It gains the popular 18:9 display and has a mirror finish to the back casing which will delight some and annoy others. Here is everything you need to know about the Honor 9 Lite.
When is the Honor 9 Lite release date?
How much will the Honor 9 Lite cost?
As announced at the reveal event, the Honor 9 Lite costs only £199.99 in the UK, making it one of the cheapest 18:9 display smartphones on the market right now.
What are the features and specifications of the Honor 9 Lite?
The phone is powered by Huawei’s Kirin 659 processor that Honor also used in the recent Honor 7X. It is decidedly mid-range, but gives pretty decent performance in that other phone, so we’ll have to test that in our full 9 Lite review. It has 3GB RAM and 32GB of storage – plus a microSD card slot -, while the display is a 5.65in 2160×1080 FHD+ LCD with 428ppi. It also continues Honor’s doubling of the camera lenses with two sets of 13Mp and 2Mp sensors on the front and back of the phone.
There’s also a rear mounted fingerprint sensor for unlocking and security within apps. It’s available in blue, black and grey. It runs Android 8.0 Oreo out of the box, which is great to see on a phone at this price but it also runs EMUI, a version of Android that we sometimes find too cluttered and change for the sake of change. But good on Honor nonetheless. EMUI brings software features such as a floating navigation dock which looks like it’ll take some getting used to, wider recognised features like night mode and split screen, and gestures for magnification and screenshots. Like other Honor phones, the 9 Lite lends itself to the Android power user customisation crowd.
There’s dual-SIM too, but if you use an SD card you’ll have to settle for one SIM, while the 3,000mAh battery is charged over micro-USB, a nod to the fact that this is cheaper hardware not yet ready for USB-C and a price hike. There is a headphone jack though, so it’s not all bad. It’s another budget phone from Honor, a company that tries to cater for all tastes but actually ends up making basically the same phone several times; the 9 Lite is very similar to the 7X. And with the Honor 9 itself only costing £299, you’re going to really have to want the 9 Lite’s front dual cameras and the larger display. Henry is Tech Advisor’s Phones Editor, ensuring he and the team covers and reviews every smartphone worth knowing about for readers and viewers all over the world. He spends a lot of time moving between different handsets and shouting at WhatsApp to support multiple devices at once.
