Huawei Y9 (2018)

The Huawei Y9 (2018) has a look to catch your attention when you enter the store. Priced at Rs. 16,000., the Huawei Y9 may have the necessary hardware to keep it afloat in the mid-range market.

However, the Huawei Y9 is not a value for money phone. It has a capable processor, but it is quite dated for the processor that the market standard has set. Unless you are a Huawei fan, it is not a recommended phone for midrange users.

The Huawei Y9 arrives with a classy unibody design with a metal chassis covered with tempered glass to cover up the screen. In general, it is quite sturdy and has the potential to attract attention. The material looks flexible and using the metal makes the phone even more robust. However, the phone did not receive the U.S Military MIL-STD 810G, which proves it to be suitable for rough uses, something LG Q6 was able to earn. There is no IP rating either which makes it not a very durable model as per industrial standards. However, it is comfortable to hold and manage.

The Huawei Y9 comes with a 5.93-inch screen with a TFT LCD panel. It gets an acceptable brightness at 376nits, but it is not good enough to sunny days and can reduce legibility. The phone gets a 70% sRGB colour gamut, and the colours look pretty decent, though the blacks are not as deep as you can expect in AMOLED screens. It gets a 76.7% screen-to-body ratio, which is excellent and gives you an immersive experience overall.

Huawei Y9 2018 is powered by the octa-core HiSilicon Kirin 659. It is similar to the Snapdragon 400 processors, and while it can match up with the Snapdragon 600 processors, the odds are in favour of the Snapdragon 600 series chipsets. RAM is a bit low as well, coming at 3GB. Multitasking can be a struggle on this phone if you are using it for heavy multitasking. However, in the case of light apps, the phone can do its job well. The phone tends to do well with light games too, but high-end games can make it struggle.

The Huawei Y9 arrives with a four camera set up – two of them on the rear panel 13MP primary camera with 2MP depth sensor and two in front – 16MP primary camera with a 2MP depth sensor. The setting will help in creating the Bokeh effect. The rear camera is not very great – it does not have Optical Image Stabilization but can click decent photos in daylight. However, the contrast is a bit off, and the colours turn out to be washed out in several places. Phase detection technology is also used in the cameras, which keeps the images in focus. The Bokeh was just okay with the edge detection not always on point. The selfie camera is good and can click decent photos in bright light conditions but fails to deliver in low-light settings. It has a display flash which might help in low-light, but it does not do a great job at that.

Huawei Y9 2018 comes with an impressive 4000 mAh battery. It can easily last you for an entire day even it moderate tasks like a bit of gaming and video streaming. Plus, the chipset that the phone comes in is power efficient, and that makes the battery last longer. However, the phone does not have a significantly fast charge speed. It takes about 36 mAh of charge per minute, which is quite lower than the average 50 mAh per minute in many premium phones.

The Huawei Y9 2018 is a mid-range phone which has a great display and good amount of battery, but it is mostly a mixed bag. The design is good but not industrial standard sturdy, and it does not come with a premium touch to it. The cameras on this phone are mostly poor, and when it does have ideal conditions, the images do not stand out from other competitors. If you are able to increase your budget a bit, then the Huawei Mate 10 Lite seems a better choice which a smaller battery size but better design and camera. However, overall, the phone looks just about acceptable, though it is not recommended since there are more potent competitors present in the market.