Content

1. Equipment
2. TECH SPECS
3. Positioning
4. Appearance, controls
5. Display
6. Working hours
7. Communication capabilities
8. Memory, chipset and performance
9. Software
10. Камеры
11. Musical possibilities
12. Impressions

Equipment

• Phone
• Network adapter
• USB cable
• cover
• Instructions
• Warranty Card

TECH SPECS
Dimensions and weight	159,81 x 76,13 x 8,13 mm, 176 grams
Body materials	Glass, plastic
Display	6.39 inches HD + (1560 x 720 pixels), 269 PPI, LTPS. Protective glass with rounded edges (2,5D). Capacitive multi-touch 10-finger interface
Operating system	Google Android 10, proprietary shell Magic UI 3.1
Platform	HiSilicon Kirin 710 (12 nm, 4xARM Cortex-A73 @ 2,2 GHz + 4xARM Cortex-A53 @ 1,7 GHz), Mali-G51 MP4
Memory	4 GB RAM, 64 GB internal storage, microSD up to 512 GB (non-combo slot)
Wireless Interfaces	Wi-Fi b / g / n, 2.4 GHz, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC
Сеть	2G: 850/900/1800/1900 МГц 3G: B1/B2/B4/B5/B6/B8/B19 4G: B1/B3/B4/B7/B8/B20 Dual SIM nano (VoLTE / VoWi-Fi)
Navigation	GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou
Sensors and connectors	Rear-mounted fingerprint reader, USB-C. Light sensors, digital compass, proximity sensor, gyroscope, accelerometer
Main camera	– 48 MP main camera. F / 1.8 aperture, 26mm field of view – 8 MP wide-angle camera. F / 2.4 aperture, 17mm viewing angle – 2 MP camera for creating digital bokeh
Front-camera	8 MP front camera. F / 2.0 aperture
Battery	Capacity 4000 mAh, adapter 5V / 2A, 10W
Audio	Two microphones for noise canceling Huawei Histen
Color	Black and blue
Price	12 rubles

Positioning

Oh my friends, it’s a thankless job to describe the Huawei / Honor line. Each new device appears with the next incomprehensible index and even more indistinct positioning. Eldar Murtazin even wrote a separate material on this topic, I advise you to read it.

Well, let’s try to figure it out somehow.

To begin with, several Honor models were presented at the beginning of May – these are the 9A, 9S and 9C. I don’t know about you, but a slight chill ran down my spine: it’s terrifying to imagine how they differ ?

According to the official release, the Honor 9C is a “bezel-less screen and a triple 48MP camera.” By the way, I don’t like the exact wording “triple 48 MP camera”: despite the presence of three cameras, only one has 48 MP, the other is only 8 MP “wide”, and the third doesn’t really care how many megapixels, since it serves solely to blur the background.

The Honor 9A is a “big battery and triple wide-angle camera” (marketing wording again), while the 9S is a “bright screen” and some “advanced features at an attractive price.”

The 9C device is sold for 13 rubles, the 000A – for 9 rubles, and the 11S – for 000 rubles.

Today we will talk about the older model Honor 9C. What is good about this device? Of course, it is worth highlighting the 48 MP camera module and the presence of wide-angle optics, a capacious 4000 mAh battery, a quite vigorous Kirin 710 processor (it’s better than all sorts of “media libraries”), the presence of an NFC chip and a normal amount of RAM (4 GB) and built-in memory (64 GB + microSD memory card). Moreover, the slot with SIM cards is not combined.

The title says “first available from AppGallery”. This means that the 9C model is the first low-cost Honor smartphone without Google services, but with a branded app store.

Appearance, controls

In terms of design, the Honor brand will remain true to itself until the last moment. This is me to the fact that 9C is a symbiosis of all the latest devices of the company. Here you can see the features of both the Honor 20 and the Honor 10i. Probably, there is nothing shameful in this, but I would like some kind of variety in the design.

Probably, they decided to embody that very variety as a new texture of the rear panel. This time it is a grid of a special shape, where under the rays of light, the back cover begins to sparkle with a pixel structure. Looks cool until you packed your smartphone in a case.

The phone is quite wide – 159,81 × 76 × 8,13 mm, so it’s not very convenient to use with one hand. I would still reduce the diagonal to 6 inches, or reduce the bezels. The phone weighs 176 grams – a typical value for most average smartphones.

The Honor 9C’s case is made entirely of plastic, and the front panel is of course glass. Oleophobic coating is there and there. The quality is not bad, in fact, like the assembly of the device as a whole. However, be prepared for scuffs and scratches on the back of your phone. My gadget is only a week old, but there are already traces of operation.

There is a selfie camera on the top of the front panel, and a proximity sensor is hidden somewhere to the right of it in the edge. Surprisingly, the light sensor was built into the lower faceplate.

The speaker is again positioned at a 45 degree angle at the very edge. The volume is high, the sound is pleasant. Since the panel is sloping, it is comfortable to lean your ear against the surface. How much we have already agreed – is it comfortable or not to lean on your ear! That’s how…

Bottom – 3.5 mm, microphone, microUSB (where they got it from – darkness) and speaker. Above – another microphone for noise reduction during a call. On the left is a slot for two nano SIM cards and a microSD memory card.

On the back side there is a large module with three cameras, a little below – a flash. In the center closer to the top of the back panel is a round fingerprint scanner. Works fast and sends hello to the sensors under the screens.

Total: wide, tall, not too easy to use, but pretty.

Display

Display

6.39 inches HD + (1560 x 720 pixels), 269 PPI, LTPS. Protective glass with rounded edges (2,5D). Capacitive multi-touch 10-finger interface

The maximum screen brightness is 330 cd / m70. In the light, I would like it brighter, the colors fade. Indoors, the brightness level was almost always around XNUMX%. The minimum brightness is sufficient for working with the device in complete darkness.

The matrix displays pleasant and saturated colors. The viewing angles are maximum.

There are no special parameters in the settings, everything is typical for an inexpensive product.

Total: low maximum brightness, large viewing angles, excellent matrix quality for a device for 13 rubles.

Working hours

The manufacturer did not become greedy and the battery in this model of the device supplied 4000 mAh.

This battery is enough for one full day of active work or one and a half in unhurried “communication”. The luminescence of the screen at automatic brightness is approximately 5 hours. Playing video at maximum brightness – about 10 hours, toys drain the battery in 5-6 hours, depending on the complexity of the game itself.

The device produces such good numbers thanks to its own energy-efficient processor, low screen resolution and low brightness.

There is no wireless charging here. Through the wire and from the 5V / 2A (10 W) adapter, Honor 9C charges in 2.5 hours.

Communication capabilities

Сеть	2G: 850/900/1800/1900 МГц 3G: B1/B2/B4/B5/B6/B8/B19 4G: B1/B3/B4/B7/B8/B20 Dual SIM nano (VoLTE / VoWi-Fi)
Navigation	GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou
Sensors and connectors	Rear-mounted fingerprint reader, USB-C. Light sensors, digital compass, proximity sensor, gyroscope, accelerometer

Wireless Wi-Fi only works at 2.4 GHz and does not support the ac standard, Bluetooth has version 5.0 (AAC, SBC, HMA codecs). The device also sees VoLTE and VoWi-Fi.

The phone works with GPS, GLONASS and even BeiDou. Instantly finds up to 20 satellites in a room close to the window. In open terrain, it operates with 15 – 25 satellites, accuracy – from 5 meters. A nice bonus is the presence of an NFC chip. Working with payment through the “Wallet” application.

Memory, chipset and performance

Memory

4 GB RAM, 64 GB internal storage, microSD up to 512 GB (non-combo slot)

The Honor 9C has a RAM speed of 6000 MB / s. This is a typical value for all budget devices. Extremely low speed. Built-in memory – 189/188 Mb / s, again the usual numbers of an inexpensive smartphone. There have been worse.

Platform

HiSilicon Kirin 710 (12 nm, 4xARM Cortex-A73 @ 2,2 GHz + 4xARM Cortex-A53 @ 1,7 GHz), Mali-G51 MP4

One of the most common chipsets of the past. It runs Huawei P30 Lite, Honor 20 Lite, Honor 10 Lite, Huawei P20 Lite, Mate 20 Lite, Huawei P smart and about a dozen other devices.

The performance of Huawei phones has not raised questions for a long time: not everyone likes the shell, but it works very quickly, no microlags or brakes, especially after the upgrade to Magic UI 3 (aka EMUI 10). All games are played, but not at maximum parameters, which is explained by not the most powerful processor released two years ago.

For those who prefer tests, here is the example of Antutu: the smartphone is gaining 165 points – a normal result in general, but not for powerful toys.

In simple words: almost all applications will run smoothly, but games like PUBG / COD will run at medium settings and no effects.

Software

The Honor 9C is running Google Android version 10, and the proprietary Magic UI 3.1 shell is installed on top of the system. Naturally, there are no Google services here. And if for expensive smartphones this can be forgiven because of the fancy parameters, then in budget devices it looks like a real drawback. Why?

Most of those who buy such devices are schoolchildren, students, probably older people. And if the latter is not so important to the presence of Google Play (although they still have to explain where, what and how), then the former use the store constantly – games, accounts, regular updates, and so on.

Камеры

Main camera	– 48 MP main camera. F / 1.8 aperture, 26mm field of view – 8 MP wide-angle camera. F / 2.4 aperture, 17mm viewing angle – 2 MP camera for creating digital bokeh
Front-camera	8 MP front camera. F / 2.0 aperture

For this price range, the main camera shoots well. Pros: Correct color, accurate focus, relatively wide dynamic range. Of course, one could criticize, but at a price of 13 rubles, one can hardly find much better. The photo quality in poor lighting conditions is decent, in room conditions it is very good: there is no noise, the white balance is accurate, the detail is more or less normal. Again, for social media or sending to WhatsApp or Twitter, it’s fine.

Wide-angle optics are very simple, even a bright sun may not help here.

One of the advantages of shooting video is support for 1080p at 60 fps. “Shirik” works only from 30 fps. And Honor 9C can write slow-motion videos at 480 fps. Previously, only flagship devices could do this.

The main camera shoots video well, but the “shirik” distorts the image greatly: the impression that the “fish eye” effect was applied to the video.

I liked the front camera. There are beautification effects and even background blurring with the help of software.

Total: at a cost of 13 rubles, the cameras of this model are not bad, but something needs to be done with the Shirika software.

The camera interface is the same as on any other Huawei smartphone. Below is an overview of the interface.

Sample Photos:

Video examples:

Musical possibilities

Honor 9C has one speaker for hands-free output. The volume is average, but the quality is good. Mainly mids are played.

This model is equipped with a 3.5 mm jack. Of course, it’s not through microUSB to connect headphones ? I won’t write about the sound quality, everything is familiar here, the gadget does not stand out in any way. Present Huawei Histen: effects and equalizer.

By the way, you will find FM radio here.

Impressions

Honor 9C is quite a good smartphone for a certain circle of people. Why this is so, I think you yourself guessed it – the whole catch is in the absence of Google services. It’s hard for me to give an example of why it is necessary to buy Honor without GMS. The market is oversaturated with such devices: smartphones are available for every taste and color.

Here, either a smartphone must have unique properties, or it must be sold for much less money than competitors. With the Honor 9C, it doesn’t work that way.

Same Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T 4 / 64GB for 14 rubles looks like a more rational purchase: Google services, no dancing with a tambourine with NFC, Wi-Fi ac support, USB-C, a higher resolution FullHD + screen, metal frame and glass.

Huawei lite P30 from 11 rubles (PCT). FullHD + screen, three cameras, the same Kirin 000 processor, NFC and USB-C. Working with GMS.

Honor 10i… Price – 13 rubles. FullHD + screen, 000/4 GB memory, NFC and GMS.

Huawei P Smart 2019 for 12 rubles. Basically, everything is the same as in the Honor 770i.

And there is Samsung Galaxy M21, Samsung Galaxy A40, Samsung Galaxy A30s etc. In general, the choice of competitors is simply huge.

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