The Honor 9 is the latest flagship phone in Honor’s arsenal. The company, a subsidiary of Huawei, unveiled the Honor 9 in China earlier this summer, and although it looks a lot like the Honor 8 there are a number of serious improvements. The Honor 9 has so far been officially announced in China, and now in European markets too.
New color
At IFA 2017, Honor unveiled a Robin Egg Blue color option for the Honor 9. With a 15-layer 3D-glass back of warm and cool color tones, it is different than the previously debuted Glacier Gray. The limited edition color is already on pre-sale in China and will be available in the U.K. mid-September for 460 pounds or about $595.
Price and availability
Honor announced the Honor 9 in China on June 12, without any indication whether the phone will also receive a wider international release in the future, but we now know that it will. It’s sold for 2,700 Yuan, or around $400, for the 64GB model, or 3,000 Yuan, which equates to $440, for the 128GB model. A competitive price, with the potential for it to become a serious contender in the U.K. or the United States.
During its June 27 unveiling, the company also revealed that the phone would receive a wider launch in Europe, though pricing has yet to specifically be confirmed by the company. The phone will be available in the U.K., Germany, France, Spain, and Italy. There’s no indication of any U.S. release yet — and it’s possible there won’t end up being one.
At the same time, a pre-order page for the Honor 9 went live on Amazon’s U.K. site, offering the phone for 380 British pounds, or about $480. The phone isn’t pictured, but the specifications match those of the Chinese Honor 9, and there’s no delivery date attached either.
Specs
The Honor 9 boasts HiSilicon’s top-tier processor, the Kirin 960, also found in the Huawei P10 and Huawei Mate 9, which is coupled with either 4GB or 6GB of RAM and either 64GB or 128GB of storage, depending on the variant that you end up going for. That storage is also expandable. Not only that, but the Honor 9 boasts a fingerprint sensor built into the front home button, rather than on the back, as was the case on the older phone.
The display on the Honor 9 is a 5.15-inch 1920 x 1080 pixel display, which is not necessarily on par with other flagship phones on the market — but should still be relatively crisp. When it comes to the camera, you get a dual-lens shooter with a 12MP and 20MP sensor, which is similar to Huawei’s flagship, the P10. That camera boasts two-times optical zoom, laser autofocus, and a f/2.2 aperture. The front-facing camera sits in at 8MP, which should be plenty for most selfie-lovers.
The design of the phone looks great, and you get a choice of gray, blue, or amber gold colors. The phone also boasts dual-SIM support, NFC, and a 3.5mm headphone jack — which is apparently a feature to speak of these days. We’ll keep you updated with all the Honor 9 news here, so check back often.
Update: Added new limited edition Robin Egg Blue color option
