Great buy, even with no innovation.

Verdict

The Honor 9 offers a lot of what high-end flagship smartphones do today, but at a much lower price point. While you don't find exciting features here, its great design, fantastic performance, and lots of nice touches make it a versatile, impressive and affordable phone. Detailed overview Honor 9 next ...

• Interesting design;
• Affordable price;
• Excellent performance

• One speaker;
• No optical image stabilization
• Large frame;

It may be the manufacturer's latest phone, but the Honor 9 is familiar to everyone in their own way. This is almost the same as Honor smartphones/ Huawei in the last few years, updates here are minimal, but that does not mean that this is a bad phone.

Honor is slowly but surely improving its design, specifications and the general operating principle of their phones has been around for a few years now and it looks like the Honor 9 is the culmination of these efforts.

Rather, the Honor 9 is a solid device that offers most of what you find on flagship competitors, performs just as well, but costs a little less.

Honor 9: release date and prices

• PriceHonor 9 about 30,000 rubles;

Honor characteristics 9

• Weight: 155 grams;
• Dimensions (edit): 147.3 x 70.9 x 7.5 mm;
• OS: Android 7 Nougat;
• Screen size: 5.15 inches;
• Permission: 1920 x 1080;
• CPU: HiSilicon Kirin 960;
• RAM: 4 GB or 6 GB;
• Built-in memory: 64/128 GB;
• Battery: 3200 mAh;
• Main camera: 12MP + 20MP (dual lens);
• Front-camera: 8 megapixels;

The price is one of the main reasons why you should look at the Honor 9 versus other flagship phones. Unlike parent company Huawei with its latest, Honor has managed to keep the price low with last phone- in comparison with the latter Samsung flagships and Apple, the new Honor is half the price.

In Russia, you can buy Honor 9 for 30,000 rubles.

Design

• An interesting design made of shiny glass stands out from the competition;
• Fingerprint scanner on the front panel, under the screen;
• Three colors available: blue, silver and black;

The back of the Honor 9 is unlike any other phone on the market, and over the course of our review, we found a lot of people paying attention to it.

The Honor 9 uses a glass body with a shiny finish. He is reflective, but not like a mirror. Instead, the panel scatters light from different angles, creating an effect that is immediately striking.

With so many phones struggling to stand out in today's market, this is an important selling point.

The front of the smartphone is much less exciting, but there is a fingerprint scanner at the bottom of the display that works especially well. This is a major change for the Honor brand, as the manufacturer usually has the sensor on the back, but it is usually easier to use when the scanner is under the screen. easy access for the thumb.

The side keys from the fingerprint scanner built into the body of the phone are the Back and Multitasking keys, but you can also disable them and use the fingerprint scanner gestures for the same functions.

We found both options to work pretty well, but once you get used to the scanner's gestures, playing with it is much more fun than pressing buttons.

This is convenient phone... It's not a big handset, the Honor 9 doesn't have curved edges on the back that allow the phone to fit more comfortably in the palm of your hand. He looks like Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge in the back as it seems like back panel molded to fit your hand.

Honor 9 measures 147.3 x 70.9 x 7.45 mm and weighs just 155 grams, which means you can easily throw your smartphone in your pocket and not be distracted by its dimensions, as is the case with phablets.

The camera sensors on the back of the phone are flush with the body, so there is no protruding camera, which many users hate on many. modern smartphones.

Colors are limited to Glacier Gray, Midnight Black or Sapphire Blue, with the latest Honor 9 featured in our review. We prefer the blue version as it is a bold color, although the manufacturer retains the option to opt for something more subdued.

Overall, the Honor 9's design appears to be better than the manufacturer's previous flagships. However, this is not metal device so you won't get the same premium tier, but it offers something different that is not on the market in this moment- a bold design that you just love.

Display

• 5.15-inch screen;
• The phone fits easily in your hand;
• Full HD panel, but better optimized than Honor 8;

Another way the Honor 9 stands out from its flagship rivals is that the smartphone uses a smaller screen. While most competitors are pushing up diagonally away from 6-inches, the Honor 9 offers a 5.15-inch 1080p display.

Thanks to the advantageously compact diagonal, Honor has managed to make the flagship comfortable in the hands, but this is a Full HD panel that offers an average resolution. Some users will be disappointed by the lack of QHD resolution, but Full HD makes for better times. autonomous work.

The screen is much brighter than the panel we saw on the Honor 8. The screen is also significantly better in terms of color reproduction, and you'll really notice the difference in picture if you get the chance to compare the two phones side-by-side. The Honor 9's screen looks much warmer, and its colors seemed to us much more natural than the blue tint of the older flagship's display.

If you value a smaller diagonal and don't crave a panel with high resolution The Honor 9 should fit perfectly.

Interface and reliability

• Works with Android 7 under Emotion UI 5.1;
• A huge number of settings from Honor;

Honor 9 runs Android 7 Nougat OS, while user interface Huawei's Emotion UI 5.1 runs on top of it.

This is not the most attractive Android overlay - the icons look a little dated, although you can always launch the Themes app to try a different look - but it does offer some useful functions which other Android phones don't offer, and you may find that you prefer this kind of Android over other variations.

For example, Honor has included a detailed list of settings to give you a variety of options to customize your phone. The drop-down menu on the home screen displays various options, and you can even turn off anything you don't need.

Eye Comfort mode that reduces blue light emitted from your screen for a more comfortable reading experience. This solution should help to avoid eye fatigue, convenient access to the function makes it easy to turn the mode on and off as needed.

Honor is still experiencing viral software issues on its devices as there are loads of apps you wouldn't want to see on your phone. This includes TripAdvisor, Booking.com and eBay, among others. There are also seven preinstalled games.

Virtually all games come from Gameloft, and we were reluctant to play any of them on our phone during our review. You can delete them, but it's annoying that these games take up precious space on your phone.

Music, films and games

• Honor retains the 3.5mm headphone jack and speaker
• Games are great with a top-of-the-line processor;

Hooray! Honor has retained the headphone jack on the latest flagship, despite many rumors pointing to the ditching of 3.5mm technology with the Honor 9.

This means that you can listen to music through a wired headset that plugs into the bottom of the device. You can also use Bluetooth headsets, and we found the headphones to sound great when paired with a phone.

Honor 9 does not offer better sound on an Android smartphone, but it's enough and you won't be disappointed if you use this device to listen to music or podcasts.

The Honor 9 only offers one speaker on the phone, which is also located at the bottom of the phone, so you can easily cover the speaker with your palm when holding the phone while watching a video or movie.

When it comes to watching videos, you may also find that the phone screen is too small for your requests. If you've used a larger phone in the past, you won't enjoy the experience, and if you spend a lot of time watching movies and other videos, you might consider spending the extra money - much more, actually - on the Galaxy S8 or that have eye-popping displays.

If you watch YouTube clips occasionally, you won't be too disappointed with this 5.15-inch display.

You can easily fill your phone with videos and movies as it comes equipped with 64GB or 128GB of storage, depending on the version of the phone you buy.

There is special application for videos to help you play video clips easily, you can also download other apps like Netflix or use the pre-installed Google play Movie or YouTube. The sound is also good, although as mentioned above, you can easily cover the speaker with your hand.

Gaming on the Honor 9 - you can rest assured of a great gaming experience as it is one of the most powerful phones on the market. Even graphically intense games played smoothly throughout the entire review.

The smartphone is easy and comfortable to hold in two hands, so you can comfortably use it for games and easily use your thumbs to control, while still being able to read any instructions. We found the gaming experience to be reliable despite the strain.

Benchmarks and performance

• Packed with new chipsetHiSiliconKirin 960 fromHuawei;
• Comes with 4GB of RAM;
• Returns fantastic test results;

The performance of the Honor 9, as shown by our review tests, is at the top of the range, only the Samsung Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8 Plus, etc.

We saw no stutters or other slowdowns in the phone at any stage, probably thanks to the new and improved HiSilicon Kirin 960 chipset developed by Huawei.

We saw the same chip on the Huawei P10 and later on, but the Honor 9 easily beats Huawei smartphones in benchmarks, perhaps thanks to the 6GB of RAM. There is also a 4GB RAM phone, but we have yet to test this device.

During the review, the Honor 9 averaged 6,633 points on Geekbench 4 benchmarks, placing it right behind the OnePlus 5, which scored 6,716 points. For comparison, the Galaxy S8 based on Exynos processors (in Russia) returned 6630 points.

This is an impressive performance boost considering the Honor 8 boasted 5207 points and it points to the capabilities of the Huawei chipset.

If you are looking extremely powerful phone, Honor 9 may not be one of them, but it manages to keep up with the most powerful flagships 2017, it will not disappoint you when you are playing games or doing other intense tasks on your phone.

Battery life

• The battery is slightly larger than the Honor 8;
• Battery capacity 3200 mAh;
• Consumes energy quickly enough at full brightness;

The Honor 9 has a slightly larger battery than the Honor 8, 3200 mAh versus 3000 mAh last year.

Combined with a more energy efficient chipset, the Honor 9's battery life was above average.

The readings are certainly not revolutionary, but the smartphone will easily last you a full day. As part of the review, our Honor 9 saved about 10% by the time it was set to charge at night.

While Bluetooth audio playback in particular required more power than other phones, if you intend to use your Honor 9 at full brightness, we hasten to warn you - we noticed that the battery drains faster under these operating conditions, so we would recommend using auto brightness mode.

In our battery test, in which we played a 90-minute video clip at full screen brightness, the Honor 9 unexpectedly left 17% charge, but this is the best result as the Honor 8 left 20% on the same test.

The smartphone does not offer any innovative technology charging, but there is Honor's Quick Charge with which you can charge your phone from zero to 100% in about two hours.

It's a shame that Honor doesn't offer wireless charging for the Honor 9, it seems to us that it would be easy to implement this feature here, given the glass back.

Camera

• Dual optics on the back;
• Interesting shots with widened aperture;
• 20-megapixel monochrome (black and white) sensor;
• 12-megapixel color sensor;

On the back of the Honor 9 is located dual camera which includes a 20-megapixel sensor, working in tandem with a 12-megapixel sensor.

The 20MP monochrome sensor means it only shoots in black and white - while the 12MP RGB sensor shoots color images. The phone takes pictures with both sensors and combines the images.

A 20-megapixel black and white sensor is used to get more detailed information about the scene, a similar system is used on the Honor 8 and various Huawei phones.

In our time with the Honor 9, we have found that the smartphone can take fantastic photos. Images looked bright and sharp. You can also shoot in black and white, which is set in the settings, but you do not get the advantage of two lenses.

The combination of the two lenses also allows for a variety of new modes, including an extended aperture mode that lets you shoot a subject in the foreground while blurring the background.

This allows for very tricky images, especially when you are setting up your camera and want to focus on a specific foreground subject. The big advantage of wide aperture mode is that it allows you to edit the photo after you capture it, which most other phones don't.

However, unlike the Huawei P10, the Honor 9 lacks optical image stabilization, which means you shouldn't rely on very much good quality photos in conditions poor lighting... The quality of the video will also suffer from this.

Original photograph.

The same picture, but with x2 magnification.

This complicates things for those who like to shoot. mobile video but for that you save a lot of money by choosing the Honor 9.

When it comes to video, you can shoot whatever you want up to 4K, but we found that to get the kind of professional video with the Honor 9, you'll also have to buy a tripod to get rid of camera shake.

Apart from all the additional modes that come with the phone, Honor includes a fun section called 3D Creator that lets you create emoji versions of your friends by photographing their faces.

You can then dress them up, make them dance and do a lot of different things, this mode is fun to play with, which is what we did when we reviewed the Honor 9.

Another cool mode you can try with the Honor 9 is 3D Panorama, which lets you spin and take a picture that you can rotate on your phone.

Sample photos:

Summing up ...

The Honor 9 is not a groundbreaking phone, and it won't offer you anything you haven't seen on smartphones before.

However, Honor has managed to create a great all-round smartphone that offers everything you could want from a phone in an attractive, user-friendly design that you will want to use over and over again.

Sure, main feature the phone remains at a price that is about half the price of the main flagships of 2017, it is difficult to find a reason not to recommend the Honor 9 if you are looking for a cheaper alternative to some of the.

Who is the Honor 9 for?

If you are looking for an attractive flagship phone but you're not too concerned with the big name, the Honor 9 is the perfect device for you.

It's hard to recommend this product to true Honor fans who already have an Honor 8 or 8 Pro as innovation is quite limited here, but if you're using an earlier Honor product like the Honor 7, this might be the perfect time to upgrade your phone.

Should you buy the Honor 9?

The Honor 7 offers many of the same features found on high-end flagships like the Huawei P10 or Samsung Galaxy S8, so if you don't want to spend a lot of money and are willing to skip a few custom features, you should buy the Honor 9.

You could wait for the Honor 10 if you already have a comparatively new phone from Honor, but if you want the features in this roundup packed into a handy package, then the Honor 9 is perfect for your next smartphone.

Honor 9 rivals:

Here are the phones you might prefer the Honor 9 ...

OnePlus 5

As of this writing, the OnePlus 5 is one of our favorite smartphones in the world, and it's one of the best choices for a low-cost flagship phone.

We allocate it for great camera, stunning design and phenomenal performance, and if you can afford a slightly higher price tag than the Honor 9, then this is a great option to buy.

The smartphone offers 8GB of RAM, and it also uses a 16MP dual camera that offers similar shooting features to the Honor 9.

Huawei P10

The Huawei P10 and Honor 9 have a lot in common, but one of these phones is much more expensive than the other - and it's not the Honor 9.

Metallic design and optical stabilization camera images are the main differences between the two smartphones, but if you're not in dire need of these features, you can save some money by opting for the Honor 9.

Before making your decision, be sure to check the P10 to decide if additional functions your money.

Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017)

I wrote about Huawei's tactics when creating flagship smartphones of the Honor series in - the company takes its top-end device, presented about six months before the key announcement of the sub-brand, packs it in a new wrapper, slightly (very slightly) changes the characteristics and sells it for a third cheaper. Voila - a hit ready! This worked with last year's Honor 8, which grew out of it, and it works with the Honor 9 - the actual result of the Huawei P10 facelift.

At the same time, in its style, Honor 9 inherits its predecessor - the Chinese did not fundamentally change the design, so we are dealing with another gadget that shines and shimmers in the light. Is that a key with a fingerprint scanner appeared on the front panel, the dimensions have changed slightly, and back cover received fillets around the edges - now, without wanting to, designers will run into comparisons with. Well, this is the most direct competitor for the new Honor, a head-on collision with it cannot be avoided.

Aside from the design, perhaps the only difference from the Huawei P10 that catches the eye is the disappeared mention of Leica as a partner in the development of the camera. At the same time, the characteristics of the camera themselves remained unchanged: a dual module with a 13-megapixel RGB sensor and a 20-megapixel monochrome sensor. Let's see how well it performs without the (visible) influence of Leica. Well, let's check other features of the smartphone, of course.

Specifications

	Honor 9	Huawei P10	Honor 8	Xiaomi Mi6	OnePlus3
Display		5.1 inches, IPS, 1920 × 1080 pixels, 432 ppi, capacitive multitouch	5.2 inches, IPS, 1920 × 1080 pixels, 424 ppi, capacitive multitouch	5.15 inches, IPS, 1920 × 1080 pixels, 428 ppi, capacitive multitouch	5.5 inches, AMOLED, 1920 × 1080 pixels, 401 ppi, capacitive multitouch
Protective glass	No information	No information	No information	Yes, the manufacturer is unknown	Corning Gorilla Glass 4
CPU		HiSilicon Kirin 960 (four ARM Cortex-A73 cores, 2.4 GHz + four ARM Cortex-A53 cores, 1.8 GHz)	HiSilicon Kirin 950 (four ARM Cortex-A72, 2.3 GHz; four ARM Cortex-A53, 1.8 GHz)	Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 MSM8996 (Quad Kryo 2.45GHz + Quad Kryo 1.9GHz)	Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MSM8996 (two Kryo cores, 2.15 GHz + two Kryo cores, 1.36 GHz)
Graphics controller	ARM Mali-G71 MP8, 850 MHz	ARM Mali-G71 MP8, 850 MHz	Mali-T880 MP4, 900 MHz	Adreno 540, 710 MHz	Adreno 530, 624 MHz
RAM	4 GB (6 GB version available)	4 GB	4 GB	6 GB	6 GB
Flash memory	64 GB (there is a version with 128 GB)	32/64 GB	32/64 GB	64/128 GB	64 GB
Memory card support	There is	There is	There is	No	No
Connectors	USB Type-C, mini-jack 3.5 mm	USB Type-C, 3.5 mm mini-jack	USB Type-C, 3.5 mm mini-jack	USB Type-C	USB Type-C, 3.5 mm mini-jack
SIM card	Dual nano-SIM	Dual nano-SIM	One nano-SIM / two nano-SIM	Dual nano-SIM	Dual nano-SIM
Cellular 2G	GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz	GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz	GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz	GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz	GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
Cellular 3G	HSDPA 850/900/1900/2100	HSDPA 800/850/900/1700/1900/2100	HSDPA 850/900/1700/1900/2100	HSDPA 850/900/1900/2100	HSDPA 850/900/1900/2100 MHz
Cellular 4G	LTE Cat. 6 (300/50 Mbps): ranges 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 20, 38, 40, 41	LTE Cat. 12 (600/150 Mbps): ranges 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 17, 18, 19, 20, 26, 28, 38, 39, 40, 41	LTE Cat. 6 (300/50 Mbps): ranges 1, 3, 7, 8, 20	LTE Cat. 16 (1000/150 Mbps): ranges 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 38, 39, 40, 41	LTE Cat. 6 (300/50 Mbps): ranges 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 17, 18, 19, 20, 28, 29, 38, 39, 40, 41
Wi-Fi	802.11a / b / g / n / ac	802.11a / b / g / n / ac	802.11a / b / g / n / ac	802.11a / b / g / n / ac	802.11a / b / g / n / ac
Bluetooth	4.2	4.2	4.2	5.0	4.2
NFC	There is	There is	There is	There is	There is
Navigation	GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou	GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo	GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS	GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou	GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou
Sensors		Illumination, proximity, accelerometer / gyroscope, magnetometer (digital compass), IR sensor	Illumination, proximity, accelerometer / gyroscope, magnetometer (digital compass), IR sensor	Illumination, proximity, accelerometer / gyroscope, magnetometer (digital compass), barometer, IR sensor	Illumination, proximity, accelerometer / gyroscope, magnetometer (digital compass)
The fingerprint scanner	There is	There is	There is	There is	There is
Main camera	Dual module, 20 + 12 MP, ƒ / 2.2, hybrid autofocus, dual-LED flash	Dual module, 20 + 12 MP, ƒ / 2.2, hybrid autofocus, optical stabilization, dual-LED flash	Dual module, 12 MP, ƒ / 2.2, phase detection autofocus, LED flash	Dual module, 12 MP: 27 mm, ƒ / 1.8 + 52 mm, ƒ / 2.6 (2x zoom); an optical stabilizer operates at a wide angle; phase detection autofocus, dual LED flash	16 MP, ƒ / 2.0, phase detection autofocus, optical stabilization, LED flash
Front-camera	8 MP, ƒ / 2.4, fixed focus	8 MP, ƒ / 1.9, fixed focus	8 MP, fixed focus	8 MP, fixed focus	8 MP, fixed focus
Food		Removable battery 12.16 Wh (3200 mAh, 3.8 V)	Non-removable battery 11.4 Wh (3000 mAh, 3.8 V)	Removable battery 12.73 Wh (3350 mAh, 3.8 V)	Removable battery: 11.3 Wh (3000 mAh, 3.8 V)
The size	147.3 x 70.9 x 7.45 mm	145.3 x 69.3 x 6.98 mm	145.5 x 71 x 7.5 mm	145.2 x 70.5 x 7.45 mm	152.7 x 74.7 x 7.4 mm
Weight	155 grams	145 grams	153 grams	168/182 grams ( regular version/ ceramic)	158 grams
Hull protection	No	No	No	Splash protection	No
Operating system		Android 7.0 Nougat, native EMUI shell	Android 6.0 Marshmallow, own EMUI shell	Android 7.1.1 Nougat, own MIUI shell	Android 6.0 Marshmallow, OxygenOS shell
Actual price	26,990 rubles	35,990 rubles	22,000-25,000 rubles	29,990 rubles	26,000 rubles

⇡ Appearance, ergonomics and software

In the previous flagship device of the family, Honor 8, the designers managed to find a special style, their own, unique face for a smartphone - albeit at the cost of the fact that the body was easily scratched and spattered. But now, when phones are becoming almost indistinguishable from each other, especially in the middle and budget segment (flagships still stand out), the advantages of this approach outweigh the disadvantages. This was directly confirmed by the sales of the G8, and indirectly by the fact that a similar approach was chosen by the Taiwanese HTC for its new series U. With the same mirror gloss.

Most Spectacular Honor 9 Blue

Honor 9 is the most direct heir to its ancestor, and this is manifested in everything. Both the front surface and the back cover are covered with glass, which effectively reflects light - and perfectly collects fingerprints. The sides are still made of metal. In fact, the smartphone looks really great only in photographs, in a shop window and in the first minutes after unpacking; then it is advisable to hide it in the bumper cover that comes with the kit - and relax. Even so, the Honor 9 retains its individuality.

Black Honor 9

There are three colors: blue, gray and black, and the fourth, gold, is sold exclusively in China. Perhaps other versions will appear in the future, albeit in limited editions.

The Honor 9 is slightly larger, thicker and heavier than the Huawei P10, which is unusual for a "younger" model. Usually, older smartphones, on the contrary, look more solid. This is partly due to the display - here its diagonal is larger by 0.05 inches (this is not a typo!). Partly due to design arbitrariness, the machines are technically very similar. For example, the capacity of the batteries used in these smartphones is the same: 3200 mAh.

From Honor 8 and its main competitor, Xiaomi Mi6, "nine" practically does not differ in size. It is convenient to use with one hand, it perfectly hides in a pocket - this is a convenient device in all respects. Except for one thing - if you ignore the above remark about the bumper case, then the Honor 9 will be very slippery a smartphone that just strives to fly out of hand and go on a fatal date with the floor or the pavement. And the device, alas, has no protection against falling. Recently, only special tubes for travelers or Moto smartphones Force series. Also, the novelty does not have protection from dust and moisture - this is already a little more sad, although it is also typical for the segment "up to 30 thousand rubles."

The second part of the Honor 9 review: we consider the proprietary shell, sound quality and how the dual camera works in the new smartphone.

The frame processing algorithm is standard. The smartphone uses a BW sensor to capture light and details in the frame, and a color sensor to capture colors in the frame. The two images are then layered on top of each other to achieve depth.

The quality of the photos does not differ from those that it creates (we have a review of the camera of this smart). The Honor 9 delivers vibrant, rich yet lifelike colors. The detail of the frame is high, the textures are transmitted naturally. The dynamic range of color images is amazing. It seems that the HDR mode was used for the frame, but checking the EXIF ​​files showed that this mode is not always applied, while the image quality remains at the same level.

Pictures from a 12MP color camera convey enough detail, low noise, and correct colors.

Hybrid 20MP shots (taken with a combination of 12MP + 20MP frames) look like improved versions of 12MP photos. Considering that hybrid photos do not convey great detail, and the quality itself does not improve much, we dare to assume that this mode will not be very popular.

The black and white mode is more interesting. Photos are obtained with high detail (although in comparison with color 12MP frames, the detail is not much higher), contrast and clarity. The noise level is low, the dynamic range is wide, which is most noticeable in the dark areas of the frames. The main disadvantage of the BW camera is focusing. In 20% of cases, the focus is adjusted incorrectly or not adjusted at all, which affects the quality of the picture. Therefore, we recommend that you carefully check the focus and readjust the focus several times before taking a photo.

As we noted above, the smartphone intelligently applies HDR to precisely those scenes where it is needed. Therefore, HDR can be left in automatic mode.

The user has access to 2x optical zoom. Close-up photos do not lose quality. When zooming in too much, the image quality deteriorates dramatically.

Honor 9's image quality in low light conditions

The Honor 9 does an excellent job of shooting in low light conditions, while maintaining high detail and color. However, this applies exclusively to shooting close objects. Shooting a general plan leaves much to be desired: detail and depth are reduced.

Night shots lack detail and sharpness. The cause is either a focusing error or camera shake.

In night mode, the user can adjust ISO up to 3200 and shutter speed up to 32s.

For light graphics available additional modes: shooting car headlights, light graffiti, water shooting and falling stars. For shooting in these modes, the tripod becomes necessary condition for clear, high quality images.

The quality of the panoramic shots of Honor 9

The Honor 9 does an excellent job of shooting in panoramic mode: level of detail, wide dynamic range, no noise.

Portrait on Honor 9

Portraits are available on both the main and front cameras. The camera uses a variable aperture and face enhancement mode to create a blurred background. While the enhancement mode is manually adjusted, the blur remains the same across all frames.

The enhancement filter should be used with care, otherwise you might erase the details and the face will be too retouched.

Front-camera

Honor 9 received an 8MP front camera, capable of creating trendy portrait shots with blurred backgrounds (created programmatically). The algorithms cope with the task very mediocre, blurring the background too much (and not always correctly) and improving the face. If you do not find fault, then the photos from front camera are crisp, detailed, with natural colors and a wide dynamic range.

Conclusions:

Huawei presented powerful smartphone with a top-end processor at a price (400-500USD), which is not a competitor in terms of performance new Honor 9. The power reserve and performance of this gadget will be enough for the user for several years to come.

The manufacturer did not follow the general trend of reducing the number of holes in the smartphone and left a standard 3.5mm jack for music lovers.

The design is sustained in recent trends- glass, vinyl, metal. Practical or not - everyone decides for himself, but the smartphone looks decent.

The main disadvantages include the lack of dust / moisture protection.

A new trend in photography - selfie(selfie). It took over the whole world. Now it makes up the lion's share of photos on social networks, and especially in (Instagram).

Selfie (selfie, selfie, self, self-shot) - this is an original self-portrait, when the author of the photo takes himself on a phone or camera, in order to upload it to social networks.

Most of the selfies are taken with a smartphone. And you can shoot in different ways:

• front camera on an outstretched arm.
• in the reflection of the mirror. So you can take not only a cool photo, but also show off a top smartphone.
• using various devices (monopod, selfie stick, selfie tripod with remote control or button, etc.).

Of course, the main thing in all this is to present your originality and beauty.

And since everything is done with your own hands and the shooting is carried out close (no further than an outstretched arm), completely unnecessary details may appear in the photo. It won't do!

How to set up your Huawei (Honor) phone camera to get perfect selfie photos?

In modern smartphones, taking into account the latest trends and capabilities of artificial intelligence, a special shooting mode was developed and implemented “ Perfect selfie". In Perfect Selfie mode, the camera automatically detects your face and makes gentle adjustments that dramatically change the quality of your portrait. Moreover, in a group shot, the device itself finds your face and applies fine settings only to it in order to make it stand out from others. These adjustments are made according to parameters such as face shape, size and brightness of eyes, smoothing and lightening of skin tones.

Many girls will be simply amazed: thin presetting this mode allows you to take selfies in all shots clear and just huge eyes! The effect is simply amazing! Very natural photos, with no makeup or mascara eyeliner.

Try it and you will love yourself even more.

Therefore, in order for the smartphone to be always ready and the shooting session is always successful, it is necessary to first make a simple setup of the smartphone camera.

How to set up a smartphone cameraHUAWEI (honor) for selfie mode.

1. Run the application "Camera" on the Home screen of your phone.

2. If you now have the main (rear) camera turned on, you need to switch your smartphone to the front (front) camera. To do this, you need to click on camera change icon at the top of the screen.

Smartphone screen # 1 - launch the “Camera” application of the smartphone. Smartphone screen # 2 - switch the camera from the main (rear) to the front one.

3. Now that you have an active front (front) camera, you need to click on the icon "Decoration"... The message “Selfie effects enabled” appears at the top of the screen when shooting mode is on.

4. To go to the Settings of the front camera, you need to do it from the right edge of the screen to the left.

Smartphone screen # 3 - turn on the "Decoration" mode. Smartphone screen 4 - swipe to open the Settings for the front camera.

5. On the Camera settings section, select "Perfect selfie".

6. In the "Perfect Selfie" section, turn on the "Perfect Selfie" switch to the included.

Smartphone screen # 5 - select the "Perfect selfie" item. Smartphone screen 6 - turn on the "Perfect selfie" mode.

7. After that, two more options for setting this mode will appear on the screen:

• Change personal information;
• Decoration effects.

To make your personal settings in the "Perfect Selfie" mode, you first need to select the item " Change personal information ".

Screen 7 of the smartphone - select the item "Change personal information".

8. To enter your personal data into the smartphone's memory and so that the smartphone can always accurately identify your face in a group photo, you need to take three photographs of your face:
a) full face;
b) in profile (turn your head slightly to the left);
c) with a bowed head (look down).

Smartphone screen number 8 - we take pictures of our own face in full face. Screen number 9 of a smartphone - we take pictures of our own face in profile. Smartphone screen # 10 - taking pictures with the head tilted.

9. After you have taken three photos, the camera will move to step Decoration Effects.

Here, by moving the slider in the vertical direction (from 1 to 10 points), you can set 5 face parameters:

• Smoothing;
• Lightening;
• Big eyes;
• Bright eyes;
• Narrow face.

By setting the parameters, you can immediately evaluate how your face is changing on your control picture.

At the end of the installation fine tuning of the "Decoration Effects" settings, to save the settings, you must click on the icon "check mark" in the upper right corner of the screen.

Smartphone screen 11 - adjust the first 2 parameters of the "Enhancement Effects". Smartphone screen 12 - set up 3 parameters of "Enhancement effects", and save the settings by clicking on the "checkmark" icon.

10. In the future, if necessary, to make changes to the "Perfect selfie" settings, you must select the item Decoration Effects... By moving the slider of the settings of the 5 face parameters, you make changes. Don't forget to click on the icon when you're done. "check mark" to save the parameters.

Smartphone screen 13 - select the item "Decoration Effects".

11. Everything. Now for shooting in mode "Perfect selfie" it will be enough for you to turn on the front (front) camera and check that the "Decoration" icon, which is in top line screen, is in the on state and lights up in blue. You can start a photo session for an individual self-portrait or for a group photo session.

Now you are 100% sure that you will always be the best in the photo!

Huawei has never done anything out of the "Wow!" So this year: neither a super-powerful processor, nor an "infinite screen", not even a 32-bit audio processor.

But the company's smartphones have the most important thing - flagship sensations for sane money. Of course, other tops are better than Honor 9. Only now, not everyone can drop fifty thousand rubles on a smartphone.

Honor 9 is the "people's" flagship. Not the coolest, but affordable. And if a person admires the iPhone and walks with the Honor 9, then he is doing everything right. This smartphone is what you need if you want a top-end device, but you have a budget of 30 thousand rubles for your phone.

Equipment

Honor 9's box is slightly richer than usual. To standard power adapter (9V / 2A), USB cable Type-C and paper clips included in a transparent plastic case.

Appearance

The design is nothing new: a metal frame, glass front and back. But it looks very cool. I got Blue colour- beautiful. There is also silver and black. They are, judging by the photographs, also cute.

The premium modification also has a turquoise color:

From a design point of view, I have nothing to dig into: everything is in its place. The lock and volume buttons are at a comfortable height, the fingerprint scanner is on the front, not the back. Both glasses are Gorilla Glass 3. I had scratches on all tempered glasses, and this is no exception.

The device is the wildest slippery. Be careful with him.

This is the most restless phone I've ever had. He seems to hunt for any slopes, noticing even the smallest of them. I once put the Honor 9 on a seemingly flat table - so it slid off a little anyway.

Instant fingerprint scanner

Put your finger on - the phone was unlocked. Right here. Right now, right away, I'm serious. Our editor-in-chief Kostya Gagarin says that the scanner is cooler. But I can't imagine how much more instantaneous.

On the sides of the scanner are two navigation buttons: "Back" and "Multitasking". You can swap them, or you can turn them off altogether and transfer control to the central button. Then a long press will be "Home", a short press will be "Back", and a swipe on the right or left button will be "Multitasking". I played around and went back to the three-button option. Holding the button to return to the home screen I'm not ready yet. Too serious a step.

Display

The phone has a 5.15-inch IPS screen. It has Full HD resolution, which gives a pixel density of 428 ppi.

I don't even know what to write here: it's just a cool panel!

I don't know what it would be like if I compared the Honor 9 with some kind of flagship head-on - I didn't, because why? After all, the main thing is real impressions during use, not puzomerism. And from the screen of Honor 9 the impressions are the most positive. The picture is clear, contrasting, everything is fine with the colors - they are slightly oversaturated here, but just right for my taste.

In the settings, you can adjust the color temperature - or get confused with the color palette, or just put the "Warm" or "Cold" preset.

A good screen: only black is gray at maximum angles, but no one looks at the phone like that. In general, everything is as it should be with the display.

Honor 9 specifications

• Kirin 960 chip (four Cortex-A53, 1.84 GHz + four Cortex-A73, 2.36 GHz, 16 nanometers)
• graphics core Mali-G71 MP8, frequency 1037 MHz
• 4/6 GB of RAM, LPDDR4, 1866 MHz, in the modification with 6 GB of RAM 4 GB available after reboot
• 64/128 GB for user files and system, out of 64 GB 48.25 GB available
• slot for a memory card up to 256 GB
• universal slot: either two SIM cards, or SIM card + memory card
• 5.15-inch display, Full HD resolution (1920 x 1080), 428 ppi, IPS
• the screen is protected by Gorilla Glass 3
• rear two cameras: 12 + 20 megapixels, aperture f / 2.2
• 8 megapixel front camera resolution, f / 2.0 aperture
• built-in battery 3 200 mAh
• Android 7.0 Nougat system, covered with EMUI 5.1 shell
• sensors: lighting, accelerometer, proximity, gyroscope, electronic compass, Hall sensor, infrared
• front fingerprint scanner
• USB Type-C (2.0), headphone jack
• dimensions: 147.3 x 70.9 x 7.45 mm
• weight is 155 g

Wireless capabilities:

• 2G, 3G, 4G (bands: 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 20, 38, 40, 41)
• 2 x Nano SIM
• Wi-Fi (2.4 GHz, 802.11 a / b / g / n / ac), Bluetooth 4.2, NFC
• navigation: GPS, GLONASS, BDS

Performance

You can shower me with stones, tomatoes or slippers - I call Honor 9 flagship smartphone, although this is not entirely true. It was released in June 2017, and is based on the HiSilicon Kirin 960 platform - it is the Huawei competitor Snapdragon 820 / 821. In general, it is far from the most powerful stone today. But I will try to justify myself: it is not used anywhere else, so the 960 is still the flagship model.

Judging by the benchmarks, the Kirin 960 has a more powerful processor part, while the Snapdragon 820/821 has the graphics. Although the platforms are many, many months old, they are top-notch, and therefore are still relevant. The Honor 9 does not have any gaps in its work, there is no feeling that it lacks power.

In games, too, everything is fine, although a smartphone will not work for avid gamers. So far, he pulls games at maximum speed. But it is already felt that soon it will be necessary to switch to medium. For example, Asphalt 8 is doing well overall, but at times I have noticed slight jams.

Perhaps it's a matter of optimization: World of Tanks Blitz on maximum settings comes with a stable 60 FPS, Dungeon Hunter 5 also works without problems.

There is a lot of memory in the smartphone: basic version equipped with 4 GB, and the maximum - 6 GB. I had the maximum. I tried to count how many tabs with will be kept in memory. I opened 15 of them, then I got tired of switching between them without loading. In general, I think it is obvious that with RAM no problem here. They would not have been with the version with 4 GB of RAM, but with six it is somehow calmer after all. Always about 3-3.5 GB still free.

Honor 9 is not the most powerful smartphone on the planet, but it copes with all tasks easily: like Oksimiron and Joniboy (I catch the hype from 2015!). In general, everything is as it should be.

Honor 9 in benchmarks:

Cameras

The smartphone has a dual camera, which consists of 12 and 20 megapixel modules. In tandem, they are able to blur the background, allow you to change the depth of field after shooting and have a 2x optical zoom.

Photo

Blurring is a controversial thing, because often not very high-quality work of algorithms is noticeable:

There are even funnier cases:

Sometimes the second camera turns on well and improves pictures:

2x optical zoom looks like this:

But I propose to forget about the dual camera and just evaluate the quality of the Honor 9. I can't say that it somehow struck me. The problems are the same as with most smartphones - it's better not to shoot general plans. You photograph some flower in close-up, and it's just beauty: the flower is sharp, and the background is beautifully washed. But the landscapes look fine only on the phone screen. You open them on a computer and it becomes already sad because of the lack of sharpness and software oversharp.

To fully understand what I am complaining about, see the pictures in full size... To do this, you need to download the archive.

Video

The story is the same with the video. Now you watch the video below and think: “Well, nothing special. Sharpness is not enough, the colors are kind of mess. " When I watched the video on my phone, I was a little shocked - it looked so good. And then he looked at the computer and almost burst into tears.

The maximum shooting resolution is 4K, but OIS is not supported with it. And she is perhaps the best that the phone has in terms of video filming. Therefore, it is better to shoot in Full HD.

Front-camera

The main thing for the front camera is the angle of view. If it is small, then your face will be in the whole frame. This in itself is not very good, plus you can't get away from distortion at the edges of the picture. Because of this, the selfie is not you, but some freak who has been digging the Panama Canal for a year. And if the angle is wide, then the face takes up less space in the frame and looks natural.

The 8-megapixel front camera with a viewing angle is all right. I was photographed and I don't seem to be a freak. Detail, color and dynamic range are good too. See for yourself:

The video is recorded in Full resolution HD. If you didn't like the main camera, the front camera, on the contrary, pleased you.

Autonomy

The 3,200mAh battery behaves like a 3,200mAh battery. The manufacturer did not jump over his head here, but did not flutter anything either.

I use my phone for streaming music, instant messengers, web surfing, sometimes a little YouTube. Internet 70% of the time is mobile, 30% - Wi-Fi. In this mode, Honor 9 usually gives out 4-4.5 hours of display life. Not a fountain, but ok.

Operating system

Lenovo finally came to their senses and stopped using their add-on over Android. Huawei has not reached this yet, so Nougat version 7.0 is covered with EMUI 5.1 shell.

I don't understand why a smartphone needs a shell on top of the system

Split-screen mode is perhaps the only useful feature of the system, and even then it will soon appear in stock Android Oreo.

The clone app function seems to be useful: you can install the same app twice and log in under different accounts. But from my applications it can only be used for WhatsApp - I can't do this with Telegram, VKontakte, Evernote, Discord. Well, what's the point then from her?

The design is generally good (although stock Android I still like it more), but these collective farm icons standard applications I, absolutely not a designer and not a perfectionist, are being killed:

And there is also a small problem with optimization: my applications sometimes crash. On a phone with 6 GB of RAM! This is some kind of software jamb and it rarely happens, but still unpleasant.

About operating system I cannot say that everything is as it should be. I had to put on a bare Android and not show off. But, apparently, pride does not allow. The shell as a whole is not bad, it is just not clear why it is here.

Outcome

For myself, I determined: if you have 20 thousand rubles - take it If only the small screen does not bother you. Now, after using Honor 9, I determined one more thing: if you have 30 thousand rubles - take Honor 9.

Yes, this is not the kind of thing that you will brag to your friends - they say, look what a screen without frames! You have to pay a lot for this. Samsung Galaxy Note 8, won, 70 thousand worth. And here, for 25-30 thousand, not an advanced, but a flagship: beautiful, fast, with an instant fingerprint scanner. The beauty!

Already on sale Official price from 26,990 rubles