Honor 9i design
If you are attracted to phones with thin bezels and large display, then you will also like Honor 9i. It has a large 5.9 inch screen whose edges are very thin. Don’t be intimidated by the large screen size. Due to 18:9 aspect ratio, this phone gives the feeling of having a 5.5 inch screen with 16:9 aspect ratio in the hands. The display with thin bezels also means that the earpiece, sensors and front camera are placed on the top edge. The fingerprint scanner is on the back. The front panel is very clean.
As soon as you take the phone in your hands. Its curved edges give a good feel in the hands. The Honor 9i also feels sturdy due to its metal unibody. The black finish on our review unit is gorgeous, but it’s a magnet for fingerprints. The phone also slips in the hands. In such a situation, you will have to take precautions. The dual camera module on the rear is convex. The good thing is that it comes with a metal rim to protect it from scratches. Honor has placed LED flash, camera and fingerprint sensor on the back. The fingerprint sensor is a bit high for our liking. To reach this we had to stretch our index finger a bit.
The Honor 9i has a Micro-USB port for charging and data transfer. There is also a loudspeaker along with a headphone jack at the bottom. Apart from the phone, you will also get earphones, plastic cover and 10 watt charger in the retail box.
Specifications and software of Honor 9i
The first thing that will catch your attention is its display. Honor 9i has a 5.9 inch fullview screen. It has FullHD+ resolution (1080×2160 pixels). Viewing angles are good, but the colors should have been more diverse in our opinion. You can control the color temperature, but you can’t increase the contrast. The display is bright enough for indoors, but the situation changes outdoors.
Honor has given four cameras in this phone. The primary sensors of the rear and front panels are 16 and 13 megapixels respectively. Along with this, a 2 megapixel secondary sensor has been provided on both sides, which will be used to capture depth information. This means you will be able to take pictures in portrait mode with both camera setups. There is an LED flash on the rear and a soft selfie flash on the front panel.
Talking about hardware, Honor 9i has Huawei Kirin 659 chipset. The maximum clock speed of the processor is 2.36 GHz. You will get 64 GB storage with 4 GB RAM. There is also an option to increase storage due to the hybrid dual SIM design. But you’ll have to opt for a second Nano SIM or a microSD card up to 128GB. Honor has provided a 3340 mAh battery in this phone which is slightly larger than average.
Talking about software, you will get EMUI 5.1 based on Android Nougat. Huawei has used its visual style. Some options in the Settings app have been rearranged, but it won’t take you long to get used to them. Honor has given some unique gestures which can be activated with the combination of fingers. If you knock on the screen twice the phone will take a screenshot. If you knock with a combination of two fingers, screen recording will start. You also have the option to launch the app by typing letters on the screen. We found some of these features very useful during the review.
We found that the FullView display is not meant to be used with one hand. It is not easy to reach the top corner. One handed mode is also provided in the phone which makes the UI smaller. You can activate it by swiping on the navigation buttons. Another problem with the 18:9 display is that not all apps are built for it yet. You may find these apps running with a black patch at the bottom of the screen. You also have the option to scale some apps. You will also find many unwanted apps.
Honor 9i performance, battery life and camera
The performance of Honor 9i is similar to other devices of this price. The phone does not get hot during normal use. But the situation changes during gaming. You will love watching videos and playing games on the big screen. We played games like Real Racing 3, Prime Peaks and Clash Royale to test the performance of the Honor 9i. Rear Racing 3 and Prime Peaks worked fine. But Clash Royale played a little zoomed in. It was coming cut at the edges. We did not find the option to run the game in 16:9. But we gradually got used to it.
We also found that the battery drains faster while gaming. In such a situation, we would suggest you to keep an eye on the battery level while playing the game. Even if the handset is not performing powerful tasks, it manages power well. In normal use the battery lasted for about a day. But playing games and watching videos has a huge impact on battery life. The phone’s battery lasted 8 hours 54 minutes in our HD video loop test which is not very good compared to other smartphones. You can reduce battery consumption by turning on power saver mode in the phone. But the lack of fast charging support is disappointing.
On paper, the most important feature of the Honor 9i is the camera. As soon as you launch the camera app, you will find that the interface is very simple. You get controls for flash, aperture mode, moving picture mode and portrait mode. The Moving Pictures feature is similar to Live Photos on iOS. With its help you can capture short clips along with photos. You can find different shooting mode options by swiping right on the default screen. Apart from HDR, panorama and video, you will also get Pro mode for photos and videos. There is also an option to download more mods.
The default mode works well for photos. The 16-megapixel camera captures photos with detail in landscape and macro shots. The 2 megapixel secondary camera helps to some extent in separating the subject and background in portrait and wide aperture modes. But it seems that the background blur is done through software. Selfie also has Bokeh mode. We found that the performance of the selfie camera was better than that of the rear camera. You will also get beautification mode.
Camera performance in low light is average. The phone manages to keep the noise level low. But the pictures become more sharp due to which the details are reduced. Selfies came out better in low light and the credit goes to the selfie flash. With the front and rear cameras of Honor 9i, you will be able to record videos of 1080 pixels. You will get the option of beautification even while recording video from the front camera. But the output will be limited to 720 pixels only.
our decision
It is clear that now companies are moving towards 18:9 aspect ratio. And this feature is not limited to just flagship devices. Honor 9i is another affordable option for customers.
There is a good balance between features and price in Honor 9i. You get a fingerprint sensor, compared to the LG Q6, and a display with a 1080p resolution, compared to the Vivo V7+ (Review). The processor is completely capable for daily use. The software is also easy to use. However, the performance of the camera and battery could have been better.
If you value looks more than performance, the Honor 9i is a bit different from other smartphones and justifies its price. On the other hand, if you’re looking for a reliable performer, the Xiaomi Mi A1 (Review) and Moto G5S Plus (Review) are good options.