Yesterday Huawei unveiled one of its affordable mid-range smartphone, the Huawei Y9 (2019) which comes with a powerful Kirin 710 processor and 4AI cameras and long lasting battery life.
Our friends at Huawei were kind enough to provide us with a pre-launch model of the Y9 and we took it for a quick test drive.
The Huawei Y9 2019 is a Kes.24, 990.00 (approximately $250) smartphone – more class for less money. I must say that naturally, we were quite curious to know not only how the phone feels, but also the first impression you get right after the purchase. Considering the price, this an extremely competitive price point because it’s where there is a lot of competition, and therefore a lot of potential alternatives in the market.
This device is the definition of budget-level cost with flagship-aimed specs. How Huawei’s Y-series manages to deliver premium devices like this at such affordable price points, we’ve not yet been able to figure out.
But let’s take a peek here and drop in on our first impressions.
So here it is, unboxed and in the flesh … (and in the TechMoran cave): the Huawei Y9 2019:
Inside the box
As you can see, a $250 smartphone requires some trade-offs and Huawei clearly made one with the packaging. It’s quite simple and includes only the bare minimum:
a USB cable
a wall charger
a set of earphones
a pin for the SIM-card tray
a rubbery transparent case
and documentation
Our device is Sapphire Blue in colour and fits in my palm well. Its edges are also soft to handle and slides well in my pockets too. The Huawei Y9 2019 has a 6.5-inch Full View FHD+ 3D curved design display @ 1080 x 2340 pixels with a notch on top. This translates into 396 ppi density with an overall 82.8% screen to body ratio. The notch houses the two selfie cameras and other sensors and right on top of it is the earpiece.
It’s running Android 8.1 Oreo under Huawei’s own EMUI 8.2. – that’s the standard Huawei-made software made to make the entire Huawei family of phones unique in this ever-changing industry of Androids.
The dimensions of Huawei Y9 (2019) are 162.4 x 77.1 mm x 8 mm in size and it weighs just 173 grams.
There are a pair of dual cameras on the Huawei Y9 (2019) a 13MP + 2MP at the front and a 16MP + 2MP on the rear positioned vertically on the upper left corner. The 2 MP shooter is for background blur and Portrait Mode effects in both instances. In layman’s language, users are getting 4 cameras in total, 2 at the front and 2 at the back.
The back panel on the model is Sapphire Blue with a shiny texture and has a metallic like build, but it’s plastic, don’t be fooled. (Y9 2019 is available in Midnight Black and Sapphire Blue color options)
Apart from the AI camera on the rear, there is also a fingerprint sensor, this enables users to unlock the device in just 0.3 seconds. You cannot also fail to see the Huawei brand name at the bottom left of the back.
A single USB-C port to handle charging, a headphone jack input plus the speakers are positioned at the bottom of the phone.
The sim card and microSD card slot is positioned on the left side of the screen whilst the volume and power buttons are on the right side.
This device comes with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage with an option of a microSD slot for further expansion to provide extra space for photos and music. We believe you can expand the phone’s memory to 128 GB.
Under the hood we’ve got a Hisilicon Kirin 710 Octa core processor – it’s packed with an octa-core CPU going as high as 2.2 GHz. We don’t know what the Mate 20 coming out in December will pack but it might be double this being a Huawei premium flagship phone!
This product does not have a swappable battery, which is the norm for smartphones these days. Closed batteries cannot be taken out or quickly repaired, but they do allow for smaller designs and slightly bigger battery size inside the same product design.
The Y9 2019 is however blessed with a non-removable Lithium-Polymer 4000mAh battery. Which is aimed at the “generation of gamers,” especially due to its Kirin processor, RAM, ROM and the “stylish colors” and “entertainment experiences” it can provide.
That about does it for the unboxing. You can be on the lookout for our Huawei Y9 2019 hands-on review in our next article.
Huawei Y9 2019 Full Specifications
Network Connectivity
- 2G: GSM, GPRS, EDGE 900 / 1800 MHz
- 3G: UMTS, WCDMA, HSDPA 850 / 900 / 2100 MHz
- 4G: LTE bands 1(2300) / 3(1800) / 5(850) / 40(2300) / 41(2500)
- SIM Type: Dual-SIM, Nano-SIM
- Bluetooth: v4.2
- WiFi: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, hotspot
- GPS: Yes
- USB: microUSB v2.0
Design and Display
- Dimensions: 162.4 x 77.1 x 8.1 mm
- Weight: 173g
- Display: 6.5-inch, 1080 x 2340 pixels, 19:9 aspect ratio, IPS display
- Sensors: Fingerprint, Ambient light, Accelerometer, Proximity
- Build: Plastic
- Colours: Sapphire Blue and Midnight Black
Hardware and Software
- Processor Type: 64-bit Octa-core 2.2 GHz Cortex-A53
- Processor Name: Kirin 710
- Graphics Processor: Mali-G51 MP4 GPU
- OS: Android 8.1 Oreo with EMUI 8.2
- RAM: 4 GB
- Internal Storage: 64GB
- External Storage: microSD, up to 256GB
Camera
- Rear Camera: 16MP + 2MP dual rear cameras, auto-focus, LED flash
- Video recording: 1080 @ 30fps
- Front-facing Camera: 13MP+ 2MP dual front camera with flash
Multimedia
- Music Support: MP3/WAV/eAAC+ player
- Audio:
- Loudspeaker: Mono
- Video Support: MP4/MPEG4 player
- FM Radio: Yes
