Honor 9X Lite Smartphone Review – Convincing thanks to new camera and Google?
Comparison devices
Bewertung | Rating Version | Datum | Modell | Gewicht | Laufwerk | Groesse | Aufloesung | Preis ab |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 77 % v7 (old) | v7 (old) | 08 / 2020 | Honor 9X Lite Kirin 710, Mali-G51 MP4 | 188 g | 128 GB eMMC Flash | 6.50" | 2340x1080 | |
| 76.6 % v7 (old) | v7 (old) | 05 / 2020 | Huawei P Smart 2020 Kirin 710, Mali-G51 MP4 | 163 g | 128 GB eMMC Flash | 6.21" | 2340x1080 | |
| 75.1 % v7 (old) | v7 (old) | 10 / 2020 | Sony Xperia L4 Helio P22 MT6762, PowerVR GE8320 | 178 g | 64 GB eMMC Flash | 6.20" | 1680x720 | |
| 79.8 % v7 (old) | v7 (old) | 07 / 2020 | Samsung Galaxy M31 Exynos 9611, Mali-G72 MP3 | 191 g | 64 GB UFS 2.0 Flash | 6.40" | 2340x1080 | |
| 85.4 % v6 (old) | v6 (old) | 11 / 2018 | Honor 8X Kirin 710, Mali-G51 MP4 | 175 g | 128 GB eMMC Flash | 6.50" | 2340x1080 |
Case, equipment and operation - Slow WLAN
Huawei and thus also the subsidiary Honor may no longer be supplied with technology by American companies. Now the manufacturer is taking a divided path: Some smartphones are simply minimally modified predecessors that still have Google certification, others come completely without Google apps and, above all, the Google services that many apps use. The Honor 9X Lite belongs to the first category, still offers Android 9 and looks quite similar to the older Honor 8X.
The Honor 9X Lite is a rather cheap mid-range smartphone for 199 Euro and is available on the net already for a much lower price or with free accessories. The case is acceptable for this price: stable and plain with a black, reflective back. A green color variant is also available.
With 128 GB, the smartphone offers a generous amount of mass storage for the price range, and there is also NFC, which allows wireless payment options. The USB port is still a micro USB port and there is only older Bluetooth 4.2, but with aptX for higher sound quality. The memory card reader is independent of the two SIM ports, so you can use one card for all three at the same time.
In our test with the Netgear Nighthawk AX12 reference router, the WLAN module is indeed capable of WiFi 5, but the speeds fluctuate greatly and are generally not particularly high. You shouldn't expect too many LTE frequencies either, so when traveling abroad to other continents the smartphone may not be able to dial into the local LTE networks.
As far as software is concerned, there is only older Android 9, you should not expect an update to a newer version. The security patches are also quite old at the time of testing.
On the back of the phone there is a fingeprint sensor, which unlocks the Honor 9 Lite quickly and reliably.
| Networking | |
| iperf3 transmit AX12 | |
| Samsung Galaxy M31 | |
| Huawei P Smart 2020 | |
| Honor 9X Lite | |
| Honor 8X | |
| Sony Xperia L4 | |
| iperf3 receive AX12 | |
| Samsung Galaxy M31 | |
| Honor 8X | |
| Huawei P Smart 2020 | |
| Honor 9X Lite | |
| Sony Xperia L4 | |
Cameras - Now with pixel binning
The biggest innovation compared to the Honor 8X is probably the main camera, which now works with pixel binning, i.e. always combines 4 pixels to one large, very light-sensitive pixel. The 48 megapixel resolution of the sensor results in 12 megapixel images, which is sufficient for most applications.
However, the images seem a bit too exposed and offer too little contrast, so that details are quickly lost in light and dark areas. This also results in a pale image impression, and image details often appear pixelated. Even in the test lab under defined lighting conditions, the images look pale, but the overall sharpness is on a decent level. In low light, images quickly appear pixelated and offer only a few details, but at least the brightening is acceptable.
The front camera with 8 megapixels makes passable selfies in normal light, which look quite pixelated in detail. In low light, the motif is not visible without additional brightening.
Image Comparison
Choose a scene and navigate within the first image. One click changes the position on touchscreens. One click on the zoomed-in image opens the original in a new window. The first image shows the scaled photograph of the test device.
Hauptobjektiv BlumeHauptobjektiv UmgebungHauptobjektiv Low Light
Display - Right color
FullHD resolution is no longer completely uncommon in this price range, but still a positive aspect. The display of the Honor 9X Lite is not very bright, though, and the black level is so high that the contrast values are pressed, so that the overall picture impression is somewhat pale.
But the image display on the screen is actually quite lifelike and there is at best a slight blue cast.
In addition, we don't notice any PWM flickering and the reaction times aren't too slow.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Brightness Distribution: 93 %
Center on Battery: 435 cd/m²
Contrast: 565:1 (Black: 0.77 cd/m²)
ΔE Color 3.31 | 0.5-29.43 Ø4.9
ΔE Greyscale 3.2 | 0.5-98 Ø5.2
98.8% sRGB (Calman 2D)
Gamma: 2.3
| Honor 9X Lite IPS, 2340x1080, 6.5" | Huawei P Smart 2020 IPS, 2340x1080, 6.2" | Sony Xperia L4 IPS, 1680x720, 6.2" | Samsung Galaxy M31 Super AMOLED, 2340x1080, 6.4" | Honor 8X LCD IPS, 2340x1080, 6.5" | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Response Times | -31% | -75% | 66% | -9% | |
| Response Time Grey 50% / Grey 80% * | 36 ? | 42 ? -17% | 58 ? -61% | 9 ? 75% | 40 ? -11% |
| Response Time Black / White * | 18 ? | 26 ? -44% | 34 ? -89% | 8 ? 56% | 19.2 ? -7% |
| PWM Frequency | 344 ? | 100 ? | 208 | ||
| Screen | -13% | 1% | 25% | -26% | |
| Brightness middle | 435 | 446 3% | 429 -1% | 622 43% | 484 11% |
| Brightness | 422 | 448 6% | 404 -4% | 615 46% | 469 11% |
| Brightness Distribution | 93 | 87 -6% | 92 -1% | 97 4% | 93 0% |
| Black Level * | 0.77 | 0.51 34% | 0.26 66% | 0.55 29% | |
| Contrast | 565 | 875 55% | 1650 192% | 880 56% | |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 * | 3.31 | 5.22 -58% | 6.14 -85% | 2.25 32% | 7.3 -121% |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 max. * | 6.8 | 8.66 -27% | 10.51 -55% | 6.22 9% | 11.1 -63% |
| Greyscale dE 2000 * | 3.2 | 6.8 -113% | 6.6 -106% | 2.7 16% | 7.4 -131% |
| Gamma | 2.3 96% | 2.43 91% | 2.23 99% | 2.019 109% | 2.16 102% |
| CCT | 6894 94% | 7956 82% | 8346 78% | 6810 95% | 8534 76% |
| Total Average (Program / Settings) | -22% /
-17% | -37% /
-14% | 46% /
35% | -18% /
-23% |
* ... smaller is better
Display Response Times
| ↔ Response Time Black to White | ||
|---|---|---|
| 18 ms ... rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined | ↗ 7 ms rise |  |
| ↘ 11 ms fall | ||
| The screen shows good response rates in our tests, but may be too slow for competitive gamers. In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.1 (minimum) to 240 (maximum) ms. » 36 % of all devices are better. This means that the measured response time is better than the average of all tested devices (20.9 ms). | ||
| ↔ Response Time 50% Grey to 80% Grey | ||
| 36 ms ... rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined | ↗ 17 ms rise |  |
| ↘ 19 ms fall | ||
| The screen shows slow response rates in our tests and will be unsatisfactory for gamers. In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.165 (minimum) to 636 (maximum) ms. » 46 % of all devices are better. This means that the measured response time is similar to the average of all tested devices (32.8 ms). | ||
Screen Flickering / PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation)
| Screen flickering / PWM not detected |  | ||
In comparison: 53 % of all tested devices do not use PWM to dim the display. If PWM was detected, an average of 8687 (minimum: 5 - maximum: 343500) Hz was measured. | |||
Performance, emissions and battery life - Good runtime
The SoC is the in-house Kirin 710, which is already known from many similarly priced smartphones from Huawei and Honor. The 2-year-old processor is a little difficult to handle during performance peaks, but it is still sufficient for smooth everyday operation with only very rare jerking.
Simpler games without much demands on the graphics card can be played on the smartphone, for more complex mobile games you may have to reduce the graphics settings.
The memory is quite slow eMMC Flash, the Samsung Galaxy M31 has here by UFS 2.0 again the nose in front. However, the card reader does a solid job with good speeds in cooperation with our reference microSD card, the Toshiba Exceria Pro M501.
The Honor 9X Lite gets slightly warm under load, but this is never a problem. The mono speaker is moderately loud, but offers a decent sound, which also reproduces voices and singing in an easily understandable way and is not too high-frequency-heavy. Whoever listens to music more often, will probably still prefer to use the 3.5mm audio port or Bluetooth, over which you get a clean sound signal on your devices.
The battery achieves a decent result with 13:13 hours in our WLAN test, which is about one hour below the Honor 8X. The Samsung Galaxy M31 with its huge battery lasts much longer. The battery life of the Honor 9X Lite is completely sufficient for everyday use; you don't have to charge it every day during normal use. The charger supports 10 watts of charging power and needs well over 2 hours until the battery is full again.
| PCMark for Android | |
| Work performance score (sort by value) | |
| Honor 9X Lite | |
| Sony Xperia L4 | |
| Samsung Galaxy M31 | |
| Honor 8X | |
| Average HiSilicon Kirin 710 (7004 - 9854, n=13) | |
| Work 2.0 performance score (sort by value) | |
| Honor 9X Lite | |
| Sony Xperia L4 | |
| Samsung Galaxy M31 | |
| Honor 8X | |
| Average HiSilicon Kirin 710 (5803 - 7141, n=12) | |
| GFXBench | |
| on screen Aztec Ruins Normal Tier Onscreen (sort by value) | |
| Honor 9X Lite | |
| Huawei P Smart 2020 | |
| Sony Xperia L4 | |
| Samsung Galaxy M31 | |
| Honor 8X | |
| Average HiSilicon Kirin 710 (4.6 - 6.9, n=13) | |
| Average of class Smartphone (3.6 - 166, n=211, last 2 years) | |
| 1920x1080 Aztec Ruins Normal Tier Offscreen (sort by value) | |
| Honor 9X Lite | |
| Huawei P Smart 2020 | |
| Sony Xperia L4 | |
| Samsung Galaxy M31 | |
| Honor 8X | |
| Average HiSilicon Kirin 710 (4.6 - 7, n=13) | |
| Average of class Smartphone (2.3 - 321, n=211, last 2 years) | |
| on screen Aztec Ruins High Tier Onscreen (sort by value) | |
| Honor 9X Lite | |
| Huawei P Smart 2020 | |
| Sony Xperia L4 | |
| Samsung Galaxy M31 | |
| Honor 8X | |
| Average HiSilicon Kirin 710 (2.2 - 7, n=13) | |
| Average of class Smartphone (0.85 - 144, n=212, last 2 years) | |
| 2560x1440 Aztec Ruins High Tier Offscreen (sort by value) | |
| Honor 9X Lite | |
| Huawei P Smart 2020 | |
| Sony Xperia L4 | |
| Samsung Galaxy M31 | |
| Honor 8X | |
| Average HiSilicon Kirin 710 (2.6 - 4, n=13) | |
| Average of class Smartphone (0.85 - 129, n=211, last 2 years) | |
| Honor 9X Lite | Huawei P Smart 2020 | Sony Xperia L4 | Samsung Galaxy M31 | Honor 8X | Average 128 GB eMMC Flash | Average of class Smartphone | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AndroBench 3-5 | -8% | -8% | 61% | -4% | 8% | 511% | |
| Sequential Read 256KB | 286.8 | 282.1 -2% | 293.4 2% | 489.5 71% | 283.9 -1% | 283 ? -1% | 1883 ? 557% |
| Sequential Write 256KB | 200.9 | 168.3 -16% | 165 -18% | 221.7 10% | 170 -15% | 195.1 ? -3% | 1476 ? 635% |
| Random Read 4KB | 44.8 | 41.2 -8% | 61.2 37% | 128.9 188% | 49.54 11% | 82.3 ? 84% | 278 ? 521% |
| Random Write 4KB | 72.4 | 61.1 -16% | 22.5 -69% | 152.4 110% | 59.9 -17% | 55.4 ? -23% | 311 ? 330% |
| Sequential Read 256KB SDCard | 76 ? | 76.1 ? 0% | 83.5 ? 10% | 74.5 ? -2% | 75.2 ? -1% | 78.1 ? 3% | |
| Sequential Write 256KB SDCard | 69.2 ? | 67 ? -3% | 62.5 ? -10% | 60.8 ? -12% | 68.1 ? -2% | 61.8 ? -11% |
Temperature
(±) The maximum temperature on the upper side is 44.6 °C / 112 F, compared to the average of 35.1 °C / 95 F, ranging from 21.9 to 63.7 °C for the class Smartphone.
(±) The bottom heats up to a maximum of 43.2 °C / 110 F, compared to the average of 33.9 °C / 93 F
(±) In idle usage, the average temperature for the upper side is 32.7 °C / 91 F, compared to the device average of 32.8 °C / 91 F.
Speakers
Honor 9X Lite audio analysis
(±) | speaker loudness is average but good (78.6 dB)
Bass 100 - 315 Hz
(-) | nearly no bass - on average 25.8% lower than median
(±) | linearity of bass is average (14.6% delta to prev. frequency)
Mids 400 - 2000 Hz
(±) | higher mids - on average 6% higher than median
(+) | mids are linear (6.9% delta to prev. frequency)
Highs 2 - 16 kHz
(+) | balanced highs - only 3.7% away from median
(±) | linearity of highs is average (9.4% delta to prev. frequency)
Overall 100 - 16.000 Hz
(±) | linearity of overall sound is average (25.6% difference to median)
Compared to same class
» 60% of all tested devices in this class were better, 7% similar, 33% worse
» The best had a delta of 12%, average was 36%, worst was 134%
Compared to all devices tested
» 76% of all tested devices were better, 5% similar, 19% worse
» The best had a delta of 4%, average was 25%, worst was 134%
Huawei P Smart 2020 audio analysis
(±) | speaker loudness is average but good (74.8 dB)
Bass 100 - 315 Hz
(-) | nearly no bass - on average 24.9% lower than median
(±) | linearity of bass is average (11.2% delta to prev. frequency)
Mids 400 - 2000 Hz
(±) | higher mids - on average 5.9% higher than median
(±) | linearity of mids is average (8% delta to prev. frequency)
Highs 2 - 16 kHz
(±) | higher highs - on average 5.5% higher than median
(+) | highs are linear (6.5% delta to prev. frequency)
Overall 100 - 16.000 Hz
(±) | linearity of overall sound is average (27.7% difference to median)
Compared to same class
» 69% of all tested devices in this class were better, 5% similar, 26% worse
» The best had a delta of 12%, average was 36%, worst was 134%
Compared to all devices tested
» 82% of all tested devices were better, 3% similar, 14% worse
» The best had a delta of 4%, average was 25%, worst was 134%
Battery life
| Honor 9X Lite 3750 mAh | Huawei P Smart 2020 3400 mAh | Sony Xperia L4 3580 mAh | Samsung Galaxy M31 6000 mAh | Honor 8X 3750 mAh | Average of class Smartphone | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Battery Runtime | ||||||
| WiFi Websurfing | 793 | 523 -34% | 783 -1% | 1324 67% | 852 7% | 999 ? 26% |
Pros
Cons
Verdict – Decent equipment, but old software
Should one be angry with Honor for only launching a slightly modified version of the Honor 8X with the Honor 9X Lite or praise that there is a camera that focuses on contemporary pixel binning and that the manufacturer offers a lot of memory for the price?
In any case, with the upcoming Android 11, the operating system is outdated and the security patches are hopelessly outdated. In view of the current dispute with the USA and the low device price, one should also not expect any updates soon.
The power of the Honor 9X Lite is still good for the price range, but there are already much more powerful devices available. The battery life is decent, the camera takes acceptable pictures and the screen is even reasonably color fidelity and offers quite a high resolution. The fingerprint sensor unlocks the device quickly and reliably, and in everyday life you can quickly and easily access frequently used apps thanks to Google support.
The Honor 9X Lite is a remake of the Honor 8X with new camera and old software. Without serious weaknesses and with quite a lot of memory it can still convince despite older components.
The Honor 9X Lite is still a decent offer for moderate demands, especially since it is currently available for a reasonable price on the net or is offered directly from the manufacturer with many accessory gifts. However, one should not place any value on current software if one decides on the inexpensive mid-range device.
Honor 9X Lite
- 08/27/2020 v7 (old)
Florian Schmitt
Price comparison
