Honor just launched its new mid-range smartphone on our shores, the Honor 9X Pro. Aesthetically, the 9X Pro bears a striking resemblance to the regular Honor 9X. In fact, both phones actually share the very same chassis, though the Pro does come with a number of upgrades.
For one, the 9X Pro features a faster and more efficient Kirin 810 chipset. Unlike the 12nm Kirin 710F SoC found in the standard 9X, the Kirin 810 is built on a more power-efficient 7nm process. Thanks to this, you can expect to get better battery life out of the Pro – in theory anyway.
Another area where the 9X Pro has an edge over the regular model is the amount of storage it offers. Featuring 256GB of internal storage – further expandable with a microSD card – that’s twice as much over the standard 9X’s 128GB capacity.
Beyond the chipset and storage capacity, the 9X Pro is identical to the regular model. It features the same 6.59-inch 2340 x 1080 IPS display, which is quite vibrant with a good level of brightness. The viewing angles of the screen could be better, but there’s only so much you can ask from an affordable mid-range smartphone.
Battery life of the 9X Pro should see some improvement too, even though it’s still packing a 4,000mAh cell. As mentioned, the Kirin 810 chipset powering this phone is more power-efficient, so it’s entirely possible it can last even longer than the non-Pro model on a single charge.
To put this into context, we got about seven to eight hours of screen on time in our review of the standard 9X. If the Pro model can deliver even better battery life than this, we would be very, very impressed.
Rounding out the specifications of the 9X Pro include a triple camera system (48MP f/1.8 primary + 8MP f/2.4 ultra-wide angle + 2MP f/2.4 depth), a 16MP f/2.2 selfie shooter with a pop-up mechanism, and EMUI 9.1 based on Android 9 Pie out of the box.
Speaking of software, it’s worth noting that the 9X Pro does not come with Google Mobile Services like the regular 9X. Instead, it ships with Huawei Mobile Services, so you won’t get a number of Google services out of the box, including the Play Store, Gmail, Maps, and so on. To find for alternative apps, you’ll have to rely on Huawei’s own AppGallery store.
The Honor 9X Pro is now available for purchase in Malaysia for RM999. Every purchase of the mid-range smartphone will also come with an Honor Band 5i, though this is only available while stocks last.
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