Honor V9 First Impressions

Back in February, Huawei’s Honor brand launched a new smartphone for the Chinese market that packs a 5.7-inch QHD display, Kirin 960 CPU, up to 6GB RAM, dual 12MP rear cameras, and 4,000mAh battery – the Honor V9. It’s not officially available in the Philippines but it has made its way here through online stores. Check out our initial thoughts about the device below.

Right off the bat, the Honor V9 is more like a mix of what is beautiful about the Huawei P10 and the Apple iPhone 7 Plus. It has a metal unibody that curves on corners and sides. It only measures 6.97mm thick which is impressive considering it has a 4,000mAh battery.

On the front is a 5.7-inch QHD LPTS display, which equates to 515ppi, and pretty slim side bezels. Placed above it is the receiver with a notifications light, sensor, and 8MP front camera. Down below is the honor logo. There are no capacitive keys here since the V9 uses on-screen navigation buttons. Protecting all of it is Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3.

On the left is the hybrid SIM tray, while on the right are the metallic volume and power/lock keys.

Found at the top are the Ir blaster and microphone, while down below is the 3.5mm headset port, microphone, USB-C port, and loudspeaker.

Turn it on its back and you will see the dual 12MP cameras with dual-tone flash, and the round fingerprint scanner. Also visible here are two antenna bands.

On the hands, the V9 feels very premium as it’s just glass and metal. Although a bit wide which makes it a bit cumbersome to navigate with one hand, it’s thin and easy to pocket. It’s also hefty at 184g which adds to that “solid” feel. All in all, a pretty luxurious device.

As for the engine under the hood, it’s running Huawei’s HiSilicon Kirin 960 octa-core CPU clocked at 2.4GHz – the same processor powering the Huawei Mate 9. The unit we have on hand is equipped with 6GB RAM and 64GB of storage.

The Honor V9 is priced at Php24,500USD 417INR 35,393EUR 398CNY 3,040 and is available at Widget City.

Honor V9 specs:
5.7-inch QHD LTPS display, 515ppi
2.4GHz HiSilicon Kirin 960 octa-core CPU
Mali-G71 MP8 GPU
4GB RAM + 64GB storage
6GB RAM + 64GB / 128GB storage
microSD up to 128GB (via SIM 2)
Dual 12MP rear camera PDAF + Laser AF, dual-tone flash
8MP front camera
4G LTE, VoLTE
Dual-SIM (Nano)
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
Bluetooth 4.2, A2DP, LE
GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS
NFC
USB 2.0 Type-C
Fingerprint scanner
Android 7.0 Nougat w/ EMUI 5.0
4,000mAh non-removable battery
157 x 77.5 x 6.97 mm
184g