Introduction
Last year, we reviewed the HONOR 9X, a product with some drawbacks here and there. The company launched the “Pro” variant earlier this month. However, it doesn’t come with Google Mobile Services (GMS). Without further ado, this is the HONOR 9X Pro review!
Design
In terms of design, the HONOR 9X Pro shares the same design language over the regular 9X. This time around, the phone is only available in the Phantom Purple color option. Similar to the regular 9X, it has the same 6.59-inch Full HD+ IPS HONOR FullView display with a 92% screen-to-body ratio. Its front-facing camera is pop-up style, meaning there’s no notch nor camera cutout.
The back of the phone has a gradient from purple to pink with the X effect. Same as the 9X, its back isn’t made up of glass material, which means the phone will get scratched easily.
The ports and buttons are located at the same place, you have the pop-up selfie camera and SIM tray on the top, volume rocker and power button on the right, 3.5mm audio jack, USB-C port, and mono speaker at the bottom. The only change is the power button now also doubles up as a fingerprint sensor.
Display
The 9X Pro has a 6.59-inch Full HD+ IPS HONOR FullView display. Overall, the screen quality is quite similar to regular 9X. The screen is sharp but not as vibrant as an OLED panel, and color temperature tends to be on the cooler side. It’s great to see a phone like this doesn’t have a notch or camera cutout, which provides a nice viewing experience.
Performance
Moving to the performance, which is a major drawback for last year’s 9X because of the relatively old processor. For the 9X Pro, it is powered by a Kirin 810 processor with 6GB RAM and 256GB internal storage. HONOR claims that the Kirin 810 is a flagship-level chipset, not entirely true since the company also has the Kirin 990 chipset, which can be found in HONOR/HUAWEI flagship devices.
However, it’s a good enough chipset for gaming as I was able to play Call of Duty: Mobile in “Very High” graphic quality and “Very High” frame rate. For PUBG Mobile, I was only able to run “HD” graphics with “High” frame rate and “Smooth” graphics with “Ultra” frame rate. If only last year’s 9X has this kind of performance, it would make the 9X a good sub-RM1k phone. With this new Kirin 810 chipset, it also comes with a compromise, which led us to the next part — software.
Software
Weirdly enough, the 9X Pro still runs on EMUI 9.1 based on Android 9.0. Most smartphones launched this year are running on Android 10 out of the box. Unfortunately, it doesn’t come with Google Mobile Services (GMS). To resolve this issue, the 9X Pro uses HUAWEI Mobile Services (HMS).
It means that you don’t get Google apps and services such as Google Maps, Google Drive, YouTube, Google Photos, Google Play Store, Google Chrome, and more. Additionally, there are some popular apps such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Spotify are missing out too. Other apps that depend on the infrastructure provided by Google through GMS won’t work well or not working at all.
HUAWEI AppGallery replaces Google Play Store, which lets you download the apps. Sadly, most apps that I’m using aren’t available, meaning I’ll have to download the APK files myself. I’ve been using Aurora Store as the alternative, but for sure it won’t be as convenient as the Google Play Store since you need to press the install button yourself for every app.
The user experience was pretty much affected without GMS, and it’s annoying to see ads when I open AppGallery. For more information about HMS, you can read my “Living with HUAWEI AppGallery” article here.
Camera
The camera setup is pretty similar to the 9X. At the back, you get triple-camera setup — 2MP depth sensor + 48MP f/1.8 main camera + 8MP ultra-wide lens. It also features AIS Super Night Mode for a better low-light photo. Selfie wise, there’s a 16MP pop-up front camera.
Check out the camera samples via Shutterfly here!
Image quality generally is pretty much the same as the 9X. It is quite decent with a nice amount of detail and a great dynamic range when the lighting environment is well-lit. The phone can shoot a better low-light photo with the AIS Super Night Mode feature.
Battery Life
The HONOR 9X Pro packs a 4,000mAh battery without fast charging. Its battery life isn’t as good as the 9X, probably because of the more powerful chipset. Based on my usage, I was able to get slightly more than 4 hours of screen-on-time. The phone comes with a maximum of 10W output charging, which will take a long time to charge it.
Final Words
Retailing at RM999, same as the 9X initial launch price, the HONOR 9X Pro fixed the major problem the 9X has — the performance. Here comes another issue, its software is a big problem. Without GMS, it really takes out the soul of a smartphone. I’m not saying HMS is bad, it’s just that we are too used to Google apps and services, can you imagine watching YouTube using the phone browser because the official app doesn’t work? Still, we hope one day the AppGallery will get most of the apps on board, this is just the initial stage and it’ll need time.
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