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"The Honor 9X Pro is good value for money, but has some major drawbacks, including a confusing software situation."

• Solid performance

• Big display

• Long lasting battery

• Neat camera with many functions

• Outdated software

• Limited availability of the app

• Slow battery charging

For just $ 300, you can buy the Honor 9X Pro smartphone, which undercuts inexpensive phones like the Google Pixel 3a and the Apple iPhone SE 2020. But is it worth saving some money to buy the Honor 9X Pro instead? Honor is known for trendy designs and specifications that outperform the competition, features that the 9X Pro certainly offers – but unfortunately, the software of the phone lets it down.

design

The Honor 9X Pro is a large smartphone. It's only a few millimeters from the bulk of the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra, and weighs 20 grams less than the Samsung Monster – 202 grams versus 222 grams – and feels heavier and more voluminous in your hand. The sides are not rounded so neatly and generally feel thicker and wider than the measurements suggest.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

While the Honor 9X has a plastic back, the Honor 9X Pro has a glass rear wall with a new X design. The 9X's pixel art look has been replaced with a more mature design that uses a blue-purple gradient effect to showcase the X. It looks great, especially in the sun. Yes, it's striking, but it stands out. You will not confuse the Honor 9X Pro with another phone.

In the upper left corner there is a three-lens camera in a module that is smaller than many competitors. There is a large fingerprint sensor in the power switch on the side of the phone. This is very much appreciated. While not as pioneering as a fingerprint sensor on the display, it is significantly faster and more reliable than the in-display readers available on phones in this price range. I will take the illusion of owning a more expensive device every day.

The fingerprint sensor and the color are clear reasons to take a closer look at the Honor 9X Pro. However, the overall size and weight are off-putting. It will only appeal to people who want a very, very large phone.

Display quality

This brings us to the reason for the phone's large dimensions – it has a 6.59-inch screen. It's a whopper (especially for a budget device), but the resolution is modest at 2340 x 1080 pixels, and it appears to be the same panel used for the regular Honor 9X. It is an LCD screen like the Moto G stylus and not an OLED panel like the Samsung Galaxy A51. Will you notice the difference? Yes. The colors are not so vivid or natural and the viewing angles are not that wide. However, given the low price of the phone, it's still attractive enough.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The screen is flat and has no curved edges to soften the appearance or minimize reflections. I found it quite difficult to find the right viewing angle on the Honor 9X Pro, and it's not that bright even in direct sunlight.

Still, the Honor 9X Pro's screen is good for most everyday purposes – especially text, social media, reading messages, and sending messages with friends. There's also no selfie camera to distract you, as the selfie camera is hidden in a motorized pop-up module on top of the phone.

Unfortunately, the 16-megapixel pop-up camera, like the Honor 9X, is sluggish. It takes a beat or two longer than I would like when it comes out of the body, and then makes an unsettling "click" that you can feel through the body of the phone. I don't expect that from the usually excellent Honor build quality. The slow speed also means that Honor didn't worry about a face unlock option on the 9X Pro.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The Honor 9X Pro lacks the most sophisticated screen technology and the smooth curves that make expensive phones look so modern. Still, it's fine for normal everyday use.

Camera quality

The triple lens camera on the back consists of a 48 megapixel 1: 1.8 main camera, a 1: 2 / 4-8 megapixel wide-angle camera and a 2 megapixel depth detection camera. Sounds familiar? It's exactly the same as the Honor 9X's camera, released in mid-2019. It seems that Honor has optimized the software and does not oversaturate every image in the same way, although this is still possible on bright and sunny days.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

I have nothing against a vivid, saturated photo and understand that many people like to share this type of picture. But even for me, some of the Honor 9X Pro's footage went overboard. The camera can take wide-angle pictures and with 2x zoom. Without a telephoto lens, however, these recordings are digitally cropped. Nevertheless, the zoomed photos are quite good and show enough details without much loss. This is likely due to Honor's use of Huawei's excellent camera technology for artificial intelligence.

Edge detection and focusing in portrait and aperture modes is much less successful, and the camera does not excel when it approaches subjects and produces blurry photos when you try to blur the background. When using the aperture mode, even the edges of relatively simple shapes were misjudged. Night mode effectively brightens pictures, but the pictures lack life and detail.

• 1.
  Non-night mode
• 2nd
  Night mode

Selfies are acceptable without being outstanding. Honor sets the beauty mode to a medium level by default. Therefore, pay attention to a certain smoothing of the skin, especially in portrait mode. You don't want to do this often anyway, because edge detection is not good. However, I like some of the special modes, including the greeting mode, which removes all but one color, and the excellent photo editing tool in the Gallery app.

Wide angle

default

2x zoom Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

10x zoom Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Taking photos with the Honor 9X Pro is very similar to taking photos with the Honor 9X, an older phone that's cheaper to buy and doesn't feel good. These photos are shared and fun, but it's not worth spending more on.

software

In terms of software, the news is not good. My test Honor 9X Pro installed Android 9 with Huawei EMUI 9.1 and the Android security patch from November 2019. This is a step backwards for Honor, as the 9X Pro not only does not have Honor's own MagicUI on Android, but the basic version of Android is completely out of date. The Honor 9X Pro also does not come with Google Mobile Services or the Google Play Store.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The Huawei App Gallery and alternative third-party app stores such as the Amazon App Store are your sources for apps. The situation here is the same as that of the Huawei P40 Pro and the Huawei Mate Xs folding smartphone. In a separate article, I explained in detail what it means to not have Google Play installed.

The app gallery is improving and Huawei is confident that it will get much better soon. Although practical new apps like Here WeGo cards have arrived, they are still sparingly available. Migrating from Google is not as challenging as you might fear. However, the problem occurs when you try to install apps that are not available from official sources. For example, banking apps are completely missing. There is also no mobile payment system and, of course, no official Google Apps.

You will rely more on the browser. I installed Firefox and synced my Google Chrome data to make it easier to use. From there it is easy to access the web versions of YouTube, mobile banking and services like Uber. However, the experience is not as fluid or reliable as an app.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

EMUI 9.1 may be out of date, but important features like gesture control are still included and work very well on the 9X Pro's large screen. However, I miss features like a constantly active screen and dark mode that are found in many other Honor, Huawei, and competitive phones.

Learning how to get new apps makes switching from a Google Services phone to the Honor 9X Pro a more complex and time-consuming task than we'd like, while the old software and outdated security update will be an unwanted obstacle for buyers.

Power and battery

The Honor 9X Pro has a Kirin 810 octa-core processor with 6 GB RAM and 256 GB internal storage space. My review phone also has NFC, although Google Pay is not supported. I ran two benchmark apps for comparison, but they were installed outside of the app gallery, so they may not give accurate results.

3DMark Sling Shot Extreme: 2,517 (volcano)

Geekbench 5: 580 single core / 1,843 multi core

This is better than the Samsung Galaxy A51 and the Google Pixel 3a, but of course it cannot come close to the OnePlus 8 with its Snapdragon 865 chipset. The Honor 9X Pro always felt fast enough, even when playing. Asphalt 9: Legends is available in the App Gallery and the racing game runs very well on the Honor 9X Pro. I haven't seen any performance issues and really enjoyed playing it. Sound comes from a single, down-facing speaker that's loud enough to irritate people around you while playing or watching movies, but doesn't have a lot of bass or detail.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The battery has a capacity of 4,000 mAh and is very durable. I found that he was kept in moderate operation for two days without any problems. This is a good thing because the phone cannot be charged quickly, which is possible with a 10W USB Type-C charger. You want to charge overnight as it takes at least 2 hours to fully charge from the empty state. Yes, the Honor 9X Pro is an affordable phone, but Honor and Huawei have one of the best quick charging systems available, and it's a shame not to see it here for added value.

Price, guarantee and availability

The Honor 9X Pro is available in the UK through Honor's own online shop for £ 250 or around $ 305 and is also available in various European countries, the Middle East and Asia. Anyone interested in the Honor 9X Pro in the U.S. must buy one through an importer. In the UK, the phone grants a two-year warranty on defects, with the battery and charger covered for six months.

Our opinion

For the price, the Honor 9X Pro offers great value for money with excellent performance, a decent camera, a large screen and a long-lasting battery. Slow charging of the battery, a bulky shape and the availability of apps decrease. Although this is a situation that Honor cannot resolve very quickly, it should really do something about the outdated software.

Is there a better alternative?

Yes. If you can expand your budget to $ 400, we recommend buying the iPhone SE 2020, one of our cheapest smartphones. The performance is great, the software is kept up to date for years and the style and build quality are excellent. The $ 400 Google Pixel 3a is also a great phone, but it is getting old and a Pixel 4a is on the horizon. You might also want to check out the Samsung Galaxy A51 for $ 400 and the older Motorola Moto G7. If you don't have an Honor phone, the cheaper Honor 9X is very similar to the 9X Pro.

How long it will take?

The Honor 9X Pro is not a durable phone and has no water resistance. So if you want a long life, you should put it in a protective case for protection. Due to the performance and size of the screen, the phone is suitable for a few years. During this time, Huawei is sure to increase the number of apps in its app gallery.

The outdated software is a warning sign and indicates that you should not expect many updates in the future. This means the phone may be vulnerable to security issues and not benefit from features introduced in future versions of EMUI or Android.

Should you buy it

No. The Honor 9X Pro is a good phone, but the software – both in terms of app availability and updates – is not.

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