Huawei Honor 9 Lite (Honor 9 Lite) - review, design, specifications, photos, videos

Huawei Honor 9 Lite smartphone

Just recently, the Chinese smartphone manufacturer Huawei announced the imminent release of its new brainchild, the Honor 9 Lite phone. The new product, as the name suggests, will be a “light” variation of the flagship Honor 9. The “Lite” version offers not just a simplification of the main device, but also its own features that are missing from the older “brother”. These include a more modern operating system - Androin Oreo, as well as four cameras. Will this frameless device be able to pleasantly surprise the market, or even outshine the main version of the device? Next, we will describe the new product in detail through the prism of comparison with other versions of Honor 9. And we will conclude how the series is changing and which Honor 9 looks the most interesting in terms of price/quality ratio.

Video examples

A review of the Honor 9 Lite camera cannot be considered complete without seeing how it shoots video. It will not please you as much as the photo, since in terms of video shooting everything is absolutely standard for this price segment - FullHD video with a frame rate of 30 FPS. This is not very remarkable, but still testing the Honor 9 Lite video camera showed a pretty good result.

Honor 9 Lite allows you to shoot video in 4K resolution. The aspect ratio for this type of shooting will be 4:3. You can shoot in 1:1 ratio with 3K resolution.

When shooting video, you may have a question about how to set up the camera on Honor 9 Lite. It will definitely arise, since the photo optics of this device are very flexible, but you may have difficulties when you figure it all out. If you don’t shoot video very often, then you shouldn’t bother with the settings.

Honor 9 Lite review

Honor 9 Lite appearance

The smartphone body is made of aluminum alloy with glass coating. The dimensions are quite impressive, especially in comparison with the original version of the device: 71.9x151x7.6mm for the Light version versus 70.9x147.3x7.45mm for the regular Honor 9. This is not surprising, because the new smartphone has a 5.65-inch diagonal screen and takes up just over 76 percent of the phone's front panel area. In turn, Honor 9 has a 5.15-inch display and an area of ​​70 percent. All corners of the gadget are smoothly rounded; here, the rounded 2.5D glass makes it more impressive. The front panel has three elements on the top frame (two front cameras and a light sensor) and no elements at the bottom. The manufacturer sacrificed a mechanical “Home” button to increase screen space. The rear panel, in general, does not have anything special in its design: horizontal dual camera sensors and a flash located slightly to the right. Below is a round fingerprint sensor. It was announced that the smartphone would come in four different colors: white, blue, black and gray.

Honor 9 Lite iron

• Processor: Huawei HiSilicon Kirin 659 (4 ARM Cortex-A53 cores with a frequency of up to 2.36 GHz + 4 ARM Cortex-A53 cores with a frequency of up to 1.7 GHz, 16nm process technology)
• Video: ARM Mali-T830 MP2
• RAM: 3GB/4GB
• Internal: 32GB/64GB
• System: Emotion 8.0 (Android Oreo)
• Display: IPS 5.65-inch, 1080x2160 pixels, 427 ppi
• Main camera: 13MP + 2MP
• Selfie camera: 13MP + 2MP (face recognition function)
• Battery: 3000mAh

The phone will be powered by Huawei's proprietary processor, HiSilicon Kirin 659. It will be supported by a dual-core Mali-T830 video chip and 3GB/4GB of RAM. All this together will give ~75,000 antitu points. The result is not bad. The smartphone is capable of maintaining a stable frame rate in less demanding applications. The smartphone system is the new Android Oreo in the company’s proprietary Emotion 8.0 shell. The screen, as already mentioned, is 5.65-inch with a resolution of 1080x2160 pixels and an aspect ratio of 18:9. The image quality will be quite acceptable. However, many good words cannot be said about the device’s sensors. The rear cameras have a resolution of 13MP+2MP with an f/2.2 aperture on the main one. For the main cameras in a smartphone, this is not the highest figure despite other good parameters. The front cameras have the same resolution of 13MP+2MP. For front cameras, such indicators are slightly more acceptable than for the main ones. The battery capacity is not impressive - 3000mAh. The smartphone most likely will not last more than a day in active use mode.

Honor 9 Lite smartphone: presentation and first acquaintance with the new product, examples of photo and video shooting

On the eve of the start of sales of the Honor 9 Lite , Huawei decided to introduce Russian journalists to its product. For this purpose, a special presentation was organized, during which we were not only able to get a first impression of the new product, but also had the opportunity to test the capabilities of its unusual cameras live.

Main characteristics of Honor 9 Lite:

• SoC HiSilicon Kirin 659, 8 cores Cortex-A53 ( [email protected] .36 GHz + [email protected] .7 GHz)
• GPU Mali-T830 (MP2)
• Operating system Android 8.0, EMUI 8
• Touch display IPS 5.65″, 2160×1080, 427 ppi
• Random access memory (RAM) 3/4 GB, internal memory 32/64 GB
• Nano-SIM support (2 pcs.)
• MicroSD support up to 256 GB
• GSM/GPRS/EDGE networks (900/1800/1900 MHz)
• WCDMA/HSPA+ networks (850/900/1900/2100 MHz); CDMA 800 & TD-SCDMA
• LTE Cat.6 networks FDD (B1/3/7/8), TD (B38—41)
• Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n (2.4 GHz)
• Bluetooth 4.2, A2DP, LE
• GPS, A-GPS, Glonass, BDS
• Micro-USB 2.0, USB OTG
• Main camera 13 + 2 MP, autofocus, f/2.2, video 1080p
• Front camera 13 + 2 MP, f/2.0, fixed. focus
• Proximity and light sensors, magnetometer, accelerometer, gyroscope, step counter
• Fingerprint's scanner
• Battery 3000 mAh
• Dimensions 151×72×7.6 mm
• Weight 149 g

It’s worth starting with the fact that Honor, having separated into an independent Internet brand several years ago, still remains a brand closely associated with the main Huawei brand. Therefore, it is not surprising that mobile products of both brands of each generation have a lot in common not only in terms of hardware and technical characteristics, but also in appearance and design.

The recently presented Honor 7X, for example, is almost a copy of most models in metal cases from Huawei Nova 2 to P10. However, Honor 9 Lite remained true to the general design concept and style of the latest Honor flagships and, like Honor 9, received an all-glass body.

The body of Honor 9 Lite can be called ergonomic, it is not too large, and due to the streamlined sides it is quite comfortable to hold in the hand and fits snugly in clothing pockets. At the same time, glass surfaces can slip in your hands, this must be taken into account. But as for the aesthetic side, the high-quality oleophobic coating on the glass prevents the body from quickly becoming covered with fingerprints.

The main distinguishing feature of the smartphone is the presence of four cameras. The Honor 9 Lite has two of them installed on the front and back, which is extremely unusual for a device in this price category; it adds points to an inexpensive mobile device.

The front and rear cameras each have two sensors, a main 13-megapixel and an additional 2-megapixel. The front camera is equipped with an f/2.0 aperture lens and supports an advanced photo beautification mode that works depending on the gender and age of the person, recognizing the contours and features of the face. Gesture control is supported, and there is a familiar mode for creating a bokeh effect. To release the shutter, just wave your hand in the frame - the camera will take a photo in 2 seconds.

Examples of shooting with the front camera of Honor 9 Lite:

The rear camera has an f/2.2 aperture lens and PDAF phase focusing, and a wide aperture mode allows you to change the focus on ready-made photographs. This emulates manual aperture control in the range from f/0.95 to f/16. Recording photos in RAW is not supported.

Examples of shooting with the rear camera of Honor 9 Lite:

The maximum video recording resolution is 1080p at 30 fps. There is no optical stabilization. The camera shoots video quite satisfactorily for its level. In good lighting the picture is decent, but even in low light conditions the sharpness and detail do not drop very much. The sound is also recorded quite clearly, the microphones are sensitive, and the noise reduction system works adequately.

Video examples:

• Video No. 1 (1920×1080, 30 fps, H.264)
• Video No. 2 (1920×1080, 30 fps, H.264)
• Video No. 3 (1920×1080, 30 fps, H.264)

Also among the functional advantages of the new product with an attractive price is the presence of a huge FullView HD screen with an aspect ratio of 18:9, a diagonal of 5.65 inches and a resolution of 1080×2160.

The smartphone is built on the familiar mid-range 8-core Kirin 659 chipset, manufactured using a 16 nm process technology and equipped with a Mali-T830 graphics module.

The device has 3 GB of RAM, a built-in storage capacity of 32 GB, and memory cards up to 256 GB are also supported.

The smartphone comes with the new Android 8.0 Oreo operating system and the proprietary EMUI interface, which has been updated to version 8.0.

The new version of the proprietary shell has a number of improvements that increase comfort of use, speed up the launch of applications and reduce energy consumption due to “smart” resource distribution.

The Honor 9 Lite model is available in three color options, traditionally given beautiful names: “midnight black”, “sapphire blue” and “ice grey”. The “mirror reflection” effect due to the special substrate under the glass is available only in the blue and gray modifications. Sales of Honor 9 Lite in Russia and Armenia will start on February 8. You can purchase a smartphone for 14,990 rubles in the official online store shop.huawei.ru and in the company’s partner stores.

Honor 9 Lite comparison with competitors

Let's compare the new product with its closest relative - Honor 9 and with the Honor 9i, which is very close in parameters.

Honor 9 Lite and Honor 9i are very similar smartphones. This is confirmed by many parameters. It is they who may begin to compete with each other within the same brand. Both smartphones run on the HiSilicon Kirin 659 chip, have a Mali-T830 video processor and have 4GB of RAM. Consequently, the performance of the phones is almost identical to each other - 75,000 Antutu points. Honor 9 does not fit in here a little with its Kirin 960 and almost 148,000 Antutu rating points. If we said that the hero of the review is capable of providing good performance, then imagine how Honor 9 will work. The main reviewer stands out with a new system - Android Oreo. The displays of all compared ones are made using IPS technology. Diagonals vary: the most powerful Honor 9 has the smallest screen - 5.15 inches with a resolution of 1080x1920 pixels. “9i” has a 5.9-inch with a resolution of 1080x2160, and Honor 9 Lite has 5.65 inches with a resolution of 1080x2160 pixels. All those reviewed, in general, can boast of good image quality. “9i”, like “9 Light”, has as many as four cameras, however, the rear photo sensors of the Honor 9i smartphone look a little more interesting (16MP+2MP versus 13MP+2MP). Honor 9 surpasses everyone in this parameter - 12MP+20MP. From the point of view of front cameras, the situation is even (13MP+2MP for Light and 9i, 8MP for Honor 9). There are also not many differences in battery capacity (3000mAh for Honor 9 Lite, 3200mAh for Honor 9, 3340mAh for Honor 9i). The cost of the review hero is ~15,000 rubles, Honor 9i is 13,000 rubles, and the average price for Honor 9 is ~25,000 rubles. The manufacturer is asking a slightly more significant amount for the new product, despite the fact that the Honor 9i slightly wins in some parameters.

Photo examples

The Honor 9 Lite smartphone allows you to take really high-quality pictures, you can see this by looking at a few examples. Photos taken with this smartphone have a very good color balance and do not suffer from excess noise. True, the bokeh on a smartphone is not the highest quality, since you still shouldn’t expect miracles from 2 megapixel modules, but overall the result is very decent.

If you're going to shoot at night, you shouldn't expect high quality. Of course, everything is not that bad, but you will definitely see some noise in the photo. Fine details will become blurry.

If you take photos with too much light, then you should use the “HDR mode”. Also, to improve the quality of your photos, you will need filters that will help you get a photo to suit your taste. There are a lot of filters on the phone, so you will have plenty to experiment with.

It is worth saying a few words about “Panoramic photography”. This feature is not often used and rarely mentioned, but this device has it and it is implemented quite well. If you suddenly need it, the device will allow you to take good quality panoramic pictures. The smartphone also has a “Professional” shooting mode, which will allow you to adjust exposure, focus, white balance, shutter speed and ISO. A very useful mode that will be useful for those who understand this topic.

In general, the functions of the Honor 9 Lite camera allow you to take very good photos, and if you compare the cameras of the Honor 9 Kite and other smartphones in this price segment, you can see that the hero of our review shows the best results.

Design

The review continues for Huawei Honor 9 Lite. Now let's look at the less important parameters and start with the design. Although some may say that this is a fundamental criterion when choosing, but still...

The model turned out to be controversial in terms of ergonomics. The smartphone is quite large due to its 5.65-inch screen, but not huge. Yes, it is slightly larger than the average devices in this price segment, but at the same time smaller than similar models with such screens.

The size of a smartphone resembles a small tablet. It measures 151mm in height, 71.9mm in width and 7.6mm in thickness. It is thin, but at the same time long and wide. The dimensions make it difficult to use the smartphone with one hand.

But design means not only dimensions, but also how the phone looks. He is very handsome. Its glass panels reflect in the sun and at a certain angle resemble a mirror.

There are different color options that greatly influence the appearance. Black Honor 9 Lite looks very strict and brutal. This color is more suitable for men. And the blue Honor 9 Lite, on the contrary, is softer, which is more suitable for women.