Honor 9N Hands-on [Images]

HUAWEI’s subsidiary brand Honor has launched its selfie centric phone in India, the Honor 9N is a midrange smartphone with a notch at the top and comes with a 16 MP selfie camera. The Honor 9N is a re-branded Honor 9i (2018) launched in China earlier last month. Here’s our hands-on with the Honor 9N.

Honor 9N Specifications

• Display: 5.84-inch Full-HD+ (2280 x 1080 pixels) 19:9 IPS display with 2.5D curved glass
• Software: EMUI 8.0 based on Android 8.0 Oreo
• Fingerprint Scanner: Yes, at the back, gesture-based
• Face Unlock: Yes
• CPU: Up to 2.36 GHz octa-core Cortex-A53 64-bit processor, 16nm Kirin 659 SoC
• GPU: Mali-T830 MP2
• Memory: 3 GB OR 4 GB RAM, LPDDR3
• Storage: 32 GB (with 3 GB RAM), 64 GB (with 4 GB RAM), 128 GB (with 4 GB RAM), expands up to 256 GB via microSD card (SIM2 Slot)
• Main Camera: 13 MP + 2 MP with f/2.2 aperture, 5P Lens, PDAF, Portrait Mode, AR Lens, LED flash
• Front Camera: 16 MP with f/2.0 aperture, Portrait Mode, AR Lens, 3D Facial Detection, 4-in-1 Light Fusion Technology and Screen Flash
• Connectivity: 4G VoLTE, GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 3.5 mm headphone jack, micro USB
• Other: Fingerprint Scanner, Face Unlock, GPU Turbo (rolled out later through OTA update), Ride Mode, Paytm Quick Payments, Game Suite
• Cellular: 4G LTE network, 2x nano SIM, microSD on the SIM2 slot, dual VoLTE-enabled
• Colors: Midnight Black, Sapphire Blue, Lavender Purple, Robin Egg Blue
• Battery: 3,000 mAh
• Price: Rs 11,999 (3 GB RAM & 32 GB storage)
  Rs 13,999 (4 GB RAM & 64 GB storage)
  Rs 17,999 (4 GB RAM & 128 GB storage)
• Availability: Exclusively on Flipkart, also on Honor India’s website from 31st July
• Offers: Cashback of ₹2,200 from Reliance Jio in the form on 44 vouchers worth ₹50 each, 100 GB additional data from Reliance Jio, Voucher worth ₹1,200 from Myntra

The Honor 9N looks quite similar to the phone Honor 9 Lite which was launched back in January. The build is pretty much plastic, the sides are plastic frames. Speaking of the notch on Honor smartphones, this is the second device to sport a notch on its display after the Honor 10.

The main difference is the chipset, the Kirin 659 powers the 9N whereas the Honor 10 is powered by rather a faster Kirin 970 chip with AI capabilities. If you closely look at the specs, it’s probably identical to the Honor 9 Lite and last year’s Honor 9i and no doubt the Honor 9N is the Honor 9i of 2018.

The Honor 9N sports a 5.84-inch IPS 19:9 display with a resolution of Full HD+ (2280 x 1080 pixels). On top, it’s covered with 2.5D curved glass as well as on the back. Honor says that it has used 12 layers of nano-glass coating to achieve a mirror-like effect.

In terms of cameras, the Honor 9N offers dual cameras at the back alongside a fingerprint scanner. There is a set of two cameras one of 13 MP and another of 2 MP used for depth capturing for bokeh photos. On the front side, you get a single 16 MP camera.

Both the cameras can shoot photos with bokeh effects. In addition, the AR lens is now added to the camera interface which lets you capture photos with different effects. The 16 MP selfie camera uses the 4-in-1 Fusion Technology that converts 4 small pixels into 1 large 2.0 μm pixel delivering brighter photos in low light.

Other specs include a Mali-T830 MP2 GPU, up to 4 GB RAM and 128 GB storage with microSD support of up to 256 GB. There are 3 GB RAM with 32 GB storage and 4 GB RAM with 64 GB variants available too for a lower price with same specs. The Honor 9N runs on the EMUI 8.0 based on the Android 8.0 Oreo software.

Needless to say, there aren’t much upgrades in the specs, the big one we can see here is the 16 MP selfie camera with AR Lens followed by the GPU Turbo and a couple of features like Ride Mode, and Paytm Quick Payments.

Another feature is made for gamers, the GPU Turbo technology which is currently available on Honor’s flagship smartphones like the Honor Play and the Honor 10 GT as well as on the HUAWEI’s Nova series smartphones. The GPU Turbo improves the graphics performance efficiency of the 9N by 60% reducing the power consumption by 30% at the same time.

The connectivity options remain the same, the bottom has a micro USB port, the left side has a hybrid SIM tray.

The price for the 3 GB RAM with 32 GB storage variant is Rs 11,999, for 4 GB RAM with 64 GB variant is Rs 13,999 and the top variant with 128 GB storage is available for Rs 17,999, the same price which the Honor 9i was launched in 64 GB.

Share us your views on the Honor 9N in the comments below.