To the editors of the portal Gamemag.ru a new smartphone hit the test Honor 9C. This is the brand’s top budget model for 2023. The gadget is located in the niche between the minimum solutions and mid-range devices. Its recommended retail price in Russia is 12,990 rubles.
For an order in a company store, the company gives one of the gifts to choose from: a fitness tracker Honor Band 5external 10,000 mAh battery or wireless headphones Honor sport.
The Honor 9C already comes in a protective film and comes in a classic white box with blue edges. The set includes: a transparent silicone case, a clip for opening the SIM card slot, a power adapter, a USB 2.0 cable – microUSB (102 cm) for charging and connecting to a PC, a brief user manual and a warranty card (12 months).
Two colors are available in Russia: blue (like ours) and midnight black. Dimensions of the device: 160 x 76 x 8 mm. Weight 176 grams. The smartphone is not heavy and lies comfortably in the hand. The thumb covers three quarters of the screen. There is no protection against water and dust.
The pretty bright case has long been the standard for the brand, and the Honor 9C is no exception. This time the gadget has a triangular-diamond mesh with overflow from neon ultraviolet to blue through unusual pixel flares. The more light hits the body, the brighter the effect becomes.
Judging by the images on the official website, the black version looks about the same.
The case and frames are plastic. Given the triple camera, which extends beyond the body, it is better to immediately put the smartphone in the case from the kit. In this case, you protect the device, but keep beautiful overflows that do not disappear, although they become less noticeable.
It is also worth noting that in the case from the set, the silicone border of the area around the camera protrudes slightly above the rest of the surface, so even in protection the phone does not lie flat on the table.
Build quality at a high level. I used the gadget for about two weeks and did not find any backlashes, creaks and other unpleasant moments. You can only find fault with the case – it is the most common and you can notice a strange rainbow divorce on it, if you tilt it towards the light at a certain angle.
The manufacturer arranged the controls and important details in a classic way. The triple camera with flash is located on top of the left corner. Near the center is a fingerprint sensor that works very quickly (you can also unlock the device through a selfie camera, but this sometimes does not work if you have a thick beard). Below – the silver Honor logo and barely noticeable engraving of Huawei Technologies.
On the left side is a SIM card slot where you can insert two nano-SIM cards and one microSD up to 512 GB in size. On the right side is a standard volume rocker and a device power button.
At the top there is a microphone hole and a speaker on the verge. At the bottom there is a 3.5 mm mini-jack connector, a microphone, microUSB and a speaker.
The sound is pretty common for budget models. He is loud, but he lacks bass, which is why volume disappears in some genres and compositions. Podcasts and pop sound good.
With headphones, the sound is transformed – there are bass and, accordingly, volume. But it depends more on the quality of your headset. The volume is normal, but not excessive. Someone may not be enough.
The front of the smartphone is a large 6.39-inch IPS-screen with a resolution of 1560 x 720 pixels (269 ppi) for 16 million colors and a protective glass. No bangs, no retractable camera. The selfie module is located in a small hole in the left corner (diameter 6 mm). Side frames with plastic trim take away 3.5 mm. The chin from the bottom is slightly less than 8 mm. The smartphone has a 4 mm frame on top.
The aspect ratio of the screen is 19.5: 9. The maximum brightness is almost 450 nits. The usable area is 90%. The display does not have HDR.
The color reproduction is normal, the image is contrasting and quite clear, but dots become noticeable near. Nevertheless, in 2023, the minimum resolution should be at least 1080p.
Viewing angles are good. The image almost does not fade when viewed from the side. With fast scrolling, artifacts do not appear, and a large diagonal allows you to conveniently view any content.
Since before us IPS, then the black level is weak – at night the black color may look like dark gray.
Honor 9C has a shell Magic 3.1.0.74 on the base Android 10. The system works quickly and smoothly – there are no lags in the main menu. When working with large files in the mail (for example, when sending photos) there may be slight jams.
Officially, there are no Google services on the smartphone, but there is a company store AppGalleryin which most important applications are available. For example, payment systems and services Yandex, VK, Telegram, TikTok, Viber, ICQ, OK, Mail.ru, Sberbank, Tinkoff, ivi, Okko, Microsoft Office, Government services, applications of telecom operators and so on.
The built-in email client on the main screen allows you to connect your Gmail, and YouTube works through a browser (you can create a separate shortcut for it on the desktop).
Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook are downloaded from official sites.
In addition, AppGallery has a convenient application. Appgo, which helps you find and download the right program, including Google services. Additionally, you can use APK Pure.
The system core is an eight-core 12-nm HiSilicon Kirin 710A processor (4 Cortex-A73 2.0 GHz cores and 4 Cortex-A53 1.7 GHz cores), which works in conjunction with Mali-G51 MP4 graphics, 4 GB of RAM (more 64 GB is used for programs) and a non-removable 4000 mAh battery.
A full charge from zero to 100% occurs in 2 hours 36 minutes. The battery lasts for two days of use.
The system is relatively cold. The temperature of the battery and processor is 26 and 33 degrees Celsius when working in the smartphone menu. In heavy games, after an hour of gameplay, these values already rise to 41 and 53 degrees, respectively.
In the test AnTuTu (downloaded from AppGallery) Honor 9C dialed 157 374 pointswhich is pretty good for a device of this price category:
- CPU 62 638;
- GPU 27 169;
- MEM 36 311;
- UX 31,256;
- Total: 157,374.
The company uses improved optimization algorithms for the GPU Turbo 3.0, which allows you to run modern games in excellent quality.
Asphalt 9: LegendsApparently, it sets high, but not maximum graphics settings, additionally allowing you to optimize the game for yourself by choosing a priority: frame rate, balance or resolution. In the latter version, the graphics are smoother and very pretty, but sometimes they falter.
In turn World of tanks blitz It works at maximum graphics settings, sound quality and with improved textures at 60 FPS.
As I wrote above, the Honor 9C has a triple main camera with flash. First module on 48 MP with f / 1.8 aperture and phase detection autofocus, 8 MP wide-angle module with f / 2.4 aperture and 2 MP depth module with f / 2.4 aperture.
Photos are of good quality. Especially if you do them during the day or in bright rooms. But when approaching, it is clear that some objects lack details.
In the evening and in poor light artifacts appear.
By default, the camera makes images in the resolution of 4000×3000 pixels using AI, but you can select the manual mode and enable the increased resolution of 8000×3000. In the latter case, some functions, such as zooming, wide-angle shooting and AI, become unavailable.
Using the HI-RES mode at some points can be useful, but basically I didn’t notice any special difference in the quality of the received photos of the Honor 9C. Therefore, it is easier to just use the default mode using AI – in this case, the pictures will take 2-3 times less (about 1-6 MB).
Honor 9C doesn’t have macro shots, but close photos are pretty good.
The wide-angle module (120 degrees) makes generally good shots, but when zooming and viewing on a PC, blurry details (especially around the edges of the frame) and poor contrast are too noticeable.
Front camera on 8 MP with f / 2.0 aperture creates good selfies with adequate detail on the face and pixel background, which is pretty standard for devices in this price category.
But there are effects here, like an automatic decoration that narrows the oval of a face and glosses over skin problems, and a defocus mode for the backdrop that works surprisingly well.
There is no flash in front, but you can brighten the face with the backlight function.
The main camera shoots video in 1080p / 60FPS and 1080p / 30FPS with wide-angle shooting. Selfie – 1080p / 30FPS.
The videos are obtained of standard quality for state employees – without stabilization, but with good sound.
Face jewelry is also available in the video, but keep in mind that if you bring a hand near the face, the AI loses sight of you and the beauty effect disappears for a moment.
It is also worth noting that the Honor 9C can easily reproduce even heavy 4K / 60FPS SDR files.
The device supports 4G TD-LTE (bands 34/38/39/40/41), 4G LTE FDD (bands 1/2/3/4/5/7/8/20), 3G WCDMA and 2G GSM.
Wi-Fi 802.11 b / g / n 2.4 GHz (5 GHz is not supported); Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth BT 5.0, BLE.
Navigation systems: GPS, AGPS, GLONASS, Beidou satellite navigation system.
There is an FM radio that turns on through a proprietary application with wired headphones connected, and most importantly – Nfc, which can be used for contactless payment through the Wallet and Yandex.Money applications.
Honor 9C – This is a good budget smartphone with a nice design without bangs, a good camera, a bright screen, adequate filling, an excellent battery, NFC, a 3.5 mm mini-jack and the ability to install two SIM cards simultaneously with a microSD card. Screen resolution and the lack of Google services can scare away part of the audience, but given the fast filling of AppGallery, this is not the same problem as before.
Posted by Mikhail Shaginyan (ACE),
Editing – Denis Korolev (Skyerist)
Photo: Mikhail Shaginyan (ACE) and Alexey Olkin.
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