Home » Honor 9 Lite hands-on, first impressions

Honor 9 Lite hands-on, first impressions

Written By Vaughn Chua
Published • May 15th, 2018
Hands-onMobile
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Huawei’s sub-brand of smartphones has been keeping up with the latest trends and not letting themselves fall behind the competition. Today, we will be getting our first feel of the Honor 9 Lite which has similar specifications with the Huawei Nova 2i. We’ll also see if it has the potential of being one of the recommended smartphones of the year. Let’s start!

Watch our unboxing and hands-on for the device here:

The Honor 9 Lite looks very familiar to most of the readers and this is because it follows the design pattern of the Huawei Nova 2i. Its aluminum frame that’s covered with glass looks premium and elegant. Amplifying the aesthetic department is the Sapphire Blue color which looks cool and nice to the eyes.

At the front, the dual 13MP and 2MP cameras are placed on top of the 5.65-inch screen while located at the bottom is the Honor brand name. The secondary front shooter assists in providing bokeh effects to selfies.

On the right are the standard volume rocker and power button. All of the buttons are sturdy and can easily be pressed without putting much effort. It also doesn’t have much resistance so users can accidentally press them while the device is inside of their pockets.

On the left is the lone hybrid SIM tray that accommodates either two nano SIM-cards or one SIM and one microSD card.

There are no holes nor sensors on top of the Honor 9 Lite which is nice and simple.

At the bottom, however, are the 3.5mm audio port, main microphone, micro-USB port, and loudspeakers. At first glance, they look cramped in one place which gives a claustrophobic sensation.

Finally, at the back are the dual 13MP and 2MP shooters with LED flash while sitting just below them is the fingerprint scanner, which is snappy and responsive.

In the hands, the Honor 9 Lite feels light and slim but solid and sturdy. The grip of the device is good but what we didn’t like is the glass back panel which attracts a lot of smudges and fingerprints. Thankfully, there’s an included case to remedy that problem.

The Honor 9 Lite is powered by a Kirin 659 processor paired with a Mali-T830 MP2 GPU, 3GB RAM, and EMUI 8.0 (Android 8.0 Oreo). The specs look similar to the Huawei Nova 2i but what may shock you is the price difference between them.

The Honor 9 Lite is priced at Php9,999USD 170INR 14,445EUR 162CNY 1,241 but since Shopee.ph is having a flash sale, that price tag is dropped to Php7,999USD 136INR 11,555EUR 130CNY 993. The will last until 12pm (May 15, 2018). We will be taking this device for a full spin this week so stay tuned!

Honor 9 Lite / Honor 9 Youth Edition specs:

Specification	Honor 9 Lite / Honor 9 Youth Edition
Display	5.65-inch 18:9 2160 x 1080 IPS display, 428ppi, 2.5D Curved glass
Processor	HiSilicon Kirin 659 2.36GHz octa-core CPU
GPU	Mali-T830 MP2 GPU
RAM	3GB RAM
Storage	32GB internal storage, microSD up to 256GB
Rear Camera	13MP + 2MP rear camera w/ LED flash
Front Camera	13MP + 2MP front camera
Sim Card Slot	Dual-SIM
Connectivity	4G LTE
Wi-Fi	WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth	Bluetooth 4.2
GPS	GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou
Sensor	Fingerprint sensor
OS	Android 8.0 Oreo w/ EMUI 8.0
Battery	3,000mAh battery
Dimension	151 × 71.9 × 7.60 mm
Weight	149 g
Color	Sapphire Blue, Glacier Gray