Honor is making a comeback to the Indian smartphone market this month after taking a break for a limited period. The Huawei sub-brand is all set to bring the Honor 9X to the country on January 14, and the smartphone will be exclusive to Flipkart. To recall, the Honor 9X was launched in China a few months ago and the same variant may reach the Asian sub-continent next week. Key highlights of the Honor 9X include pop-up selfie camera, 12nm Kirin 710F chipset, up to 6GB of RAM, 48MP AI selfie camera and more. Alongside the Honor 9X, the company may launch the Honor Magic Watch 2 smartwatch as well in the Indian market, but nothing is confirmed for now.
Honor 9X India Launch: What We Know So Far
The Honor 9X comes as a successor to the Honor 8X which did not do well in the Indian market, thanks to the slightly higher starting price of Rs 14,999. The Honor 9X packs decent specs, but the usage of Kirin 710F chipset is something which several users may not like. Honor should have gone with the much powerful Kirin 810 chipset for the Honor 9X. The HiSilicon Kirin 710F chipset is a slight upgrade over the Kirin 710 chipset which we saw on several Honor/Huawei phones in the past.
Flipkart has made the teaser page of Honor 9X live which confirmed key specifications of the handset. These specs match with the Chinese variant of Honor 9X, so expect the brand to bring the same model to India as well.
As for the specs, the Honor 9X sports a 6.59-inch Full HD+ IPS LCD screen which also offers a whopping 91% screen-to-body ratio. Underneath, it has the Kirin 710F chipset, paired with 4GB/6GB of RAM and 64GB/128GB of internal storage. The phone also offers a microSD card slot for storage expansion up to 128GB. The Honor 9X runs EMUI 9.1 based on Android 9 Pie out of the box, and it will be available for purchase in two colours- Sapphire Blue and Midnight Black.
Moving onto the cameras, the Honor 9X rocks AI Triple camera setup on the back. A 48MP primary camera with f/1.8 aperture works in tandem with an 8MP super-wide-angle camera and a 2MP depth camera. The phone ships with features like AIS Super Night mode and AI Video Stabilisation. On the front, it has a 16MP pop-up selfie camera. Lastly, the Honor 9X comes backed by a 4000mAh battery and also has support for 18W fast charging.
Honor to Return to Indian Smartphone After a Brief Break
At the start of 2019, Huawei was hit badly with the United States government's move of not allowing various foreign companies to work with it. The move also affected Huawei' sub-brand Honor. In June 2019, Honor launched three smartphones under the Honor 20 series, and now, it's launching the Honor 9X in India. The big question which Honor will face right now is the succeeding of Honor 9X in the country.
With brands like Xiaomi, Realme and Samsung already battling for the top spot, it will be really tough for Honor to compete with these brands head-on. That said, the Honor 9X lacks in various aspects when compared to the Redmi Note 8 Pro and the Realme XT, so Honor should price the device aggressively to stay in the market.
