Just launched, the Honor 9X is a very promising smartphone. In today’s preview, we will have a look at some of the announced features, the hardware, and compare it to the Samsung A50, which is a direct competitor. Can we name the Honor 9X as the “best bang for buck” smartphone?
Introduction & Specifications
My first thoughts were a bit negative when I read about the release of a new Honor smartphone. I assumed that it wouldn’t run Android, and it would be overpriced. Now, seeing the specifications and the price of this smartphone, just €229, I’m stunned! This is a fantastic price for great hardware! A pop-up camera on the front, a 48MP primary camera on the back, and a 4000 mAh battery inside. It runs Android, which is a great bonus, and I hope this will be a widely used device as it is perfect for games but also less frequent users. How good is the camera? Have a look below, and we compare the shots with the Samsung A50.
Specifications | |
---|---|
Brand: | Honor |
Model: | 9X |
Color: | Midnight Black, Sapphire Blue |
OS: | Android P+EMUI 9.1.0 |
Screen: | 6.95" inch without a notch |
Screen-to-Body Ratio: | 91% |
Battery: | 4000 mAh |
Camera (Front): | 16MP, Pop-up |
Camera (Rear): | 48MP(PDAF), 8MP, 2MP |
Storage: | ROM 128GB / RAM 4GB |
Fingerprintscanner: | Yes, on the back |
SIM: | Dual SIM, second slot shared with SD card |
Connector: | USB-C, 3.5mm jack |
Processor: | HUAWEI Kirin 710F (Octa-core) |
Processor Speed: | 4 x Cortex A73 2.2 GHz + 4 x Cortex A53 1.7 GHz |
Size: | 163.5 mm (H) x 77.3 mm (B) x 8.8 mm (D) |
Hardware & Design

Looking at the hardware of the Honor 9X, I’m surprised by the price. For just €229, you get a 6.95″ inch screen, triple camera, pop-up camera, and 91% screen-to-body ratio smartphone! What other brand is giving you all this for that price? I can’t think of one.
Battery
Inside the Honor 9X, we find a 4000 mAh battery. This should be enough to give you at least a day of power. You can charge it with a 5V/2A charging using the new USB-C port. The old version, Honor 8X, had micro-USB, but luckily Honor put in the faster USB-c for the 9X.
Screen
The Honor 9X is packed, as mentioned above, with a 6.95″ inch FullView Display. This means it uses almost the complete screen! You get a screen-to-body ratio of 91%. The resolution of the screen is 2340×1080. There is also Blue Eye Filter on the display of the Honor 9X. Very handy if you use your smartphone a lot at night.
Interested in this smartphone? Click Here to find out more!
Cameras
Almost all smartphone manufacturers are equipping the mid-range devices with better and more cameras, and you can enjoy triple-camera for both the HONOR 9X and the Samsung A50. The Samsung A50 comes with a 25MP primary camera with F/1.7 aperture, an 8MP wide-angle camera with F/2.2 aperture, and a 5MP depth sensor.
The Honor 9X gets a better primary camera. It is packed with a 48MP main camera with F/1.8 aperture, an 8MP super-wide-angle camera with F/2.4 camera, and a 2MP depth camera.
Generally, both smartphones deliver photos with great details and accurate colors. However, you can clearly see the Honor 9X does a better job when it comes to wide-angle and high-resolution scenes.
Camera Compared with Samsung A50
Both cameras are good, but if we look at the picture below, I think that the Honor 9X captures the moment with some more realistic colors. The Samsung A50 is a bit darker, and I like the outcome of the Honor 9X more.
This is the nose of the bear, zoomed in at 200%. As you can see, the Honor 9X captures way more details in the nose compared to the Samsung A50. With zoom and with regular pictures, the Honor is performing better now.
Below we see a wide-angle shot from both smartphones. If you take a look at the bridge on the left, you can see that it appears to be bent at the Samsung A50 shot, but it is straight at the Honor 9X shot. The cameras of the Honor 9X are great, and you can safely shoot some great pictures with it.
Comparing the images taken on both phones, I must say that the Honor 9X is performing well. Especially seen the price, just €229!
Software
Honor is a brand owned by Huawei Technologies. As we all know, Huawei got a ban from using Android, but the Honor 9X is still released with Android! The smartphone was approved before the ban and will be the last in this series with Android as its operating system. This makes it way more attractive to buy the Honor 9X as the software and app support will be better and more user-friendly. This smartphone runs EMUI 9.1 based on Android 9 and is perfectly compatible with every Google Play Services. Don’t worry about the play store not being available, it is there, and you can download all the apps you want via the Play Store!
Features
A great smartphone must come with some good features. Luckily Honor thought so too, and they build several great features. We are just looking at the Signal Enhancer and the GPU Turbo 3.0 to game even better. If you want to see all the features, please click here to visit the Honor website.
Interested in this smartphone? Click Here to find out more!
Signal Enhancer
Apple had an issue with, I think, the iPhone 6 that you could block the signal with your hand. This is, of course, a significant problem! You don’t want to click the signal when you are just using your smartphone. Honor made the 9X so that there are several points where the smartphone could receive its signal. This way, it doesn’t matter how you are holding your smartphone, you always get a good and stable signal.

GPU Turbo 3.0
Playing a game is fun, and you can do it while you are on the bus, on a plane, or just waiting for a friend. With the Honor 9X, you can now game even better with the GPU Turbo 3.0. This mode will enable you to enjoy faster and full-frame gaming to the best possible performance. No more lag, no more glitching in frame rates, just smooth and fast gaming experiences!
Quality Tests
For this price, the quality must be bad, right? No way! Honor did some real testing on the Honor 9X, and you can enjoy your well built, good quality smartphone. What tests did they do? Have a look below:
Quality Tests | |
---|---|
Powerbutton | 200,000 times |
Volumebutton | 50,000 times |
USB Port | 10,000 times |
Touch Screen | 800,000 times |
Pressure Test with 25KG | 2000 times |
Maximum Pressure | 70 KG |
Safety and Temprature | 55°C temperature / 95% humidity for 120 hours |
Temprature Cycle | Between -20°C~55°C for 78 cycles |
Conclusion
Man, this is one great affordable smartphone. The processor is quick, the camera is excellent, and the battery is long-lasting. What else can we wish for? You can take wide-angle photos, sharp normal photos, and selfies with the pop-up camera and all for a very reasonable price. I’m going to buy this phone are write a real review with all the relevant tests on this model as it is very promising.
For now, the specifications look promising, and the usability seems to be good with Android 9.0. There are high-end features, like the pop-up camera and the wide-angle lens, which we usually see in the flagship models of other smartphone brands. The Honor 9X is an excellent, affordable, and well put together smartphone!
Interested in this smartphone? Click Here to find out more!