If you ask for a recommended smartphone with budget price, we would recommend the Honor 8 among the Huawei brand. The device was introduced in the summer of 2016 and offers a very good price-performance ratio. For a few days now the successor Honor 9 is available in Germany (we had introduced it here). It costs similar to the predecessor and optically has not done much, but the technology inside has been brought up to date. Basically, it is a Huawei P10 in another appearance and without Leica camera technology. Today we will see why the Honor 9 can be recommended for conscience to buy.
The Honor 9 is packed in a white cardboard box, the body colors are silver and blue. Later, a black version is also to be added. The silver version was provided for the test. The silver device has a very nice “shine effect” on the back, as can be seen in the photos, but fingerprints are super fast visible. In the packaging, we can find there is a hard plastic cover and of course a USB cable besides the device itself. As a connection, USB Type C is used; the power supply supports the Huawei QuickCharge technology, so the device can be recharged very quickly. A headset is not supplied.
Good first impression
The display is very nice bright and colors strong and true to nature. The full-HD resolution is absolutely sufficient, really not more needs with the size of about 5.2 inches. The fingerprint sensor has moved to the front in comparison to the Honor 8 and at the same time also serves as a home button. We find the positioning with the Honor 9 is very good, especially since the sensor also works very reliably and fast. In addition to the fingerprint sensor, two touch buttons for the multitasking menu and the back button have been placed, the assignment of the buttons can be customized to suit your personal preferences.
The camera also makes a good first impression. Honor 9 uses a dual camera with a 12 megapixel RGB sensor and a 20 megapixel monochrome sensor. Thanks to the HiSilicon Kirin 960 chipset, videos can finally be recorded in 4K resolution; the predecessor did not go yet.
Body: light and shadow
The body of the predecessor Honor V9 is especially rounded on the back towards the sides, whereby the Honor 9 should lie better in the hand. Now you can stand to glass backs as you want, we find them but always a bit slippery and not as nice as metal body. This is also the criticism of the Honor 9, it feels in the hand not as good as for example a Huawei P10 or an Apple iPhone 7 (both metal body). But it’s very successful about the reflections on the back: depending on light incident, the case looks darker or lighter.
First Conclusion
The Honor 9 is a good and consistent development to the Honor 8. The technology was updated, the internal user memory doubled from 32 GB to 64 GB. The dual SIM function is of course also on board again. With the multiple color options, we suppose most users would find what suit them. The Honor 9 is recommended for daily use if you don’t have many high requirements on the mobile phone.
