Honor 9X Pro and View 30 Pro global versions announced, we go hands-on

Just like its parent Huawei, Honor is trying its best to adapt to the current unfavorable situation where it has to live without Google Mobile Services. The company is putting a lot of effort into building its own alternatives and is now bringing two new phones to let you check out its progress - the Honor 9X Pro the V30/View 30 Pro.

Honor 9X Pro

Global, in this particular case, means that the Chinese specific default apps are gone, to be replaced by Huawei's own HMS (Huawei Mobile Services). The intent is clear - develop a Google alternative on the back-end, user side as well as the cloud. That's a daunting task, if we ever saw one and even if executed flawlessly would still require some getting used to by both users and developers.

From a hardware standpoint, both the new Honor View 30 Pro and the 9X Pro global versions are identical to their Chinese counterparts. Starting with the more budget-friendly 9X Pro, it comes packing a 6.59-inch, FHD+ IPS display. Notch-free, thanks to the periscope design for the 16MP, f/2.2 selfie camera. Under the hood - a Kirin 810 chipset, 8GB of RAM and 128GB or 256GB of expandable storage.

The main camera has a 48MP sensor and f/1.8 lens, and it's joined by an 8MP f/2.4 ultrawide unit and a 2MP depth sensor.

A 4,000 mAh battery powers the phone, which comes with a 3.5mm jack, FM Radio receiver and side-mounted fingerprint reader.

Honor 9X Pro

The Honor 9X Pro will be available in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Egypt, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Malaysia, starting March 2020, with an MSRP of €249.

We are will be able to spend more time with a Honor 9X Pro unit soon, and perform a full review. Hopefully, that will give us a better idea of the progress the HMS ecosystem has made.

Honor View 30 Pro

The Honor V30 Pro goes global under a new name - View 30 Pro, but offers the same 6.57-inch IPS display of FullHD+ resolution. Its 32MP F/2.0 selfie camera is shares a a punch hole with an 8MP F/2.2 ultrawide unit.

Honor View 30 Pro

The View 30 Pro packs the flagship Kirin 990 5G chipset and a more potent rear camera setup - 40MP f/1.6 main unit, 8MP f/2.4 3x telephoto snapper and 12MP, f/2.2 ultrawide unit.

The Honor View 30 has a large 4,100 mAh battery with 40W wired, 27W fast wireless and even reverse charging support.

You get 8GB of RAM and 128GB or 256GB of storage, but no card slot for expansion. Compared to the 9x Pro, the View 30 Pro also skips on a 3.5mm jack and FM Radio. It does include NFC and and IR blaster, though.

The Honor View 30 will make its global debut in Russia, but its pricing is yet to be confirmed.

We've actually already put the China-bound View 30 Pro through our rigorous review process. You can check that out for more in-depth info, while we wait for the global version to roll out.