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.
