An Honor 9 Lite Review – A Budget Phone With The Perfect Picture Capture

The Honor 9 Lite that has been launched in the market in Malaysia since 9th of March has been a great treat for those who are looking to change their old devices. Packed with quad cameras with high definition display at a very reasonable price is one of the best mid-ranged phones available in the market. Priced at RM 699 (RRP RM 749) is something that you’d want to feast your eyes on if you are a mobile photographer or like shiny objects.

The Design

The Honor 9 Lite like its brother, the Honor 9i, has quad cameras as well; 2 on the front and 2 at the back. The body of the Honor 9 Lite is slick, curvy and shiny with a reflective glass cover on the back. It comes with two colours; Sapphire Blue and Glacier Grey. Both looks really great on the hand and it’d really be a waste to not showcase that but if you are a clumsy klutz, it’s best to have a protective cover over your phone because it is glass; it’d break from a fall.

Nonetheless, the phone still feels premium for a mid-ranged phone and it has a great build quality though it utilizes a plastic frame instead of a metal one. The phone’s design following the current smartphone fashion fits nicely on our palms with its 5.94 x 2.83 x 0.30 inch body. The power button and volume buttons are both on the right side for easy access while the fingerprint sensor is placed strategically at the back of the device.

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Though the phone is mostly plastic and glass, it still gives a smooth premium finish which fits very comfortably on the hands. Thumb prints could be a problem but it doesn’t really matter when a cover is worn on it. Other than that, the design is simple, elegant and enough to please a person.

The Display

With a 5.65 inch display, it is able to showcase its colours and high pixel density pictures with an 18:9 aspect ratio. Fully capable of outputting a Full HD+ resolution, it can also be dialed down to 720p for battery saving purposes. Though it’s a Lite version of the Honor 9i, it is still able to project sharp and crisp pictures taken with its 13 & 2MP cameras working together (more on that later).

The Performance

Like the Honor 9i, the Lite version is powered with the same chipset which is the HiSilicon Kirin 659 Octa-core processor and 3GB RAM with 32 GB of internal storage. With an expandable storage slot of up to 256 GB, there’s plenty of space to showcase your gallery of pictures and videos.

Running on Honor’s proprietary EMUI over Android 8.0 Oreo, the phone is still capable at letting its users multitask on the phone without putting much burden on its 3 GB RAM. However with a Mali-T830 MP2 GPU equipped, the phone is not able to run graphics-intensive games as it might overclock your device and starts to get warm. So casual games like My Tamagotchi Forever, PUBG Mobile, Final Fantasy Dissidia Opera Omnia and Dungeon Hunter Champions are still playable but you’ll get the literal warm touch on your hands too.

Game-testing on Honor 9 Lite

Aside from that, the Honor 9 Lite supports fast charging technology for their 3000 mAH battery unlike the Honor 9i. With the 10W charger that comes with the phone, it takes about two hours to fully charge it. The battery life can still last you a day if you’re not an avid phone user during your work day. Using the USB Type-C instead of the usual microUSB which puts your old microUSB on shelves unless you have a use for them.

Unlike the fruit product, this one still retains its 3.5mm headphone jack. Interestingly, the SIM tray uses a hybrid setup which allows for it to accept two nano SIMs OR one SIM with a microSD card if you are looking for more storage.

The Camera

If you’re looking for a phone to expand your Instagram career or Snapchat lifestyle and you’re on a tight budget, the Honor 9 Lite is the one for you. Equipped with quad cameras, front and back, 12 MP and 2 MP each side, provides the best pictures you can take with. The 12 MP camera acts as the primary one while the 2MP camera assists the latter with depth and allows for more visual effects like bokeh.

Gallery

It’s also pretty good in low lighting scenes, however it might not get you the best pictures all the time. With the PDAF support on its rear cameras, it is able to quickly autofocus on the subject which is great for selfies. Taking those photographic pictures are not an issue as well as it offers Wide Aperture and a Portrait mode that takes advantage of the secondary lens capturing the depth of field.

Of course it is also capable of recording 1080p videos but would require a stable, anti-shake equipment or hands. Overall, it’s a good device for a casual mobile photographer with its dual cameras front and back works well as it should.

The Verdict

The Honor 9 Lite is a mid-range smartphone that offers avid photographers what they need to make it on Instagram or any other platforms. Everything is displayed on high definition on its 5.65 inch display with 18:9 aspect ratio. With the device mainly focused on its cameras, it’s apparent that its main use is for photography purposes. Though it still runs casual games and pretty graphic-intense titles, a little warmth to the hand might not do good in the long run for your device.

Overall, if you’re on a tight budget looking for a good camera equipped phone, then the Honor 9 Lite is your go-to phone. With its stunning looks, the phone offers decent specifications with pretty high camera functions at a reasonable price of RM 699 (RRP RM 749).