Honor 9 picks up key upgrades for 2017.
Right on schedule, Huawei sub-brand Honor has unveiled its latest flagship phone in China. The Honor 9 will go up for sale in the country starting June 16 for the equivalent of $340, continuing the brand's tradition of offering enticing hardware on a budget. There isn't a lot to visually differentiate the Honor 9 from its predecessor, with Honor offering a similar metal-and-glass design. The key change is the position of the fingerprint sensor, which is now located at the front of the phone.
The Honor 9 features a 5.15-inch Full HD display with DCI-P3 color space and 2.5D curved glass, and the device is powered by Huawei's Kirin 960 chipset — just like the Mate 9 and the Huawei P10. The SoC offers four Cortex A73 cores along with four Cortex A53 cores, along with a Mali G-71 MP8 GPU. The Honor 9 will be offered in three storage configurations — a base model with 4GB of RAM and 64GB storage, a variant with 6GB of RAM and 64GB storage, and a model with 6GB of RAM and 128GB storage. All versions include a microSD slot.
The phone also offers dual rear cameras at the back, with a 12MP RGB sensor augmented by a 20MP monochrome sensor. There's an 8MP shooter up front, and a 3200mAh battery should be more than adequate to ensure the phone lasts a day. Other specs include Wi-Fi ac, NFC, VoLTE, and a headphone jack.
The Honor 9 will be sold in five color options — gold, blue, black, amber, and grey. The phone is being positioned as a more affordable variant of the Huawei P10, and while it misses out on the Leica branding, there's plenty to like. The model with 4GB of RAM and 64GB storage is set to retail for ¥2,299 ($340), the version with 6GB of RAM and 64GB storage will be available for ¥2,699 ($400), and finally the variant with 6GB of RAM and 128GB storage will be sold for ¥2,999 ($440).
There's no information regarding global availability, but we should know more in the coming weeks.
Reader comments
Honor 9 goes official with 6GB RAM, Kirin 960 chipset, dual rear cameras
The honor 8 seems to have been a failure in the US.
This might be a failure also.
Good luck honor.
Heard that the Honor 9 smartphone does not support FM radio? Right?
Looks like a HTC U11 to me, especially with the reflective metal and front design. This isn't a bad thing, but there is a lot of near similarities. It wouldn't be the first time another phone was near identical to an HTC either.
I loathe their skin.
If it was more stock no Huawei bloat. I would
The 5x is so lag
KEYᵒⁿᵉ
I have an honor 8 and it's a great phone but I find the glass design really useless as I have to cover it to avoid scratch and finally I don't enjoy my beautifull phone ... In that regard I would prefer the honor 8 pro ...
The programable rear fingerprint sensor was really the killer feature of the honor 8, a shame to downgrade.
This is an absolute bargain and beauty of a device. Definitely will look into picking this up as a backup phone if not as a primary.
lol...this looks exactly like an older gen samsung phone...I can't be the only one that sees it
To be honest, I prefer the Honor 8 Pro. Same or better specs. And the fingerprint sensor is on the back. But it is big.
Wish they would have gotten rid of the curved glass--my biggest complaint about my Honor 8.
I wonder if will have the swipe gestures for the fps in the front. That was one of my favorite feature of the honor 8. Checking and clearing notifications with out touching the screen.
They have been consistent as of late, to just making another basic android phone that's no different software wise.
Love the front in that they removed the ugly logo. Way to go! Just need LG, Moto and Sony to follow
You're buying that many phones?
Oof moved the finger print sensor to the front with a button now? ouch.. hard pass.
Return the finger print sensor to the back please.
I'll be picking this one up.
I much prefer this to that overpriced Essential nonsense.
It's really nice! Well done Honor!
Personally, I don't like that it is taller though, but the phone sounds great.
The only thing I disliked about the Honor 8 was timely updates. The first security update after the Nougat release (in December) did not come through until early this month, for the US model. Lack of security updates and far from stock UX is something that made me switch. The hardware was awesome for the price though.
Nice phone. I like it.
Dear Huawei, Please make this phone work on Verizon's LTE network.
☝️☝️☝️ This!!! #VZWcompatibleplz
I've really enjoyed Verizon's network over the years but not having the option to try phones from OnePlus or Huawei has been really disappointing the last 2 years.
I used to think it was just because they didn't want to put a CDMA radio in the phones (and maybe it was in the past) but now that I know the HTC U11 works on Verizon's without it they have no more excuses! Especially if they want to be a major player in the US market.
If it works on verizon I'll order one that second.
Nice S7
Nice Trap Phone
It's basically a glass-backed Huawei P10, with a lower price and a variant with more memory.
Not a bad thing at all. The Honor 8 was basically a glass-backed Huawei P9 with a lower price and more memory and proved to be a bit of a sleeper hit with the AC community.
Sounds great. I'm sad that they went with the FPS on the front. Looks ugly IMO, but that's me. The Honor 8 looks better.
Just wished the fingerprint sensor was on the back
For reals, I have the honor 8 and it was just so natural on the back. Loved how it was a customizable button too.
Glad they stuck with the headphone jack. Deciding between this and the Moto X4 this year.
Nice!
Nice indeed. I always had an eye for the Honor 8, but never got around to buying one. I read a bunch of great reviews about how it was a solid performer.
It looks like it's continuing Honor's tradition of being a great mid-range device with decent specs and design.
I guess when reviews drop I'll find the answer to my #1 question of any smartphone in 2017...."What that camera do?"