Honor 9 Lite

As I mentioned previously, the Honor 9 Lite draws parallels to its siblings in terms of most of its core specifications. Therefore, before I list everything new that the smartphone brings to the table, let me address the similarities between the 9 Lite and Honor's other offerings namely the 7X and the 9i.Starting off, the 9 Lite is powered by the same HiSilicon Kirin 659 processor which fuels the Honor 7X and 9i smartphones. Furthermore, the device also gets 4GB of RAM which works alongside 64GB of user-expandable storage. However, the smartphone ships with a hybrid SIM slot and therefore, you'll have to compromise between expanding the storage or increasing your connectivity options with the 9 Lite. The experience of using the smartphone remains unchanged. The smartphone feels snappy during daily usage and while graphically-intensive games do take their toll on the device's performance, the experience isn't all that bad and apart from a few frame drops, you can run pretty much any game on the 9 Lite without much hassle. One thing you should be wary of is that the 9 Lite suffers from heating issues. While this did not result in CPU-throttling, the smartphone's back gets extremely warm to the touch during usage, making it uncomfortable to hold the device.Much like the Honor 9i, the Honor 9 Lite also ships with a quad-camera setup. While the front camera setup remains unchanged, the company has used a slightly different sensor for the primary camera of the 9 Lite, which now features a 13MP + 2MP combination in place of the 16MP + 2MP sensor as seen on the 9i. The front camera of the 9 Lite, on the other hand, retains the 13MP + 2MP combination of the 9i. With that said, the end result remains the same for the most part and shots clicked from either of the two smartphones capture decent details with good colour reproduction.Moreover, you also get the added advantage of clicking bokeh shots from both the front as well as the back cameras owing to the presence of depth-sensing sensors. Much to my dismay, the 9 Lite's performance in low-light photography is average at best, and pictures clicked at night have considerable grain in them. On the flip side, if you love clicking selfies then you'll enjoy using the feature-rich front camera setup of the 9 Lite, which captures some incredibly detailed portraits. The smartphone's built-in beauty mode does a good job at colour-correcting the skin tone without making the selfies seem unnatural too, which is an added bonus.You'll find the 9 Lite to draw parallels in the software department with the 7X and the 9i as well. While the handset boots Android Oreo out-of-the-box, the smartphone still runs a custom skin of EMUI on top which offers the same look and feel as the previous versions of the software. However, with the 9 Lite, you get the added advantage of having the latest security patches from Google. As far as some of the features are concerned, you'll get a bunch of customisation options on the 9 Lite, along with the presence of some gestures and motion controls too. The handset also ships with a built-in app locker and therefore, you won't have to download a third-party tool from the Play Store to secure your apps either. Lastly, unlike some other Chinese OEMs, Honor gives buyers the option of enabling an app drawer on the smartphone which reduces the clutter on the homescreen.

The 9 Lite is, in more ways than one, a unique offering from Honor. While the smartphone shares the same innards as the 7X and the 9i, from the outside, the 9 Lite couldn't be any more different. The handset has been constructed using a blend of metal and glass which paves way for a stunning design, though on the flip side, it does gather fingerprints and smudges. As far as the in-hand feel is concerned, I have to give props to Honor for designing one of the most ergonomic smartphones I've used till date. The 9 Lite nestles really well in the palms, thanks to the rounded finish of its metal trim and since the device employs glass instead of metal, the smartphone won't weigh your hand down either.With that said, the 9 Lite is extremely slippery and presumably delicate, so I'll advise you to slap a protective case on it the second you get it out of its box. For security, you will get a fingerprint sensor towards the back of the smartphone which in traditional Honor fashion, is extremely quick and accurate, so no complaints there.The display on the Honor 9 Lite packs in the same FHD+ resolution as the 9i and the 7X, but is a tad bit smaller at 5.65-inches. This, coupled with the smartphone's bezel-less design paves way for excellent one-handed usage and you can easily reach the corners of the phone without much struggle. In terms of the overall display quality, you'll find that the display on the 9 Lite has excellent viewing angles and vibrant colours which makes consuming media on the smartphone an immersive experience. The Honor 9 Lite is fuelled by a 3,000mAh battery which is smaller than the battery on both the 7X as well as the 9i. However, don't let that fool you into thinking that the phone has poor battery life. During the course of my review period, the Honor 9 Lite comfortably saw me through the end of a day on heavy usage, which involved texting on Whatsapp, listening to music, playing some casual games and clicking a ton of selfies. The only downside of the battery on the 9 Lite is that it doesn't come with support for fast charging and therefore, it takes a while to juice up.