KUALA LUMPUR, July 24 — The Honor 9X series is finally unveiled and it is a significant upgrade from last year’s Honor 8X. Available in both Honor 9X and 9X Pro models, these mid-range devices are Honor’s first smartphones to feature a pop-up selfie camera.

Upfront, both models come with a 6.59″ Full HD+ LCD display that offers a more immersive viewing experience without any notches or punch-holes at the top. As a result, it offers a larger 92 per cent screen-to-body ratio. To solve the selfie camera conundrum, the Honor 9X series utilises a motorised pop-up module that houses a 16MP f/2.2 selfie camera.

Powering the device is the latest 7nm Kirin 810 processor which is also found on the new Huawei Nova 5. For the standard model, you can get either 4GB or 6GB of RAM while the Pro version gets 8GB of RAM.

In terms of storage, it is available in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB options. If you need more, Honor has also retained a microSD card expansion slot. The device also features a liquid cooling system which aids heat dissipation.

For taking pictures, the Honor 9X comes with a 48MP f/1.8 main camera and a 2MP f/2.4 depth camera. Meanwhile, the Honor 9X Pro gets an additional 8MP f/2.4 camera for ultra-wide-angle shots.

Both models come with a large 4,000mAh battery, which is 250mAh more than its previous model. It also gets a side-mounted fingerprint sensor, a 3.5mm headphone jack and it finally ditches the old microUSB port for USB-C.

Strangely, the bundled charger is a standard 5V 2A power brick and it isn’t clear if it supports fast charging. Out of the box, it runs on Android 9 Pie with EMUI 9.1.1 skin on top.

The Honor 9X’s pricing in China:

Honor 9X 4GB RAM + 64GB storage – 1,399CNY (about RM837) 6GB RAM + 64GB storage – 1,599CNY (about RM957) 6GB RAM + 128GB storage – 1,899CNY (about RM1,137) Honor 9X Pro 8GB RAM + 128GB storage – 2,199CNY (about RM1,316) 8GB RAM + 256GB storage – 2,399CNY (about RM1,435)

Interestingly, the standard Honor 9X pricing in China is exactly the same as the previous Honor 8X at the time of launch. It’s also worth pointing out that the Honor 8X was released in Malaysia at a lower price of RM949 and it comes with 4GB RAM + 128GB storage.

It will be very interesting if Honor Malaysia can still maintain its sub-RM1,000 pricing when it’s released in our local market. Overall, the new smartphone appears to be a serious contender to the Xiaomi Mi 9T, which is currently one of the best devices you can get for less than RM1,200. — SoyaCincau