyday use, a lighter the phone, the more comfortable it is to practically manage and the Honor 9N has a good ergonomics. The rounded corners compliment the design. The back has the fingerprint sensor which is easier to reach. The dual camera capsule and the flash sits neatly on top. On the left side, there is a hybrid SIM tray. So you can add two SIMs or one SIM and a microSD card for increasing the storage. I appreciate when attention is paid to the paint job even for the SIM tray though it sits inside for the most part of the phone’s life. On the right side, there is the power button and volume button, both again quickly accessible. The bottom has the audio jack, mic, micro USB port and the speaker grille. Honor 9N comes in four beautiful colors – the standard matte black, the Honor signature blue shade and a newly introduced two colors lavender purple and robin egg blue. Honor 9N has a pleasant looking design and is also one of the most comfortable phones I have used recently. It is also the most stylish phone you can buy in this price segment and is complimented by a “top notch” (pun intended) display.

Display of Honor 9N

• 5.84″ TFT LCD display
• 2280 x 1080 pixels resolution
• 432 ppi density
• 19:9 aspect ratio
• 2.5D glass

“To be, or not to be, that is the question: Whether ’tis notch in the display The new trend in the smartphone fortune Or to take Arms against the notch and rebel” Pardon me for the cheesy take on the Shakespeare quote, the truth is the notch is here to stay for a while and while hordes of tech reviewers in general curse it, my interaction with ordinary folks gives me a different insight. Many don’t mind it, while some like it some or indifferent to it. Honor 9N is the most affordable Smartphone to come with the notch. If you are someone who doesn’t like notch? well, Honor gives you the control to disable it. Simple. The display is bright, vivid but not oversaturated. It is pleasing to look at and offers a good viewing experience. The texts look sharp. The outdoor under sunlight readability is good too. Overall, I liked the display at works here. The display setting offers eye comfort mode which is the blue filter setting with an option to schedule the mode, a full-screen display allows you to manage the full vision display for apps, there is even a resolution mode setting in case you want to scale down to HD+ 1440 x 720p to conserve the battery.

Software Features of Honor 9N – EMUI 8.0 at work

Watch Honor 9N Features, Tips and Tricks

https://youtu.be/Ip6zypPW8cg EMUI has come a long way since its inception and now it has become one of my comfortable and favorite user interface to use. They have toned down much of bloatware and it works faster now and doesn’t lag down the phone. It also has a clean looking interface with a set of good features which many might appreciate. The settings page is very clean and is just a page with options nesting within. EMUI 8.0 also brings in private space feature allowing the user to have a separate private space, kind of partition with its own set of apps separated from main space. There is also the App Twin feature to simultaneously run two instances of apps like WhatsApp, Facebook, and Messenger.

Fingerprint sensor in Honor 9N

Honor phones have a reputation for fast and accurate fingerprint sensors with added features. Honor 9N like their rest of the phones is very fast and very accurate. It supports the app lock too. The add-on features include touch and hold gestures and slide gesture on the sensor area to take a photo when on camera app, answer incoming calls, stop alarms, show notification panel and browse photos.  With India going digital, there is also a Paytm quick pay option, which when enabled allow launching the payment screen from the lock or off screen instantly.

Face recognition in Honor 9N

Honor 9N also has face recognition capability. It works fast and is accurate too if the light conditions are good enough but would struggle in low lightings. App unlock is also supported via face recognition.

Performance

• HiSilicon Kirin 659
• Octa-core (4×2.36 GHz Cortex-A53 & 4×1.7 GHz Cortex-A53)
• Mali-T830 MP2
• 3GB/4GB RAM
• 32GB/64GB/128GB,expandable

The Kirin 659 processor is a workhorse for Honor, having used it extensively in their mid-range Smartphones in the last few quarters. What could give it a new lease of life would be the GPU Turbo update it would be receiving soon. The update is supposed to ramp up the gaming performance by 30 percent and the battery optimization by 20 percent which should be exciting. For now, the processor is good enough to handle day to day tasks. You would be more than happy if your daily diet on phone would be to make calls, browse, check on your social media applications. Push it further, if you are a gamer there is no denying the Snapdragon offers more processing power in their latest 600 series for the midrange but the 659 still stays afloat. I could play my daily does of PUBG on this without many hiccups and still manage chicken dinner in the game. The graphics are set to medium by default while playing. Agreed, it’s time Huawei brings in an updated new chipset but I am betting on the GPU Turbo update for the extra push on this processor. I will update once it happens. With the legacy of Huawei in the modem technology, Honor phones offer good call quality and it is evident on this phone too. The 4G connectivity is solid and this is one area Honor phones always excel at.

Battery performance of Honor 9N

There is a 3000 mAh battery which might sound underwhelming on paper. What helps in better battery life is the good built-in modem that doesn’t drain the battery. I have put the phone under moderate use and it could sail through a day if you are a demanding user the phone can last 18-20 hours.

Camera performance of Honor 9N

• 13MP + 2MP dual rear camera
• 16MP selfie camera

The Honor 9N comes with some playful elements and easy to use modes. There is portrait mode for both front and back. Additionally, the rear camera app also has a wide aperture mode.  AR lens adds some fun elements to your photos. As usual, like most Honor phones, there are extensive camera modes to make even ordinary users take some good photos.  There is also a Pro mode giving you control over ISO, shutter, exposure values and focus. Coming to the camera quality, the selfies are a notch ahead and very impressive. The pictures are sharp with good details. The portrait mode does a good job, with a right softness in the background. [gallery link="file" columns="4" ids="13977,13978,13979,13980" orderby="rand"] The 13+2MP dual combo is consistent in the output, on a positive note. The color reproduction is accurate and nicer. Though it could have done better with a little more sharpening. The portrait mode does a good job at edge detection in most of the captures. The night shot though suffers a bit of noise and can be rated decent and a shot above the average. [gallery link="file" columns="5" ids="13982,13983,13984,13985,13986,13987,13988,13989,13990,13991" orderby="rand"]

Verdict: To Buy or Not to Buy the Honor 9N

In India, the Honor 9N is priced at Rs 11,999 for 3GB RAM + 32GB storage variant, and 4GB RAM + 64GB storage at Rs. 13,999. There’s a 4GB RAM + 128GB storage variant that costs Rs. 17,999. If you like your phone to be stylish, you can’t look beyond Honor 9N in this segment. It is beautiful with mirror finish, lightweight and has good ergonomics for day to day use. It’s overall a good a perfect mid-ranger if you are looking for a phone that looks both beautiful and capable and won’t disappoint you.]]>