Honor 9X Pro - user opinions and reviews
1527694- RishiGuru
- utg
BigDisplay, 27 Jul 2019Ups you forgot one big thing, the phone cost nearly nothing, then you cant expect everything.This is true, for the current price of INR 12.75K ($170/€156) in India, Honor 9X Pro (6/256 GB, Global variant) costs next to nothing.
I find people complaining about lack of first charging in this phone, but to me the supplied 10 watts wall charger is enough for its 4000 mAh battery and ensures better battery longevity. I say charging speeds of Honor 9X Pro is very respectable, I start charging the phone at 20% battery capacity, it takes just an hour to reach 80%. This is enough to take me through a day even under heavy usage.
I find people complaining the phone is heavy at 206 grams (GSMArena value is wrong) with a 4000 mAh battery. But they forget it has the best built quality of all current crop of all plastic mid-range offerings. It has metal-glass sandwich design with aluminium side frames coated with color matching plastic. It has much higher torsional rigidity to the chassis making it harder to bend than all other plastic side frame phones. It has a pop-up selfie camera mechanism which adds more weight. This is there to provide us the huge seamless full view display devoid of any notches, punch holes or even worse pill shaped display cutouts. 9X Pro also comes with a full blown copper heat pipe for SoC thermal management adds more weight to this phone but in return provides more muscle to the Kirin 810 SoC to run at its full potential for a longer sustained period of time.
The seamless, color accurate LTPS IPS LCD display is of very good quality even though it is limited to @ 60Hz refresh rate and is no OLED . Keeping the current price in mind, 9X Pro provides the best display. Period. The display uses Chip On Flip (COF) packaging so as to reduce this chin area and is huge in size to provide superior multimedia & gaming experience which I love. I love color accurate displays and with TUV Rheinland-certification for eye comfort makes it much kinder to my eyes.
All in all in my eyes the I find Honor 9X Pro to be a better device than my Poco M2 Pro/ Redmi Note 9 Pro, Realme 7 & even the Poco X2/ Redmi K30. The only chink in the armor is the lack of Google mobile Services (GMS), and I have learned to live without it. We have the entire Microsoft cloud based eco-system on Android to save us here.
1527694- RishiGuru
- utg
S . SUDHAKAR, 15 Nov 2020Useless 9x pro because :
> No dedicated slot for 2 SIMs and 1 memory card
> No sAMOL... moreI find you are a Samsung fanboy, and their is nothing wrong in that.
On the contrary I remain fan of a worthy product irrespective of brand. As I have seen every company betrays their loyal customers at some point due to their own profit.
1527694- RishiGuru
- utg
[deleted post]I bought the Honor 9X Pro (6/256 GB) from Flipkart (India) during "Big Saving Days" sale that took place between 18th to 22nd Dec, 2020. It was during this sale Flipkart (owned by Wallmart) introduced this blockbuster deal where the phone was available for INR 14K and with card offers (10% instant discount) came down to INR 12.7K ($170/€156).
1527694- RishiGuru
- fCZ
[deleted post]I bought the Honor 9X Pro (6/256 GB) from Flipkart (India) during "Big Saving Days" sale that took place between 18th to 22nd Dec, 2020. It was during this sale Flipkart (owned by Wallmart) introduced this blockbuster deal where the phone was available for INR 14K and with card offers (10% instant discount) came down to INR 12.7K ($170/€156).
I was very skeptical before & during the purchase about how I will be able to use this device as it lacks Google Mobile Services (GMS) and hence Google Playstore. Previously I was so heavily reliant on Google eco-system, I could not think of using a phone without my absolute necessary apps like Gmail, Chrome & Keep. This is the first time I ever used a phone devoid of GMS as 9X Pro is solely reliant on Huawei Mobile Services (HMS).
Now I can safely say I can live with it. Inbuilt Huawei AppGallery and authentic Amazon AppStore fulfills 70% of my app needs in this phone. For the rest 30% I get it from ApkPure app store. In this phone I have completely switched to Microsoft Cloud based eco-system. I trust it. Believe me when I say Microsoft eco system is damn good on Android. Just never used it before as I was so accustomed to the Google ecosystem on Android. In my eyes Microsoft is the saving grace on non GMS Android phones.
Apart from the software the Honor 9X Pro is a great phone for its price. It is actually the best phone available in my country for its meager price.
1527694- RishiGuru
- utg
Big G, 28 May 2020Please note Honor 9x pro without Google Play Store.Get ready to install application through ap... morePreviously I was so heavily reliant on Google eco-system, I could not think of using a phone without my absolute necessary apps like Gmail, Chrome & Keep all made by Google. Two weeks back I got hold of a Honor 9X Pro (6/256 GB, Global variant), as they were selling dirt cheap in India @INR 12.75K ($170/€156) for stock clearance.
This is the first time I used a phone devoid of Google Mobile Services (GMS) as 9X Pro is solely reliant on Huawei Mobile Services (HMS). Hence no Google Playstore in this Honor. After using the phone for three weeks without GMS, now I can safely say I can live with it. Inbuilt Huawei AppGallery and authentic Amazon AppStore fulfills 70% of my app needs in this phone. For the rest 30% I get it from ApkPure app store. In this phone I have completely switched to Microsoft Cloud based eco-system. I trust it. Believe me when I say Microsoft eco system is damn good on Android. Just never used it before as I was so accustomed to the Google ecosystem on Android.
I changed from:
a) Google Gmail -> Microsoft Outlook
b) Google Chrome -> Microsoft Edge
c) Google Keep -> Microsoft OneNote
d) Google Docs, Sheet, Slides -> Microsoft Office
The Edge browser particularly impressed me. I can safely say it has reached to the level of Chrome, maybe just 2% behind. Everything is as snappy as Chrome but with more added features like Collections tab which I love. In my Windows PC, I synced all my Chrome bookmarks & history to Edge on a second and voila, it is now available on the Edge browser of my PC as well as to Honor 9X Pro thanks to similar cloud based eco-system like Google. In my eyes Microsoft is the saving grace on non GMS Android phones.
Apart from software without GMS, Honor 9X Pro is a great phone for its price. Thanks to my friends, I was able to directly compare it with Poco X2/ Redmi K30, Realme 7, Poco X3 & even Poco M2 Pro/ Redmi Note 9 Pro.
Everything considered, in my eyes only two phones stands out, the X2 & 9X Pro. X2 have better cameras front & rear and GMS. For everything else 9X Pro is better. Now I know the strength of Huawei backing Honor.
1527694- RishiGuru
- utg
Dennis.K, 26 Aug 2019And it still does 1080p recording I found the main rear shooter of my Honor 9X Pro (6/256 GB, Global version) to use a 48MP, Sony IMX582 Exmor RS sensor with f/1.8 lens. It does not have Optical Image Stabilization (OIS), but then I don't expect this for a phone priced at INR 12.75K ($170/€156) in my country.
However there is support for Electronic Image Stabilization (EIS), which provided much needed video stabilization, sadly only upto 1080p. It also has Huawei's Artificial Image Stabilization (AIS) which improved stability while shooting still images under low light conditions. The IMX582 is pretty old now but Huawei camera app with its superior image processing under all conditions (well lit or low light) made the IMX582 work at 100%.
The pictures from the main camera turns out great with good amount of detailing, excellent contrast and in having well balanced exposure. But my friends Poco X2/ Redmi K30 is undoubtedly better in this area with the magnanimous 64MP, Sony IMX686 sensor.
All in all I was not disappointed with primary rear camera performance of 9X Pro, I will say its closest competitor are Realme 7 & Poco M2 Pro/ Redmi Note 9 Pro. The 8MP secondary sensor with an f/2.4 wide-angle lens is a welcome addition, and takes some acceptable shots under bright conditions. I don't know the use of 2MP depth assist camera at the back.
The front pop-up selfie camera is OK at best and turns out adequate for my needs even though I don't use them much. In the end, I want to re-iterate the strength of this phone does not lie in its camera sub-system and performs like other competitors in its price range. For camera performance in this price range, one should gun for Poco X2/ Redmi K30.
1527694- RishiGuru
- uIB
Dude , 24 Jul 2019It seems the chin is as big or larger than the 8X... Disappointing. Should ve been 1mm smaller... moreHonor 9X Pro's chin below the display is slightly smaller than its predecessor 8X. Both used Chip On Flip (COF) packaging for the display so as it reduce this chin. With 9X Pro they have improved on this area, improving screen to body ratio by 1% over 8X. This improvement is without considering the 8X's display notch. If you include this the improvement is nearly 5% over 8X.
The biggest plus of 9X Pro's display is the lack of ugly notches, punch holes and even worse case pill shaped cutouts. This phone has better screen-to-body ratio than my Poco M2 Pro/ Redmi Note 9 Pro (Global), Poco X3 & Realme 7. In this aspect it ties with Poco X2/ Redmi K30 but then K30 has that ugly pill shaped punch hole and is a loser in my eyes. Only my Vivo NEX S with a similar seamless display can beat 9X Pro on this aspect.
1527694- RishiGuru
- utg
Sam, 16 Aug 2019Does this phone have NFC support? Depends on which international variant you own.
First, the Honor 9X Pro international variant came only in one memory configuration of 6 GB RAM & 256 GB internal storage. Only two colors were made available Purple & Black.
Only 8 countries outside China like India, Malaysia, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Netherlands, Egypt & Saudi Arabia made in the list where Honor have good market presence.
There are two international variants of 9X Pro namely HLK-L41 and HLK-L42.
HLK-L41 is mostly sold in Europe having NFC support. However they lacked FM radio.
HLK-L42 is mostly sold in Asia and have native FM Radio support but no NFC (not popular in these regions).
1527694- RishiGuru
- utg
nakicccc, 24 Jul 2019Not a big problem. This will last for 3 days of intense use on a single charge. You can just c... moreToday, I performed battery charging test on my Honor 9X Pro (6/256 GB). Mine is the global variant supplied with a 10 watts wall charger. Before charging I disabled two battery saving features from phone setting which can be intrusive while charging the phone as mentioned below:
1) Smart Charge
2) Smart Battery Capacity
My objective was to benchmark maximum charging speeds possible with the supplied charger. Hence I completely drained the phone battery to a level that it auto switched off. I also performed the charging tests with phone switched off to get best results.
Honor 9X Pro's supplied wall charger:
Model: HW-050200102 (Indian Variant)
Input: 100 ~240V, 0.5Ah
Output: 5V, 2A = 10 watts
Battery (Typical Capacity) -> 4,000 mAh
USB: USB Type-C 2.0
Charging times:
0 to 15% -> 600 mAh -> 15 mins
0 to 25% -> 1000 mAh -> 25 mins
0 to 30% -> 1200 mAh -> 30 mins
0 to 45% -> 1800 mAh -> 45 mins
0 to 50% -> 2000 mAh -> 50 mins
0 to 60% -> 2400 mAh -> 60 mins -> 1 hr
0 to 75% -> 3000 mAh -> 75 mins -> 1 hr 15 mins
0 to 87% -> 3480 mAh -> 90 mins -> 1 hr 30 mins
0 to 90% -> 3600 mAh -> 94 mins -> 1 hr 34 mins
0 to 95% -> 3800 mAh -> 105 mins -> 1 hr 45 mins
0 to 98% -> 3920 mAh -> 114 mins -> 1 hr 54 mins
0 to 100% -> 4000 mAh -> 120 mins -> 2 hrs
In the end I was quite surprised it was a flat 2 hour phone to charge from 0 to 100%. The charging rate remained 1% per minute when charged from 0 to 80%. Only after crossing 80% battery capacity, trickle charging got enabled to save the battery and then it took another 40 mins to charge it to full. So, from 81 to 100%, the charging speeds got half on average, now it was charging 0.5% per minute.
I will say charging speeds of Honor 9X Pro is very respectable with supplied 10 watts charger. Suppose you started charging the phone at 20% battery capacity, it will take the phone just an hour will top it up to 80%. That will we enough to take you through a day even under heavy usage.
1527694- RishiGuru
- utg
BigDisplay, 27 Jul 2019Such a good value for the money.I found Honor 9X Pro, to be a great value for money product. I believe it was their first phone launched outside China without Google Mobile Services(GMS). So they kept the launch prices low, else nobody will buy them.
Correct me if I am wrong, but this phone received very geographically limited launch. Outside China, only few countries where Honor had good presence made it like India, Malaysia, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Netherlands, Egypt & Saudi Arabia. So just 8 countries outside China.
The global variant was made available in just one memory configuration of 6/256 GB and during launch the price varied between €200 to €278 depending on the country. The lowest price as usual was in India, the 2nd most fiercely competed smartphone market in the world after China. United Kingdom seems to have the highest price of €278.
In the end I always get amazed by the way smartphone prices deprecates over time, in just 6 months the price tag of the phone fell from €200 to around €150 in India.
1527694- RishiGuru
- utg
Vahid.k, 27 Jul 2019Why this phone doesn't have fast charger? I am least bothered about smartphone charging speeds. The recent marketing trend of 100 watt chargers by Chinese manufacturers, and the artificially created hype around it does not make any sense to me. I know manufacturers need something new to sell, and fast charging is one of those marketing tools which creates a lot of hype among consumer minds.
Those who understands batteries just knows what havoc fast charging can cause on battery lifespan. Let's get it straight, fast chargers are detrimental for battery health. Fast charging is more of a convenience feature in smartphones which comes on the expense of battery longevity. So if you are of "use it then throw it off after 2 years" type, then fast chargers are for you.
Contrary to in-box fast charger expectations by most consumers, I was looking for a good 10 watts charger. Very happy to find one with Honor 9X Pro as they are hard to come by in today's ultra fast and battery demolishing chargers. My Poco M2 Pro/ Redmi Note 9 Pro came with a 33 watts wall charger which charged its fully drained 5000 mAh battery to 100% in just in 1 hour 12 mins flat!!! Packed it up and using a 10 watts charger since then.
Honor 9X Pro battery:
Model: HB446486ECW
Typical Capacity: 4000 mAh
Rated Capacity: 3900 mAh
Rated Voltage: 3.82V
Limited Charge Voltage: 4.4V
To me a phone battery should never be charged over 1C charging rate, preferably even lower around 0.8C. Doing the math:
1C -> 3900 mAh = 3.9Ah = 3.9A * 3.82V = 14.9 watts
0.8C -> 12 watts
0.7C -> 10 watts
So 15 watts is the max you should pump while charging @ 1C, preferably with a more battery friendly 0.8C = 12 watts.
Honor 9X Pro's supplied wall charger:
Model: HW-050200102 (Indian Variant)
Input: 100 ~240V, 0.5Ah
Output: 5V, 2A = 10 watts
I will use this charger for my 9X Pro and it will no doubt take longer to charge but keep the battery super healthy. The other thing I am super impressed with 9X Pro are the support for two battery lifespan increasing technologies, hardly found on any other mid-range phones and reserved more for the flagship phones.
I am talking about Huawei's "Smart Charge" & "Smart Battery Capacity" technologies buried well under the phone setting. Even my 2018 Honor flagship View 10 does not have the latter feature.
Here is what Huawei has to say:
Smart Charge
------------------
If Smart Charge is enabled, the system AI will learn from your charging habits. When the system detects that you tend to charge your phone for an extended period of time (such as
overnight), it may automatically enable Smart Charge to pause charging when the battery level reaches a certain value during charging. In this case, you will see a message in the notification panel indicating that the device has entered Smart Charge. The system will resume charging your device before you use the device based on your charging habits. This prevents the battery from being charged for a long time when the battery level has already reached 100%, and slows down battery ageing. Note that Smart Charge does not affect the normal charging speed, and only pauses charging.
Smart Battery Capacity
------------------------------
The peak capacity is the maximum available capacity of a battery in the current state. As all rechargeable batteries are consumables, the battery ages with increased usage time, and the battery capacity decreases. As a result, the standby time will decrease gradually, too. If Smart Battery Capacity is enabled, the system intelligently manages the peak battery
capacity based on the battery ageing status, and slows down the battery ageing speed. This may slightly affect the battery performance, but it is still recommended that you enable this feature to extend the battery lifespan.
--
My 9X Pro have both these features enabled, and I observed the second feature will stop charging the battery at 95 ~ 96% and straightway hop to 100%. While using the phone at 100% charge after a minute it will jump straight down to 96%. It is because the software + hardware have stepped in and stopped charging after 96% to extend battery lifespan. To me the above two technologies are more important than battery annihilating 100 watts chargers to top up completely drained 4000 mAh batteries under 10 mins.
Later I will post the charging times of my Honor 9X Pro with the supplied 10 watts charger.
1527694- RishiGuru
- utg
joe nodden, 02 Apr 2020Wait a second... why does Kimovil say this can shoot 4k video? Is GSMArena wrong here? I can ensure Honor 9X Pro (Global) variant does not support 4K video recording. The Indian retail version still runs EMUI 9.1.1 on top of Android 9 with Nov, 2020 security patch. I find max video resolution to be limited at 1080p @ 60 fps on this phone.
It is strange, but 9X Pro destined for India are directly imported from Shenzhen (China) rather being assembled in India. Almost all manufacturers assemble in India due to high import duties. But those models which they predicts to sell less gets directly imported. Like my Meizu 16th (Meizu 16 in China). However unlike the 16th, the 9X Pro is devoid of Google Mobile Services (GMS) and solely reliant on Huawei Mobile Services (HMS). Hence no Google Playstore in this Honor. I think this was the main reason why Honor imported the units rather than assembling on a mass scale in the country.
I got the 9X Pro (6/256 GB) at INR 12.75K ($170/€156) last month during stock clearance. These are some 6 month old units dating back to July, 2020. Global units comes in only one memory configuration and for this dirt cheap price, I bought one at a heartbeat.
The phone arrived with below software version:
Model: HLK-L42
Android Version: 9
Android security patch level: 01-May-2020
EMUI Version: 9.1.1
Build Number: 9.1.1.189
I received a huge 2.81 GB OTA update on boot up which said Android security patch updates.
After update:
Model: HLK-L42
Android Version: 9
Android security patch level: 01-Nov-2020
EMUI Version: 9.1.1
Build Number: 9.1.1.207
After using the phone for two weeks without GMS, I can now safely say I can live with it. Maybe not as my primary device but as a secondary. Inbuilt Huawei AppGallery and authentic Amazon App Store fulfills 70% of my app requirement. For the rest 30% I get it from ApkPure app store. I have completely switched to Microsoft Cloud based eco system on 9X Pro and it is damn good. Never used it as I was so accustomed to Android ecosystem.
I changed from:
a) Google Gmail -> Microsoft Outlook
b) Google Chrome -> Microsoft Edge
c) Google Keep -> Microsoft OneNote
d) Google Youtube -> Huawei QuickApp (Youtube in web view mode)
However I must admit HMS still needs to climb a mountain before it can reach GMS. This applies for the sheer volume of apps available on Google Playstore. I have heard the news that 9X Pro, Chinese variant have received Android 10 long back, but still no signs of it on global variants. Maybe EMUI 10 on Android 10 have enable support for 4K on 9X Pro as Kirin 810 SoC have the hardware support to supplement it. Unfortunately we the global users are still to receive Android 10.
1527694- RishiGuru
- utg
Vahid.k, 27 Jul 2019Dear friend
I'm agree with you.
Plz think cover phone with regular covers.
It weight may ... moreI find a lot of confusion here between Honor 9X Pro (Global or Chinese) & Honor 9X (Chinese).
In short 9X Pro is 9X with some additional hardware features. They are:
1) Inclusion of a copper heat-pipe with liquid cooling for the most technologically advanced Kirin 810 mid-range SoC. It is built on 7nm architecture, the same as Snapdragon 865+. It has the best CPU, GPU & NPU performance when compared with Snapdragon 730G or even 732G. It beats the Mediatek G90T or even G95. Hence 9X Pro will be more favorable for gaming over regular 9X and will handle high SoC temperatures better under load, mostly seen during gaming thanks to the copper heat-pipe. Expect more stable frame-rates for those long gaming sessions on 9X Pro.
2) Inclusion of higher RAM/Storage configurations. 9X (Chinese) comes with 4/64, 6/64 and 6/128 GB. 9X Pro (Chinese) comes with 8/128 and 8/256 GB. But the global variant of 9X Pro is only available in 6/256 GB. Hence this is what I have.
3) Addition of an useful third 8MP wide angle rear camera.
4) On 9X Pro you get the unique purple (Phantom Purple) color which I love. My 9X Pro is of this color.
---
The Honor 9X Pro actually weighs 206 grams according to Honor (Chinese or Indian or Malaysian) websites and in GSMArena the value is wrong. Also the 9X Pro (HLK-L42) model sold in India supports Bluetooth 5.0 + BLE which I have.
All above phones should not be confused with Honor 9X (Global) variant which is a re-branded Huawei Y9s, a very different phone.
1527694- RishiGuru
- utg
Jaeger, 23 Jul 2019Even my Note9 is lighter, and it's a heavy phone to begin with.It is true Redmi Note 9 contains 5000 mAh battery and weighs 199 grams while Honor 9X Pro having a 20% smaller battery of 4000 mAh weighs 3 grams more at 202 grams. But the secret of 9X Pro's additional weight lies inside the phone.
Let us find out why by breaking down into below points:
1) Construction Quality: 9X Pro is a better built phone than Note 9. Like all mid-range glass sandwich designs where both front and rear are made of glass, Note 9 uses a metal mid-frame supporting the exterior PLASTIC side-frame on the phone. So the sides of the phone that meets our bare hands are made of PLASTIC.
Whereas 9X Pro uses similar metal mid-frame while having METAL side-frame to create a three dimensional structure to attain more rigidity, and less flex in the phone. In the end this all metal construction adds more weight. The phone is available in 5 shades (Purple, White, Black, Red, Blue) and gunning for a full blown flagship grade all metal side-frame with matching colors will add more cost as metal needs to be in that color. Hence Huawei did a clever trick, they infused a color matching plastic layer on top of the metal side-frame of the phone. It kept the cost is check, while providing 9X Pro with more robust construction than Note 9.
When I hold both my Honor 9X Pro and Poco M2 Pro/ Redmi Note 9 Pro in hand, in-hand feel remains same as you feel plastic side frame in your hands, however as soon as I remove 9X Pro's SIM tray or even look carefully at the USB port I find the reassuring inner aluminium side-frame lurking inside. So in construction quality and built quality, 9X Pro beats my M2 Pro and even Redmi K30/ Poco X2. RealMe 7 have plastic back so not even considering it like Poco X3. But all this adds more weight to 9X Pro.
2) Thermal Management: For Kirin 810 SoC thermal management 9X Pro has a dedicated copper heat pipe built inside with liquid cooling. Copper is heavy and adds weight, where as Note 9 does not have any. Running the same game on both phones, 9X Pro will be able to provide stable frame rates for a longer period of time and the temperatures of the phone will be under check even during those long sessions. Don't expect the same from Note 9. The dedicated copper heat-pipe adds weight to 9X Pro.
3) Pop-up Sefie Camera: For that awesome seamless full view display of 9X Pro devoid of any hulking notches and gaping punch holes, we have the pop up selfie camera mechanism. However pop-up mechanism requires additional motors, rotating metal parts, springs and hinges not to mention the camera module itself which goes in & out. Hence the entire pop-up selfie mechanism takes a chuck of space inside the phone and adds weight. A much cheaper way around would have been that of Note 9, provide a selfie shooter in the bang top middle of the display under a gaping punch-hole. It should have saved weight also. Adding the pop-up selfie camera mechanism adds more weight to 9X Pro.
In the end one has to understand, designing a smartphone is always a compromise. As a design & development team it needs to decide at the beginning the key strengths to focus on for a certain price range. With 9X Pro you get one of the best seamless display with robust built quality and range topping sustained performance at the expense of 20% battery capacity. Whereas Note 9 gives you 20% more battery, but the display has a punch-hole, does not have the quality, is not as robust as 9X Pro with cheaper plastic frames and throttles a lot when gaming.
I had the privilege to test the Honor 9X Pro, Redmi Note 9 Pro/ Poco M2 Pro, Realme 7 & Redmi K30/ Poco X2 simultaneously thanks to my friends. And to me Honor 9X Pro came out on top. The K30/X2 can only topple it on the camera front and in having Google Mobile Services. My conclusion is 9X Pro & K30/X2 are on a league of their own in mid-range segment and everything else comes next.
1527694- RishiGuru
- utg
P650SE, 31 Dec 2020It would be impossible to top your comment! You make lots of detailed points about the your de... moreReceived the Honor 9X Pro yesterday and have been using it since. Here, I will be comparing it with their 2018 flagship Honor View 10 and my other mid-range Poco M2 Pro.
Below are my initial impressions:
1) Construction & built quality: Built quality of both Honor devices are very good. View 10 has metal uni-body design which is sturdy while remaining understated which I like. However the metal back and side frame are not one piece but stamped together to save cost, which stops it from getting full marks. Personally, I like 9X Pro design more but being a dual glass sandwich construction inherently it is more fragile of the two. But then all latest smartphones are. The phone is very premium to look and hold in the shimmering "Phantom Purple" color. It is reassuring to find inner aluminum side frame running beneath the 9X Pro's infused color matching exterior plastic side frame. You can actually see the metal when removing the SIM tray and even through USB port, a rarity in mid-range category. With 9X Po, Honor have gone one level higher than its competitors and provided a stunning design and better built quality than my Poco M2 Pro/ Redmi Note 9 Pro and even my friend's Poco X2/ Redmi K30.
2) Performance: Kirin 810 in 9X Pro beats the Kirin 970 in View 10 on performance charts. Period. Both phones are running @60Hz displays and 9X Pro just feels tad more liquid smooth while using. It also soundly beats the SD720G @ M2 Pro and SD730G @ X2. Lets not compare the Mediateks as they are poorer in comparison. Now after using the 9X Pro, I do not have a speck of doubt K810 is the true mid-range processor king and has the ability to slay all its competitor SoCs and even many 2018 flagship SoCs like K970. Full marks to 9X Pro on performance ground.
3) Display: I like the LTPS IPS LCD display of 9X Pro more than my previous benchmark Honor View 10 which used same tech. View 10 can get a tiny bit brighter at max auto and its 1.5 nits min brightness is great. Saying that 9X Pro can come down to 2 nits when required. The contrast seems tad better in View 10 as blacks are represented slightly better than 9X Pro while 9X Pro's display has one of the best accurate color reproduction in any mid-range smartphone. I love color accurate displays and with TUV Rheinland-certification it is much kinder to the eyes. Both displays are notch-less and hole-less which is a necessity for me. All in all both displays ranks quite close, each having their own strengths but 9X Pro with a border-less, big & more color accurate display feels more immersive and real to me. M2 Pro display lags in all aspects in comparison. X2's display have higher refresh rate but that gaping dual punch hole and not so color accurate display did not win my heart. For me, 9X Pro's display comes on top in the mid-range category where LCDs rule.
4) Software: Yesterday I was not able to think of using a phone without Google eco-system. After using the 9X Pro for a day, I can now safely say I can. I have switched to Microsoft Eco system on 9X Pro and I trust it. My home PC runs Microsoft Windows. The Indian retail version still runs EMUI 9.1.1 on top of Android 9 with Nov, 2020 security patch. However EMUI to me is the best Android overlay that has emerged out of China, and it shows. Very mature UI, liquid smooth with a level of immediacy that can only be equaled by EMUI 10 on top of Android 10 currently running on my View 10. The latest Xiaomi's MIUI 12 over Android 10 on my M2 Pro is also very good but lacks a bit of finesse compared to EMUI and that immediacy feel while using their phones. Of-course the awesome K810 SoC plays a big part in this equation.
5) Apps: A previously said, I have completely switched to trustworthy and free Microsoft Cloud eco-system on my 9X Pro. I side-loaded APKPure app store from CNET and also using Huawei's AppGallery in tandem to download/ replace apps:
a) Google Gmail -> Microsoft Outlook
b) Google Chrome -> Microsoft Edge
c) Google Keep -> Microsoft OneNote
d) Google Youtube -> Using Edge to view in Web mode. Any better suggestions?
In my PC I synced all my Chrome bookmarks to Edge and voila, it is now available on the Edge app on my 9X Pro thanks to its cloud eco-system just like Google. APKPure gave me the latest apps from Google Playstore. By now apart from Google own apps that requires GMS almost all other apps are now available for download with Huawei's own AppGallery. Till now zero regrets in using a GMS un-certified Android OS over Honor 9x Pro. Let's see what holds in future.
6) Camera: 9x Pro's rear camera is better than M2 Pro and the wide angle camera is of great help. May I dare say it comes very close to their 2018 flagship, View 10. It is safe to say when it comes to rear camera performance in its price range Poco X2 is the king followed by 9X Pro.
7) Heat: 9X Pro is one of the coolest phone I have ever owned. Thanks to the use of all aluminum mid frame and sides with dedicated copper heat pipes for for SoC, the average temperature under sustained heavy loads always remain on the cooler side. When compared to flagships, thermals are better handled than my View 10 (K810), Meizu 16th (SD845). Only my Vivo NEX S (SD845) are LG G8X (SD855) are better than 9X Pro in thermal management but then they belong to a higher price category.
8) Battery: Battery backup is awesome on 9X Pro. Thanks to the use of 7nm fab process in K810 SoC with TDP of only 5 watts. It comfortable beats the K970 clad View 10 with 9W TDP. Saying all that M2 Pro have more juice thanks to even bigger 5000 mAh battery and SD720G sipping just 5 watts albeit being lower on the performance side. X2 has less battery backup than 9X Pro thanks to it high refresh rate display.
9) Charging: I am least bothered about the charging speed and the 10 watts charger included. Those who understands batteries knows what havoc fast charging can cause on battery longevity. Contrary to belief I was looking for a 10 watts charger, hard to find between any of today's 100 watts ultra fast and battery demolishing chargers. To me a battery should never be charged over 1C charging rate, preferably even lower. 9X Pro comes with battery of typical capacity of 4000 mAh, but the actual rated capacity is 3900 mAh and voltage of 3.82 volts. Doing the math:
3900 mAh = 3.9Ah = 3.9A * 3.82V = 14.9 watts
So 15 watts is the max you should pump while charging @ 1C, preferably with a more battery friendly 0.8C = 12 watts. Hence using the supplied 10 watts charger will take longer but will keep the battery super healthy.
10) Audio: Huawei's analog audio through headphone jack have always been sub-bar, and audio enthusiasts must stay clear of it. That said 9X Pro takes care of all things for casual listening and have improved a bit since older View 10. For audio I always stay put to my LG G8X, Vivo NEX S & LG V30+. These true flagship smartphones with dedicated ESS or Cirrus Logic DACs are in a league of their own, the one that audiophiles like. Internal speaker is decent but my Poco M2 Pro is louder and clearer.
11) Price: Honor nails it with their price of just INR 12.75K ($170/€156) for 9X Pro in India. I feel this is the best phone one can have under INR 15K ($200/€185). You get great built quality & looks, the awesome Kirin 810 SoC, 4GB LPDDR 4X RAM, amazing 256GB UFS 2.1 internal storage user expandable upto 512GB with memory card, USB Type-C, and that excellent display. Just gun for it if you have the understanding of installing apps from places other than Google Playstore.
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Huawei knew they are going to face a hurricane without Google support, so prepared for a double edged sword (Honor 9X Pro) with a level of construction quality, display quality, SoC, performance, storage size unheard in the price range. It is pity that many (previously, me included) did not realize its potential of this phone but those (now, me included) who did knows how great the phone is. Just gun for it.
- P650SE
- nEe
RishiGuru, 30 Dec 2020Thanks for the detailed response. I am now pretty certain 6/256 GB is the only Honor 9X Pro mo... moreIt would be impossible to top your comment! You make lots of detailed points about the your decision to purchase this phone! Unlike yourself I am thinking of buying it as my main phone. Obviously the lack of GMS is going to be a tough pill to swallow in daily use, but for most apps there is at least some kind of alternative that can be used. There are also modded APKs for some apps that remove their prerequisite for GMS to be installed.
Yes, I really despise notched displays. There should never be anything that intrudes on the screen area like that! Even a waterdrop style design is just as awful as a regular notch in my opinion. Why can't phone designs just be like this device, or have slim bezels like the Galaxy S8/S9 and new Sony Xperia lineup? And the punch-hole only made things worse, since at least before the notch was part of the bezel, but now it's separated into a random weird-looking dot that sits there with screen surrounding it.
In regards to the PWM flickering, I learned about this the hard way after I purchased a ZTE Axon 7 which had an AMOLED display. That phone caused me terrible headaches and eyestrain for months. I didn't realise what was causing the problem until like 4 months afterwards, and as soon as I stopped using the phone my symptoms went away within days. But now I'm stuck with my old Lenovo ZUK Z2 which is slow and lags a lot whilst multitasking and loading apps. It has SD820 and 4GB RAM.
There are barely any notchless phones that have powerful specs and IPS with zero PWM flickering. All I found aside from Huawei was Redmi Note 8 Pro, Razer Phone 1, iPhone SE 2020, iPhone 8 / 8 Plus and HTC U11. That's it. So you can see why this phone caught my attention especially with 256GB of storage.
1527694- RishiGuru
- utg
P650SE, 30 Dec 2020Wow, it is nice to hear your thoughts. I think maybe you're right about the 256GB model b... moreThanks for the detailed response. I am now pretty certain 6/256 GB is the only Honor 9X Pro model targeted for Global release. I cannot think my primary phone without Google Mobile Services(GMS), the Honor 9X Pro will always be my secondary phone. Honor have also separated from Huawei, or else doom was looming. Huawei's president said he cannot see the ban to lift anytime soon and Honor cannot survive anymore. Huawei will as it has other sources of income.
The reasons why I went with 9X Pro:
1) The HiSilicon Kirin 810 SoC is often refereed as the mid-range processor king. It is made of 7nm fabrication process, the most technologically advanced process in a mid-range SoC. Its closest rivals are from Qualcomm with Snapdragon 730G & 732G built on older 8nm process. It is better to leave Mediatek Helios G90T or even the newer G95 as both are built on much older 12nm process. The 7nm process helps K810 to maintain peak performance for a sustained period of time without much heat generated. K810 also will eat less battery and thus improve battery life due to advanced fab process used. When it comes to CPU or GPU performance, K810 is the clear leader besting the G95 clad Realme 7, SD730G clad Poco X2 and even the latest SD732G clad Poco X3.
2) Proper SoC heat dissipation can be found on 9X Pro with copper heat pipes just like its main competitors. This helps in optimum heat dissipation, great for sustained gaming. The reviews on Youtube just shows Honor remains coolest of the bunch while achieving highest stable frame-rates in games
3) Realme 7 & Poco X3 have plastic side-frame and back which feels cheap to hold. The X3 back cover is flimsy at best. In contrast the Poco X2/ Redmi K30 looks and feels more premium in-hand due to dual glass design albeit plastic side-frame. Honor just goes one step further retaining the dual glass design of X2 but this time the side-frame is made of metal coated with plastic. So in-hand feel of 9X Pro will be similar to X2 but the phone will be more robust in construction, less prone to chassis flex.
4) I love that no notch, no punch-hole seamless cinematic display of Honor. I admit pop up selfie camera's are not the final solution to this problem, under display selfie camera's are more promising for future. Like you I hate PWM flickering displays. With TUV Rheinland-certification Honor should have taken care of this. I like good LCDs as much as OLEDs and I think it will have a good display. In-fact the best LCD display I have ever seen on a phone was on my Honor View 10. But that was their flagship. Let's see.
5) The amount RAM & internal storage we are getting on this Honor is insane for its price. In India, the Honor is currently retailing for 12.75K ($170/€156) with 6GB LPDDR4X RAM and 256GB UFS 2.1 storage.
6) The 4000 mAh with frugal 7nm K810 will have a decent one day battery life under heavy usage. Huawei/ Honor are known for their extremely advanced battery saving algorithms and my Honor View 10 is a testament for that.
6) Honor finally kills with pricing:
Honor 9X Pro (6/256 GB, K810) -> 12.75K ($170/€156)
Realme 7 (6/64 GB, G95) -> 14K ($187/€173)
Redmi K30/ Poco X2 (6/128 GB, SD730G) -> 15K ($200/€185)
Poco X3 (6/128 GB, SD732G) -> 16K ($213/€197)
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Of-course there are also many negatives with 9X Pro. Like the current software situation with no GMS and slow charging. But I will reserve my judgement until I use this phone for some time. My primary reason for buying this phone is to see what Huawei does with its Harmony OS. And even if Honor after latest acquisition enables GMS on 9X Pro, it will become the phone to beat in performance and gaming perspective. The Poco's have better camera's while Realme is behind them two in both cases.
- P650SE
- nEe
RishiGuru, 30 Dec 2020Recently got hold of a Honor 9X Pro. I am from India, got the 6/256 GB variant which maybe is ... moreWow, it is nice to hear your thoughts. I think maybe you're right about the 256GB model being the only option for the Global variant, see, I have been looking for one of these phones second-hand in the UK for the last month and I have not seen a 128GB model advertised for sale anywhere.
The thing with the lack of Google Services is difficult. I also rely on it a lot for the Play Store (obviously) and also Google Maps, Gmail and so on... To have all of that taken away would be a huge detriment to this phone. I found lots of videos on YouTube showing hacky methods to get GMS working (with a software downgrade) but the chance of it working is perhaps unlikely, and even if it did work, the implementation would probably be glitchy.
At least as an alternative to the Play Store you can install Aurora Store, it is open-source backend for Google Play and allows you to download apps directly from Google servers under a dummy account. It's the best possible solution.
Perhaps there's a tiny chance that the Honor devices will gain access to Google Services at some point in the future, I heard rumours that Honor was separating from Huawei so perhaps that offers hope, and maybe when Biden becomes US president the ruling against Huawei will change anyway. Who knows.
That price you mention is cheaper than it is here in the UK. Currently the cheapest it can be purchased is from Amazon for £180 ($244,€199,17.92K) or £200 direct from the Honor website. If the price became lower then I would take the chance and purchase it, but until then, I will continue looking on the used marketplace.
Yes, please update with your thoughts once you receive the phone!
1527694- RishiGuru
- utg
P650SE, 21 Dec 2020I decided that I will try to purchase one of these. Here in the UK they cost £200 direct from ... moreRecently got hold of a Honor 9X Pro. I am from India, got the 6/256 GB variant which maybe is the only configuration available for the Global variant. Correct me if I am wrong.
As all know Huawei is facing US Entity List problems and cannot use Google Mobile Services on its smartphones. This led Huawei to come up with its own application store, named AppGallery, which is the only official app distribution platform on Honor 9X Pro. According to the company, after Apple App Store and Google Play Store, this is among the top three app distribution platforms.
I had experience with previous Honor devices like their 2018 flagship, View 10. Personally very satisfied with View 10. For me EMUI overlay is the best Chinese overlay on top of Android. However while View 10 runs on GMS certified Android 10, 9X Pro is not GMS certified hence no Google Playstore. This phone in 2021 will receive new EMUI over Huawei's Harmony OS and that is something I am looking forward to. To me 9X Pro is an experimental device and not intended to be used as primary phone as I am heavily reliant on Google Eco system.
9X Pro was launched in our country back on 24th Feb, 2020 with an initial price of INR 18K ($240/€220). It took Honor 6 long months to roll out the global variant of the same phone launched in China back on 9th Aug, 2019. However for such an experimental device for me price was the actual deciding factor which recently went down by $70 to an absurdly low INR 12.75K ($170/€156) after card offers.
I will provide my feedback once I receive the phone.
- P650SE
- nEe
I decided that I will try to purchase one of these. Here in the UK they cost £200 direct from Honor and can be purchased second-hand for around £140 or less. It's very cheap considering the performance and I have not seen another phone with 256GB of UFS 2.1 storage for such little money. Also, this is one of the only recent notchless phones with 0 PWM flickering of the display, so in theory it should be good for the eyes and not cause headaches/eyestrain for sensitive people like me.
The phone has a few problems, obviously the lack of Google Services, but these can be installed by downgrading to Android 9 and I was told it is possible to upgrade back to Android 10 afterwards and the Google Services will still be retained.
The other issue that there is no bootloader unlocking, so you're stuck with the stock ROM and I guess it's not possible to root. But the stock ROM doesn't look bad at all, and for ad-blocking you can use a VPN solution (Adguard or Blokada) instead of a host-based blocker like AdAway.
At 6.6" and 202g the phone is too big and heavy, but in 2020 this is basically an unavoidable trend (aside from iPhone 12 Mini) and I suppose a compromise must be made somewhere otherwise I will never find a phone that suits me.
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