Honor 9N sale starts today on Flipkart: Where to buy the smartphone

Honor, the online subsidiary of Chinese smartphone manufacturer Huawei, on July 24 launched the Honor 9N in India. The Flipkart-exclusive smartphone will be available in three RAM and storage configurations -- 3GB/32GB, 4GB/64GB and 4GB/128GB. It will go on sale from July 31 by 12 noon and will be available in lavender purple, sapphire blue, midnight black and robin egg blue colours. 

When and where to buy: 

The Honor 9N will be on sale starting 12 PM on July 31. The 3 GB | 32 GB variant will go on sale at Rs 11,999. The 4 GB | 64 GB is priced at Rs 13,999 and the 4 GB | 128 GB variant will be launched at Rs 17,999. Here's the link to where you can buy the mobile.

Here are the details of the sale on Flipkart

Honor: Technical specifications

With 188 per cent growth, Honor was one of the fastest growing brands in India in the second quarter of 2018 -- registering a three per cent market share and grabbing fifth spot.

Sensing the right momentum, the Chinese smartphone maker has brought notch "Honor 9N" with "Full View" display and 19:9 aspect ratio in the sub-Rs 15,000 category to the country.

The smartphone with 3GB RAM+32GB storage variant is priced at Rs 11,999, 4GB RAM+64GB at Rs 13,999 and 4GB RAM+128GB variant at Rs 17,999.

"Honor 9N" (we reviewed 4GB RAM+64GB variant) can help the brand further cement its position.

The 5.84-inch Full HD+ device has 79 per cent screen-to-body ratio. There's a speaker grille and the front camera on the notch. You can also enable or disable the notch as per wish.

At this affordable range, the display quality was great with good amount of saturation, deep blacks and sunlight legibility. A 2.5D curved glass design with 12 layers of glass with nano-coating finish gave mirror-like effect.

The device is perfect in size as navigating it with a single hand hardly posed any obstacle.

Powered by the Kirin 659 processor and equipped with a dedicated i5 Co-processor, the device comes with hybrid-dual SIM support.

On the software front, the smartphone runs latest Android 8.0 (Oreo) operating system (OS) topped with Honor's custom EMUI 8.0. The UI also comes with a gaming mode that will let you play games without much distraction.

The device that houses 3,000mAh battery performed reasonably. On a single charge, it lasted for around 12 hours with moderate use, including surfing and video data consumption.

"Honor 9N" is powered by 3MP+2MP dual lens cameras with LED flash and phase detection auto-focus (PDAF) technology that increases the focusing speed using planar image phase detection.

The camera department did a decent job, delivering sharp images with a nice amount of saturation and contrast along with ample details in the bright light conditions.

The device also comes with "AR Lens" along with quirky background to add fun element to the pictures.

A 16MP selfie shooter that is equipped with the "Portrait" mode captured sharp images with enough detailing.

The fingerprint sensor worked well. Also, a single speaker on the bottom gave nice output.

Some cons of the phone

Both the cameras gave us good output in the bright-light conditions. However, they failed to deliver the same in low-light conditions as we found images to be grainy at times.

The company's so called "Smart Face Unlock" feature at times did not work properly.

A fast-charging technology could have made the device more impactful.

Conclusion: "Honor 9N" offers decent look and feel with satisfactory battery and performance. At this price point, the device looks set to give some competition to the segment leader Xiaomi.

Honor 9N in India, company aims to continue triple digit growth

After breaking into the list of the top five smartphone brands in India in the first quarter of this year, Huawei's sub-brand Honor wants to "redefine" the sub-15K segment with the launch of "Honor 9N" and continue triple digit growth in the country, a top company executive said here on Tuesday.

The company launched the smartphone with notch "Full View" display and 19:9 aspect ratio in three storage variants -- 3GB RAM +32GB internal storage at Rs 11,999, 4GB RAM +64GB onboard storage at Rs 13,999 and 4GB RAM+128GB internal storage variant at Rs 17,999.

"Honor's growth in the past six months has been phenomenal. We have sold 330 per cent more phones in the first half of 2018 compared to what we sold in the 12 months of last year," P Sanjeev, Vice President, Sales, Huawei India-Consumer Business Group, told IANS.

"We are currently growing at a triple digit in India, while the overall smartphone market is growing at 14 per cent," he added.

According to Counterpoint Research, Honor was the fastest growing smartphone brand in India (146 per cent), followed by Xiaomi (134 per cent) and OnePlus (112 per cent) in the first quarter of this year.

"Today's launch is aimed at redefining the sub-15K segment," P Sanjeev, added.

Honor 9N will be available exclusively on Flipkart from July 31 in four colours -- lavender purple, sapphire blue, midnight black and robin egg blue.

The 5.84-inch Full HD+ device has 79 per cent screen to body ratio. It also comes with a 2.5D curved glass design with 12 layers of glass with nano coating finish for a mirror like effect.

Powered by the Kirin 659 processor, the device runs the latest Android 8.0 (Oreo) operating system and houses a 3,000mAh battery.

The smartphone sports dual rear camera (13MP+2MP) and 16MP selfie camera. The front shooter is equipped with the portrait mode feature that can identify the face of the user in the image and achieve accurate Bokeh effects.

The device will soon be upgraded with new graphics processing acceleration technology, GPU Turbo, to allow users good gaming experience, according to P Sanjeev.

"In India, nearly 80 per cent of smartphones are sold in the Rs 10,000-Rs 15,000 segment. This is also the segment which has been the most successful for us. The launch of Honor 9N with crisp new display and innovative features will help us further consolidate our position in this segment," P Sanjeev said.

In the next five years, Honor's aim is to independently become one of the top three smartphone brands globally, he added.

"With the global smartphone market shrinking, India is going to be a very high-potential market if Honor has to establish itself as a global No. 3 smartphone brand," he said.