Honor, Huawei’s youthful sub-brand, has always pushed the boundaries of price-performance. Its “X” series lineup is especially potent and adept at driving the value game in the sub-MYR1,000 bracket. The just-launched Honor 9X continues this tradition, coming in at just under MYR1,000 and offering a feature-packed bundle for Malaysian consumers. The new Honor device goes on sale 28 November 2019, with pre-order kicking off from 22 November. The local launch also saw the introduction of several new wearables namely the Honor Band 5, Honor Band 5 Sport and Honor Sport Pro Bluetooth Wireless earphones.

Looking back, the honor 5X was the first to feature a fingerprint sensor, followed by the honor 6X with the first dual-camera system. Then the honor 7X boasted a FullView Display. Last year’s honor 8X again pushed the display stakes further with an impressive 91 percent screen-to-body ratio.

With the new honor 9X, honor more or less keeps to this formula, doing just enough to entice with a neat package complemented by competitive pricing.

Right off the bat though you’ll realise the new device is a lot like the Huawei Y9 Prime and upcoming Y9S. In fact, the devices share plenty under the hood. This shouldn’t come as a surprise since Huawei and honor share device platforms; from the same family tree, so to speak.

Let it also be known that with the in-effect US trade ban, new Huawei devices come without Google Mobile Services (GMS). To work around the ban, Huawei and Honor have been rather creative in repackaging its older products into new ones. For instance, the P30 Pro with new colour variants, which skirts the ban since it is based on the original P30 Pro that was introduced prior to the 15 May trade ban announcement.

The upcoming Huawei Y9S also escapes the ban simply because it’s derived from the Y9 Prime 2019 (albeit with uprated cameras, amongst other things), which was introduced in February earlier this year.

Likewise with the Honor 9X; since it’s based on the Y9 Prime 2019 and Y9S, it isn’t affected by the ban and therefore comes with GMS intact. Phew.

Up front you’ll find an immersive 6.59-inch FullView Display sans a notch, pushing the screen-to-body ratio to an impressive 91 percent.

The LCD display is housed in a 3D dual curved body which is just 8.8mm thick. It’s a flashier design compared to its predecessor, now featuring what Honor calls a “Dynamic X Design”—made of geometric diamond-cut tiles that reflects and refracts light. It’s offered in two colour options: Sapphire Blue and Midnight Black.

Under the hood is a slight uprated Kirin 710f chipset, paired with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of onboard storage. There’s also microSD expansion in case you need more storage.

Some nifty extras include a 3.5mm headphone jack, a side-mounted fingerprint scanner and a USB-C port, a first for the Honor X series. Keeping the device juiced is a 4,000mAh battery.

In the optics department, the Honor 9X boasts an AI-enhanced triple camera setup: 48MP f/1.8 main camera, supplemented by an 8MP ultra-wide-angle camera and 2MP depth camera.

On the front, the device gets a trick 16MP pop-up selfie camera.

The Honor 9X runs EMUI 9.1 based on Android 9 Pie.

Pricing and availability

The Honor 9X is officially priced at MYR999 and is available for pre-order starting 22 November on HiHonor and the Honor Official Store on Lazada. It will go on sale on HiHonor.com, Lazada and Shopee starting 28 November. It will hit Honor Experience Stores nationwide beginning 29 November 2019.

Purchase links: Buy from Lazada | Buy from Shopee

As a pre-order offer (22-27 November), each purchase of the Honor 9X scores you a free Honor Band 5 Sport and gift box; or simply add MYR0.99 to get an Honor Sport Pro Bluetooth earphones.

From 28 November onwards, each purchase will entitle you to a free Honor Band 5 Sport and gift box. There’s also an option for you to purchase the Honor Sport Pro earphones for MYR199 (SRP: MYR299). The offer is valid until 1 December 2019.

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