It comes in a white and blue cardboard box with the brand’s name and a shiny 9X. On one of the sides are the characteristics in Chinese. As you may have already imagined, it is a Chinese version and lacks the CE logo (European Conformity).
When we open it, we see the terminal at the top. Underneath is a box that includes an instruction guide, the key to open the SIM card slot, and a transparent TPU case (it’s like flexible silicone).
Design and Screen
It has a very striking design, and it is a phone with “all screen” or “infinity” and microscopic margins. Unlike others, this one does not have a notch (tab on the screen) for the camera but instead has a Pop-up camera that will come out of the top when we need it.
Its dimensions are 77.2 mm wide, 163.1 mm high, and it has a thickness of 8.8 mm, which makes its weight 210g.
There are several colors (black, blue, turquoise, and a gradient blue color called Phantom Blue). All of them are made of aluminum, making the exquisite phone thanks to its shiny “X” shaped back.
This Honor 9X has a 6.59-inch IPS LCD screen with a Full HD+ resolution of 1080×2340 pixels and a pixel density per inch of 391ppi. It is a screen rounded in the corners and has 2.5D glass. The aspect ratio remains at 19.5:9.
The screen quality is excellent. The colors are very intense, and the brightness is incredible. I do NOT think we will have problems seeing the screen on any occasion. In addition, it has a reading mode and an option to calibrate the temperature and color of the screen.
The back is bright blue without any gradient. In the upper left part, it has two cameras placed vertically and with a double LED flash below (simulating a third). Just below is the name of the brand. The rear edges have a slight curve, making it more comfortable to hold.
On the right side is the volume up and down button (in the traditional way), and just below it has a clearance where the on and off switch is located. This button also works as a fingerprint reader for unlocking. It works very well, and I think it’s a pretty good place to put the fingerprint sensor because after pressing, it instantly opens. Up to 5 fingerprints can be entered.
On the contrary, on the left side, it is entirely free.
In the lower area, there is a 3.5mm jack connector for headphones, USB type C (reversible), and holes for the speaker and microphone. The top edge has a slot for nano-SIM cards and the pop-up selfie camera.
Software
This Honor 9X comes with Android 9 Pie under the EMUI 9.1.1 customization layer (9.1.1.131), updatable via OTA (automatic update via notification). This is a Chinese ROM packed with Chinese language apps. Most of them are easily uninstallable. Even so, it exceeds thirty applications, including native Android applications.
Despite being Chinese, it comes with the world’s main languages, including Spanish, Basque, Galician, and Catalan.
Unfortunately, manipulating it does not come with Google services or anything like that becomes a bit complicated. That’s why I have tried to install Google services from different sources. At first, it was useless since the apps I downloaded didn’t work, or I downloaded fake apps. Then I found the solution.
This solution is currently unavailable, but new methods may emerge. Even so, I leave you the tutorial in case you re-enable it:
Following these steps, an application has been downloaded, and I have given to continue all the efforts. In this way, I have installed Google services and the Play Store.
A novelty that this Honor brings is the fingerprint reader that it brings. Unlike the latest models that have it on the screen, Honor has made sure to add a fingerprint reader on the side (on the power button). It works well, but it takes a bit of getting used to unlocking it from here.
I have not found facial recognition, so we can only unlock it with a PIN or fingerprint reader.
As we have already said, this terminal comes with many applications in Chinese, and the Malwarebytes antivirus will likely detect some malicious applications. However, after uninstalling them, no vulnerabilities were found.
Power and Hardware
There are two versions of this terminal: the Honor 9X and the Honor 9X Pro (both with the same processor).
To check the actual performance, we have run the AnTuTu performance test. In this case, we released version 8 of the AnTuTu test with the phone as it came from the factory, achieving a score of 288,725. In addition, to compare it with the old versions of the AnTuTu tests, I have submitted it to the 7th version, obtaining 221,512 points.
As can be seen, we can obtain a higher value with the latest version of the test, and care must be taken when comparing it with other versions.
These data show that it is a mid-range terminal with a Huawei HiSilicon KIRIN 810 processor. It has eight cores (Cortex A76 and Cortex A55) and has a maximum speed of 2.27GHz. It also has a Mali-G52 MP6 graphics card with excellent performance.
In this case, this terminal has 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage memory, but there are other models with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage memory. After being subjected to a speed test, it obtained a maximum speed of 21,616 MB/s with RAM and a reading value of 736.24 MB/s in storage.
It does not have an expansion slot for memory cards.
