Honor 9 Lite Review: Quad Lens, Android 8, 3000mAh Battery
MEDIA, PA – Huawei’s subsidiary brand, Honor, recently released its mid-range smartphone Honor 9 Lite in India. It’s the second market to get the device after China. It’s still scheduled to be released in Russia and the U.K. later on. Many are wondering though if the budget version of the Honor 9 is worth checking out. So, what can you expect from the device?
First of all, the Honor 9 Lite isn’t far from its parent smartphone. Honor has retained plenty of the overall design language. What makes it different are just some few key changes. One noticeable change is the placement of the fingerprint scanner. Instead of having it at the front, they transferred it at the rear.
The brand also added an extra camera at the front, making the device a quad-lens model. This feature is also the device’s highlight. Both the front and rear cameras come with a 13-megapixel sensor with secondary 2-megapixel depth sensors. For a budget smartphone, the camera features are attention-catching.
It will easily attract those who are into smartphone photography. The 13-megapixel will enable users to take detailed shots, while the secondary sensor can add “bokeh” effects. It can be done in either set of cameras. Aside from that, the device also comes with PDAF fast focus and LED flash.
Honor has also incorporated into the smartphone a feature that selfie lovers will appreciate. They have placed in an upgraded beauty algorithm which can recognize facial contours and features. It then comes up with a customized beauty effects according to gender.
The smartphone is noted to be smaller than the Honor 9i, which is another variant of the unit. Both devices come with the same thin-bezel design, but Honor 9i is equipped with a bigger screen size. The Honor 9 Lite has a 5.6-inch display, while the Honor 9i offers a 5.9-inch display. This makes the former very compact and easy to bring around with its light weight.
As for the appearance of the Lite version, it’s a combination of glass and metal. At the rear is a shiny dual 2.5D glass, while the side panel is surrounded with metal frame. The downside to the shiny rear though is that it makes fingerprints very visible. It’s also a tad bit slippery and difficult to clean.Available colors are navy, seagull gray, magic nightfall, and pearl white.
Moving on to the internal side, the device is equipped with a Kirin 659 octa-core SoC. You can choose from the two variants available, 3 GB RAM with 32 GB storage or 4 GB RAM with 64 GB storage. The storage can be expanded through a microSD card. The Lite version runs with the new Android 8.0 Oreo. It’s actually the second unit from Huawei to run with the latest OS out of the box.
The device gets its power from a 3,000mAh battery. It has shrunken down due to the relatively small screen size. But the company confirms that the Lite version can last to a full day of use. The Honor 9 Lite price starts at Rs 10,999 ($172).
