Huawei Honor 9i quick review: Strong contender for crown in mid-range segment

Huawei subsidiary—Honor—celebrated its third anniversary in India by launching the company's new smartphone Honor 9i on Thursday (October 5).

During the launch event, we spent a brief time with new Honor 9i and here's our initial impression of the device, which happens to be the world's first smartphone to boast FullView display and house four cameras.

Honor 9i quick review: Design and display

Firstly, we like remind our readers that the new Honor 9i is a rebranded version of Huawei Maimang 6 (in China) and Nova 2i (in Malaysia). All share same exterior looks and internal hardware.

The Honor 9i sports a beautifully crafted uni-body design language having full-metal shell on the back and also visually appealing 5.99-inch front panel, wherein more than 80 percent of it is covered by the IPS LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), which is dubbed as the 'FullView' screen, having full HD+ (2160x1080p) resolution and 18:9 aspect ratio.

Despite the shortage of space, the company engineer's have managed to tuck in not one, but two cameras along with a slew of sensors on the top, in the front panel.

On the rear side, it houses a dual-camera module with LED flash on top and a fingerprint sensor below. Its antenna bands (top and the base) come with matching shades that perfectly blends into the device's colour.

Honor 9i quick review: Camera

The new Honor 9i comes packed with 13MP+2MP shooters on the front, whereas on the back, it has 16MP+2MP snappers and both feature Bokeh effect capability via portrait mode.

During our brief time with the phone, both the dual cameras on the front and the back took some good images under the bright lighting setup in the indoors at the demo area. But, we reserve our final judgement on the camera's capabilities only after conducting a full-fledge test in different lighting conditions.

Honor 9i quick review: Processor, RAM, storage and battery

The new Honor 9i is powered by Huawei's proprietary HiSilicon Kirin 659 octa-core backed by Android Nougat-based EMUI interface, 4GB RAM and a 64GB storage. The phone responded fast when loading apps and launching camera. More tests need to be conducted to fully assess the phone's processor capabilities.

The new Honor 9i comes with a 3,340mAh battery, which is more than sufficient to pull off a whole day.

Honor 9i quick review: First impression

Considering the gorgeous design language, feature-rich camera set-up and a cost-effective price-tag of Rs. 17,999, the new Honor 9i has the potential to become the top smartphone in the mid-range segment.

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