Honor 9X Pro review

Introduction

It's captivating, it's immersive, it's powerful, and it's cheap - that's the Honor 9X Pro! There is a catch, of course, and it's the absence of anything Google on board. It's a problem that you can live with, but the most important question is whether the Honor 9X Pro is worth that hassle.

The global version of the Honor 9X Pro isn't that different from the Google-friendly Honor 9X, but it has one tempting advantage - the more powerful Kirin 810 chip.

But it's one very intriguing smartphone with dazzling looks, powerful hardware, a capable camera, and an instant eye-grabber - an immersive notch-free display. It has lots of RAM and storage, too, and the battery should last you quite long.

The Honor 9X Pro is running on Android 9 Pie with EMUI 9.1 by Huawei, and it has the new Huawei Mobile Services that come to replace Google's. The AppGallery is available, sure, and its app catalog is still growing. If you can't find your favorite apps there are a few workarounds so we figured we should give the Honor 9x Pro a chance.

Honor 9X Pro specs

• Body: Front and rear glass, aluminum frame, 206g.
• Display: 6.59" LTPS IPS LCD, 1,080 x 2,340px, 19.5:9 aspect ratio, 391ppi.
• Rear camera: Primary - 48MP, 27mm, f/1.8; PDAF; Ultrawide - 8MP, 13mm, f/2.4; Depth sensor - 2MP. Video recording up to 1080p@30fps.
• Front camera: Motorized pop-up with 16MP, f/2.2; fixed focus lens.
• OS/Software: Android 9 Pie, EMUI 9.1.
• Chipset: Kirin 810: octa-core CPU (2x2.27 GHz Cortex-A76 & 6x1.88 GHz Cortex-A55); Mali-G52 MP6 GPU.
• Memory: 8GB of RAM; 128/256GB storage; microSD card slot (hybrid).
• Battery: 4,000mAh, 5V/2A charging
• Connectivity: Dual SIM; Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.0; USB-C, 3.5mm jack.
• Misc: Fingerprint reader (side-mounted)

We'd say we are missing some proper fast charging, splash protection, and a newer Android OS, but then again, we are looking at a €250 smartphone so we might forgive a few ommissions here and there if everything else checks out.