Honor 9N price in India starts from Rs 11,999. its direct confrontation Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1, Oppo Realme 1 ,review) And Moto G6 ,review) like from the handset. Does this new smartphone from Honor have the power to create its own identity in the budget segment? Let us know…
Honor 9N design
At first glance, the design of Honor 9N is the first thing that attracts attention. The back panel is made of glass and comes with a glossy finish. The horizontal dual camera does not protrude beyond the surface of the backpanel. The antenna line is hidden. For these reasons the back panel looks very clean.
The 5.84 inch display has a notch at the top which is quite small. There is no doubt that there is no consensus among customers regarding the display notch. Therefore, Honor has also given the option to hide the display notch in the settings menu. Actually, with its help, users can darken the areas adjacent to the notch.
The smartphone is very compact. Made for one-handed use. This device feels good in the hands due to its curved edges and curved sides. But it also slips easily. Due to the glossy glass back, fingerprints also remain on it. The build quality is praiseworthy. The phone feels sturdy in the hands. It fell several times during the review, but nothing happened to it.
The fingerprint sensor present on the rear works fast and is also accurate. It can also be used to take photos, answer phone calls and slide the notification panel. The good thing is that with the fingerprint sensor it is possible to use these gestures with any finger. Not just with the finger that has been registered for the security of the device.
There is space for the SIM tray on the left side of Honor 9N. Here you have to choose between a second Nano SIM and a microSD card. There are volume and power buttons on the right side. These are a little smaller than we would have liked, but they aren’t a problem to reach.
There is a micro-USB port at the bottom of the phone. It also has a 3.5 mm headphone jack and a loud speaker. Disappointing to not see a USB Type-C port for data transfer and charging. Now USB Type-C port is coming into trend and it is time that Honor should make this hardware feature a part of its budget handsets.
Honor 9N specification and display
Honor 9N uses Honor’s reliable Kirin 659 processor. this processor Honor 7X ,review), Honor 9 Lite, Honor 9i ,review) has also been used. There are three variants of the smartphone which touch different price segments. The starting variant with 3 GB RAM and 32 GB storage is priced at Rs 11,999. We have reviewed the variant priced at Rs 13,999 which comes with 4 GB RAM and 64 GB storage. The third variant of the phone is priced at Rs 17,999 which comes with 4 GB RAM and 128 GB storage. Let us tell you that in the first sale to be held on July 31, 4 GB RAM and 64 GB storage variant of Honor 9N will be available. The company has not yet said anything about the availability of the remaining variants.
Honor 9N has a 3,000 mAh battery. It runs on EMUI 8.0 based on Android 8.0 Oreo. For connectivity, the handset includes Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, GLONASS, 4G VoLTE, Micro-USB port and 3.5mm headphone jack. There is no support for NFC. In this, two SIMs can be used at the same time, but only one will work on 4G network.
The Honor 9N features a 5.84-inch full-HD+ IPS display with a 19:9 aspect ratio. The front panel is dominated by the screen. But it’s not a completely borderless screen. There is still quite a bit of bezel at the bottom. Display is one of the important features of this phone. The viewing angles are very accurate and the panel is bright, vivid and punchy. The 19:9 aspect ratio enhances the gaming and multimedia experience.
Honor 9N performance, software and battery life
If we look at it, the Kirin 659 processor is a bit old. It cannot challenge Qualcomm’s mid-range processors launched till date in terms of power and efficiency. The Honor 9N handles common tasks with ease, like web browsing and social media applications. But when pressure is applied it lags. With multiple apps open in the background or dozens of tabs open in Chrome, we did miss the slightly weaker processor. We felt keyboard lag at times. The phone also slowed down at times during the review. As budget phones are becoming more powerful these days, the slowdown of the Honor 9N is disappointing. Games like Subway Surfers ran fine in our experience. But there were complaints of framerate drop in games like Asphalt 8.
The smartphone also became hot when pressure was applied. But not so much that it feels troublesome. Call quality was crisp and clear. 4G connectivity was also very strong. Honor 9N has face recognition support and this is made possible by the 16-megapixel front camera. This works fine in most circumstances. In good light it unlocks the phone quickly. But it faces problems in direct sunlight and inadequate lighting.
Honor 9N runs on Android 8.0 Oreo out of the box. Huawei EMUI 8.0 custom skin has been used on it. At present, nothing has been said about giving Android P update to this phone. EMUI now provides better response compared to the older version. Huawei claims that the EMUI 8.0 version is 60 percent faster than EMUI 5.1. But it’s still not as fast as stock Android or Oxygen OS.
Apps like Facebook Messenger, Truecaller and Netflix are pre-installed on the phone. The good thing is that these can be uninstalled. To be honest, the number of unwanted apps on the Honor 9N is disappointing.
Like Honor 9 Lite, the battery life of this phone of Honor brand is very average. The Honor 9N’s battery lasted 8 hours and 40 minutes in our HD video loop test. This is also below the average performance of this market segment. In normal use, we found that the phone needed to be charged as soon as 9-10 pm. By use here we mean running Google Maps for two-three hours. Staying active on social media apps like WhatsApp, Twitter and Instagram throughout the day, playing Asphalt 8 game for some time and occasionally using the camera for selfies and videos. There is no fast charging support. It takes about two and a half hours for the phone’s battery to be fully charged.
Honor 9N cameras
Honor 9N has dual rear camera setup. The primary sensor is 13 megapixels and the secondary sensor is 2 megapixels. LED flash is also provided along with it. There is a 16 megapixel sensor on the front panel.
The camera app is designed intelligently. There is also a Pro mode where the user gets to control the shutter speed, ISO, exposure, aperture and white balance. AR stickers are fun and a great way to kill time. It can be used with front and rear camera.
In suitable lighting the rear camera takes better than average quality photos. Pictures come with decent detail and colors are also accurate. In wide aperture mode you can set the aperture between (f/0.95 – f/13). This can be done before or after taking photos. However, looking at the pictures taken in wide aperture mode, it seemed as if an attempt at Photoshop went wrong. The pictures were not even of average quality. Edge detection was very average.
The performance of the camera is very poor in low light. The photo lacks detail and appears over-sharpened. There is also a trace of noise and the phone is slow in focusing. The condition of the front camera is also similar. It lags in low light and takes decent photos in suitable lighting. There is also a beauty mode which gives 10 levels of beautification and it works well. You can also take Bokeh shots with the front camera. This is possible through software algorithms. In this mode, the pictures are of very average quality and the blur effect does not work many times.
You will be able to record videos up to 1080 pixel resolution with the front and rear cameras. The quality of recorded videos is very average and lack of detail is clearly visible, especially at night. The footage appears shaky due to the lack of electronic image stabilization.
our decision
Honor 9N is a compact smartphone that comes with a vibrant display, new design and runs Android 8.0 Oreo out of the box. The color variants are very interesting, especially the Robin Egg Blue. At the same time, battery life is very average. Performance is below average. EMUI seems cluttered and the cameras disappoint in low light.
If you want a sleek phone with a good display, then the initial variant of Honor 9N will prove to be a profitable deal. The remaining variants are a bit more expensive and we cannot suggest you to buy them. If you are looking for a phone of this price segment only then Redmi Note 5 Pro ,review) is a great all-round device and the Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1 is a complete bargain. Oppo’s Realme 1 is also a good option. It comes with a more powerful processor, but it does not have a fingerprint sensor.