Huawei's sub-brand Honor recently announced the Honor 9N in India. The 'N' in the name indicates the Notch that it contains thereby making it one of the first device to house a notch in the budget segment considering under Rs. 15000. Prior to that we expected the Redmi 6 Pro or the Mi A2 lite to debut with the notch but it has not arrived yet in India and is highly unlikely. So for all the notch fans out there, this is the only option in the budget segment as of now.
Months ago, Honor had also announced the Honor 9 Lite which did not come with a notch but came with a newer 18:9 aspect ratio display and narrow bezels. If we compare the 9 lite and the 9N side by side we see a wide range of similarities which we intend to discuss here.
Build : Both these devices come with a glass body flanked by it on both the sides (2.5D curved glass). From the rear, both these devices are identical with the dual cameras and the flash housed in a horizontal fashion at the top. The fingerprint sensor is placed at the center like almost every Honor budget device. The front section has some minor changes since we have a notch here on the 9N whereas the 9 Lite is void of it. The notch makes the aspect ratio on the 9N 19:9 as against 18:9 on the 9 Lite.
Since, the notches are meant for eradicating the bezels or atleast minimize them, here unfortunately the bezels are considerably thick which makes the addition of a notch redundant. However, it is what it is and probably its almost time for us to get adapted to it. The top 'Notch' of the 9N houses the earpiece, sensors which is also the case with the 9 Lite barring the notch. The 9N comes with a 5.84 inch screen size whereas the 9 Lite comes with a smaller 5.65 inch both being IPS LCD displays with FHD+ resolution.
Honor 9N dimensions :149.2 x 71.8 x 7.7 mm
Honor 9 Lite dimensions :151 x 71.9 x 7.6 mm
Performance : Both these devices come with the Kirin 659 SOC which is Huawei's equivalent for Snapdragon 600 series. It comes with 4 Cortex A53 cores clocked at 2.36 GHz and 4 Cortex A53 cores clocked at 1.7 GHz. The GPU used is the Mali T830 MP2 which is much under-powered when compared to the Adreno GPU's. However, recently Huawei announced the GPU Turbo update which will also be available for many Honor devices and the 9N and the 9 Lite will get the update too. The GPU Turbo will enhance the graphics performance by upto 60% and reduce the battery consumption by upto 30% as stated by them.
Both these devices are available in multiple RAM and storage variants i.e 3-32 GB , 4 -64GB and the 9N has an additional variant of 4-128GB. Performance wise both these devices are identical. Also they run on EMUi 8 based on Android Oreo. Face unlocking is available on both these devices thereby keeping themselves updated with the trend.
Camera : Speaking of the rear part, both of them come with identical specs such as the 13 MP + 2MP RGB + Depth sensor. The depth sensor allows for control with the bokeh that can be done easily with the software. Apart from that, we also get a variety of controls with the Pro mode available. The front facing camera of both these devices are different. The 9N comes with a single 16 MP sensor whereas the 9 Lite comes with a 13 MP + 2 MP sensor with the latter being a depth sensor. The cameras are capable for capturing 1080p at 30 FPS.
Battery and connectivity : This is another area where the specs remain the same. They come with a 3000 mAh battery capacity which translates to average battery life since the counterparts like Xiaomi and even Asus provide devices with 4000 / 5000 mAh battery capacities. Fast charging is not available here.
The connectivity options include WiFi 802.11 b/g/n 2.4GHz, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, Glonass, Beidou. We do not get Bluetooth 5 here due to the SOC being quite old. The sensors include : Proximity, Accelerometer, Fingerprint, Ambient light and Gyroscope.
The Honor 9 lite is available for Rs. 10999 - 3GB/32GB and Rs. 14999 - 4GB/64GB. The color options available are Blue, Black and Grey.
On the other hand the 9N is available for Rs. 11999 - 3GB/32GB, Rs. 13999 - 4GB/64GB and Rs. 17999 - 4GB/128GB. It is initially available in Blue and Black colors. Both these devices are being sold via Flipkart.
Summing it up, it is evident from the above discussion that both these devices are very identical. Barring a few parameters such as the camera and the presence of the notch, the 9N is just a refreshed 9 Lite with either of them falling back in the competition. Xiaomi and Asus with slightly more powerful devices have made their presence much stronger in the sub Rs.15k range. Honestly speaking, the 4/128GB variant of the 9N is just a waste to opt for since the Mi A2 with the powerful Snapdragon 660 SOC and much better cameras is round the corner for launch in India which will be priced at around Rs. 20k. Also, the 6GB RAM variant of the Redmi Note 5 Pro is an ideal option if the budget is restricted at around Rs. 17K.
If given a choice in terms of design, what would be your pick among Honor and Xiaomi or Asus devices ? In our case Honor does manufacture some great looking devices but they fall short in terms of performance but sticking to the above question, our pick would be Honor.
Images via Flipkart
Honor 9 Lite - Left & Honor 9N - Right
Months ago, Honor had also announced the Honor 9 Lite which did not come with a notch but came with a newer 18:9 aspect ratio display and narrow bezels. If we compare the 9 lite and the 9N side by side we see a wide range of similarities which we intend to discuss here.
Build : Both these devices come with a glass body flanked by it on both the sides (2.5D curved glass). From the rear, both these devices are identical with the dual cameras and the flash housed in a horizontal fashion at the top. The fingerprint sensor is placed at the center like almost every Honor budget device. The front section has some minor changes since we have a notch here on the 9N whereas the 9 Lite is void of it. The notch makes the aspect ratio on the 9N 19:9 as against 18:9 on the 9 Lite.
Since, the notches are meant for eradicating the bezels or atleast minimize them, here unfortunately the bezels are considerably thick which makes the addition of a notch redundant. However, it is what it is and probably its almost time for us to get adapted to it. The top 'Notch' of the 9N houses the earpiece, sensors which is also the case with the 9 Lite barring the notch. The 9N comes with a 5.84 inch screen size whereas the 9 Lite comes with a smaller 5.65 inch both being IPS LCD displays with FHD+ resolution.
Honor 9N dimensions :149.2 x 71.8 x 7.7 mm
Honor 9 Lite dimensions :151 x 71.9 x 7.6 mm
Performance : Both these devices come with the Kirin 659 SOC which is Huawei's equivalent for Snapdragon 600 series. It comes with 4 Cortex A53 cores clocked at 2.36 GHz and 4 Cortex A53 cores clocked at 1.7 GHz. The GPU used is the Mali T830 MP2 which is much under-powered when compared to the Adreno GPU's. However, recently Huawei announced the GPU Turbo update which will also be available for many Honor devices and the 9N and the 9 Lite will get the update too. The GPU Turbo will enhance the graphics performance by upto 60% and reduce the battery consumption by upto 30% as stated by them.
Both these devices are available in multiple RAM and storage variants i.e 3-32 GB , 4 -64GB and the 9N has an additional variant of 4-128GB. Performance wise both these devices are identical. Also they run on EMUi 8 based on Android Oreo. Face unlocking is available on both these devices thereby keeping themselves updated with the trend.
Honor 9 Lite - Left & Honor 9N - Right
Camera : Speaking of the rear part, both of them come with identical specs such as the 13 MP + 2MP RGB + Depth sensor. The depth sensor allows for control with the bokeh that can be done easily with the software. Apart from that, we also get a variety of controls with the Pro mode available. The front facing camera of both these devices are different. The 9N comes with a single 16 MP sensor whereas the 9 Lite comes with a 13 MP + 2 MP sensor with the latter being a depth sensor. The cameras are capable for capturing 1080p at 30 FPS.
Battery and connectivity : This is another area where the specs remain the same. They come with a 3000 mAh battery capacity which translates to average battery life since the counterparts like Xiaomi and even Asus provide devices with 4000 / 5000 mAh battery capacities. Fast charging is not available here.
The connectivity options include WiFi 802.11 b/g/n 2.4GHz, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, Glonass, Beidou. We do not get Bluetooth 5 here due to the SOC being quite old. The sensors include : Proximity, Accelerometer, Fingerprint, Ambient light and Gyroscope.
The Honor 9 lite is available for Rs. 10999 - 3GB/32GB and Rs. 14999 - 4GB/64GB. The color options available are Blue, Black and Grey.
On the other hand the 9N is available for Rs. 11999 - 3GB/32GB, Rs. 13999 - 4GB/64GB and Rs. 17999 - 4GB/128GB. It is initially available in Blue and Black colors. Both these devices are being sold via Flipkart.
Summing it up, it is evident from the above discussion that both these devices are very identical. Barring a few parameters such as the camera and the presence of the notch, the 9N is just a refreshed 9 Lite with either of them falling back in the competition. Xiaomi and Asus with slightly more powerful devices have made their presence much stronger in the sub Rs.15k range. Honestly speaking, the 4/128GB variant of the 9N is just a waste to opt for since the Mi A2 with the powerful Snapdragon 660 SOC and much better cameras is round the corner for launch in India which will be priced at around Rs. 20k. Also, the 6GB RAM variant of the Redmi Note 5 Pro is an ideal option if the budget is restricted at around Rs. 17K.
If given a choice in terms of design, what would be your pick among Honor and Xiaomi or Asus devices ? In our case Honor does manufacture some great looking devices but they fall short in terms of performance but sticking to the above question, our pick would be Honor.
Images via Flipkart