Huawei Honor 9i Pros and Cons: Should You Buy It?

If you take a look at the set of phones released in India ahead of the festive season, you’d notice that most of the phones sport a dual camera setup — either at the front or the back. However, breaking the stereotype is the Honor 9i. Not only does it have a rear dual camera but it also sports a dual camera at the front.

Priced at Rs. 17,999, the Huawei Honor 9i boasts a slimmer profile, HiSilicon Kirin 659 chipset, 4 GB of RAM and more.

So, should you buy the Honor 9i? Here, we weigh its pros and cons and help you make a good decision.

See Also:Xiaomi Mi A1 Pros and Cons: Should You Buy It?

Huawei Honor 9i Pros

1. Cameras, Cameras Everywhere

As mentioned above, the Huawei Honor 9i is one of the first ones to feature 4 cameras in total. It sports two dual cameras in the rear and the front. Not only will you be able to capture impressive Portrait shots of your buddies, you will also be able to take Bokeh shots through the selfie shooter.

When it comes to the specs, it packs in a 16-megapixel + 2-megapixel rear camera with dual-LED flash. As for the selfie shooter, it’s a combination of 13-megapixel and a 2-megapixel lens coupled with a soft LED flash.

Apart from the popular Bokeh effect, the Honor 9i also features gesture activated selfies and a 120°-wide angle.

Also See: 5 Best Dual Camera Phones Under Rs 20000 for August 2017

2. Cool FullView Display with Minimal Bezzles

The Honor 9i features a 5.9-inch FullView display with minimal bezels and an aspect ratio of 18:9. Along with that it carries an FHD+ (2160 x 1080) resolution and comes with a screen to body ratio of 83 percent.

The display is tall just like the Galaxy S8, but without the sublime edges. Plus, the images are sharp and crisp.

3. Feature Rich EMUI on Android N

It’s no secret that Android users continue to remain divided over stock Android and feature-rich Android experience. Well, if you are one who favors a feature-rich experience, you’re in luck.

The Honor 9i packs in EMUI 5 running on top of Android Nougat. Thus, you get the native Android N features along with additional features like App twin, navigation buttons customization and floating dock.

Also See: 3 Ways Android Nougat is Protecting You From Ransomware

4. Battery Power

The Honor 9i is powered by a 3,340 mAh battery and as per the company, it can last up to two days on a single charge.

Though two days seems a bit far stretched, given the time an average Android user spends on phones these days. On the brighter side, you can safely assume that it’ll last up to one and a half days on a full charge.

Huawei Honor 9i Cons

1. No Quick Charge

Aforesaid, the Honor 9i is powered by the HiSilicon Kirin 659 chipset. And this is the reason that the phone lacks Qualcomm’s Quick Charge technology. It bundles in a standard 5V and 2A adapter.

At a time when and phones like the Xiaomi Mi Max 2 (read review) are packing in Quick Charge 3.0 and charge-on-the-go is a primary feature that millennials look for in a phone, it would have been a great advantage had the Honor 9i carried a similar feature.

2. No USB Type-C

It’s 2017 and the world is moving at a fast pace, to the extent that phones using USB Type-C 2.0 are frowned upon, in favor of the faster USB Type-C 3.0.

Unfortunately, the Honor 9i is still stuck in the age of micro-USB port and cables.

See More: USB Type-C Explained: What it is and What it Can Do

3. No Optical Zoom

If you recall, most of the dual camera phones — right from the high-end iPhone X to the affordable Xiaomi Mi A1 — featured an optical zoom, thanks to the secondary telephoto lens.

In fact, these phones sport a dedicated 2x button on the camera interface using which you can take a zoomed picture without the image quality taking a hit.

As said above, the secondary camera of the Honor 9i is a 2-megapixel camera and it acts as a depth sensor. Thus, if you are thinking of capturing faraway or macro shots, chances are that you’d have to look for a different phone.

See More: 6 Out of the Box Ways to Use a Mobile Camera

4. Less Powerful Speakers

The speakers of the Honor 9i aren’t that loud. So, if you’re planning to play games or listen to music over the speakers, odds are that you’d have to strain your ears to catch the songs.

Also, the sound quality is just about average. If you ask me, for quality songs and video experience, hook on the earphones for the best experience.

Buy the Huawei Honor 9i (64 GB Storage | 4 GB RAM)

Should I Buy … or Should I Not?

Overall, the Honor 9i is a decent phone with a dual set of dual camera, sleek design, and the latest version of Android. Plus, the full metal unibody design and the tall FullView Display give an extra edge to it.

However, it’s the price that could be a potential issue. At a time when the Indian market is flooded with phones like Moto G5S Plus, Xiaomi Mi A1, and the Samsung Galaxy J7 Max, I would say it would be a tad hard to break into the current buying trend of Indian consumers.

Do watch out this space for the full review of the Honor 9i.

See Next: 9 Best Honor 9i Features That You Shouldn’t Miss