Huawei Y9 2019 Review: A Cut Above Average

The largest Chinese smartphone maker, Huawei, has mastered the art of bringing value for money smartphones. In recent years, Huawei has given us some marvelous phones loaded with features and the good part is, they don’t burden our pockets much

Last year, the company introduced Huawei Mate 10 Lite, the most junior device from the Mate 10 series, which really impressed us and performed exceptionally well in the market. However, this year, Huawei has other plans. It will not be bringing the successor of the much-acclaimed Huawei Mate 10 Lite in Pakistan; instead, they have launched an heir apparent from the Y series, Huawei Y9 2019.

We recently got our hands on the latest Huawei Y9 2019, let’s dive into the in-depth review of the phone so that you take an informed decision.

Huawei Y9 2019 specs

  • Display: 6.5 inches, IPS LCD
  • OS: Android 8.1 (Oreo), EMUI 8.2
  • Chipset: Hisilicon Kirin 710
  • RAM/ROM: 3GB/64GB, 4GB/64GB
  • Camera (rear): 13MP + 2MP
  • Camera (front): 16MP + 2MP
  • Battery: 4000 mAh

Design and Display

No doubt that the device has a sturdy build quality, and comes with a plastic body. The phone is shiny, reflects light, and is prone to catching smudges and scratches quite easily.

Besides a polycarbonate body, Huawei Y9 2019 graces the near to perfect design scheme with everything seamlessly integrated.

On the right side of the device, one can find volume rockers and a power button, which is not only responsive and tactile but also effortlessly reachable.

The left side of the phone has only a SIM tray that hosts 2 SIMS and a memory card. Although the phone has an adequate amount of storage, still extra storage feels amusing. One thing more, you can supplement the storage up to 400 GB.

The phone has a dual-camera setup and a fingerprint sensor at its back. Due to round edges, the sensor is perfectly accessible with just one hand.

On the bottom of the phone, the company has placed the speakers, headphone jack, and micro USB slot, which is typical for many smartphone manufacturers.

This time, the company went with the notch following the trend in the smartphone industry. Huawei Y9 2019 has a 6.5-inch Fullview display with wide viewing angles indoors.

The device has an 82.8% screen-to-body ratio, which is again quite impressive considering the price segment. With 396ppi pixel density, the phone delivers 1080×2340 resolution.

Although the screen is easily readable in direct sunlight, viewing angles are too tight outdoors, which we never encountered with Huawei Nova 3i, another mid-range smartphone by the company.

Speaking about visual exhaustion due to display light, Huawei has placed TÜV Rheinland, which enables a gentle immersive experience by filtering out the strong blue light.

OS

Android Oreo 8.1 is furnished by the company out of the box while placing their own skin EMUI on top of it. Although the custom interface of Huawei is not up to the mark in the industry, however, the company is gradually improving in this department.

The phone comes with preloaded apps that no one is familiar with and never uses, which makes the interface not comparable with the likes of stock Android or the skin One plus is offering; however, the company has promised bi-monthly updates which should solve the bloatware nuisance.

EMUI Bloatware

Whether you like it or not, the notch is here to stay for a while; still, manufacturers find something innovative to go bezel-less without a notch and mechanized camera setups. However, Huawei is providing a simple toggle to turn on and off the notch, which is commendable.

Huawei EMUI has some good features; for example, for comforting eyes at night, they have a dedicated toggle. The company has enhanced security by placing apps like Huawei Safe and App Lock, which ensure that your personal data remains safe from an unwanted intruder.

The app that took my attention was Party Mode. It basically synchronizes all Huawei phones to play a single song or any media to give a loud and stereo alike surround sound.

Performance and Battery

Huawei’s In-house mid-range chipset, Kirin 710, drives this phone while 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage is also at your disposal. The device showed moderate to good results in benchmark apps, where it scored 1619 in single-core and 5616 in multi-core tests at Geekbench. At AnTuTu, Y9 2019 managed a score of 131486.

Almost all the devices nowadays perform well in moderate usage, thanks to technological advancements. Gone are the days when mid-rangers were unable to perform simple tasks, Y9 2019 is no exception here.

Although the phone packs the same chipset as Nova 3i, it showed a noticeable lag in games, especially when playing for a longer period. Also, it showed jerks and unresponsiveness while switching between recently opened apps.

Much acclaimed GPU Turbo technology is also present in the Huawei Y9 2019, but frankly, it failed to impress us this time. However, the graphics in the games were top-notch. Thanks to Uninterrupted Gaming Mode 2.0, one can play the games without being bothered by the unimportant notifications, calls, and text messages.

Huawei Y9 2019 Battery Test

On the battery front, the phone is a powerhouse as it packs 4000mAh juice; however, it takes a notable time of 2 hours and 40 mins to get to 100 percent as it lacks a fast charging feature. As far as light and moderate users are concerned, the device will provide them with a one-day usage, but you have to carry a charger to the office if you tend to play games and consume media more often.

The phone consumed 13% of battery in one hour while we were conducting light usage tests and dropped 18% of its juice in heavy usage scenarios, in the same amount of time. If you want to play heavy games and are into multitasking with extensive usage of the smartphone, perhaps this is not the phone for you, not because of its battery but because it may not have the raw power for extensive gaming

Camera

Cameras in smartphones have grown into a significant and decisive feature. This is the reason companies demonstrate and market the camera capabilities of their respective phones. Huawei Y9 2018 has a dual setup on the front and back with 16MP + 2MP lenses and 13MP + 2MP lenses, respectively.

The camera gives good results if not extraordinary. It packs features like light painting, panorama, AR lens, time-lapse, etc. while it satisfies the photographer inside you with a pro mode.

Wide Aperture on Huawei Y9 2019
Wide Aperture
Flowers Pic With Auto Mode on Huawei Y9 2019
Auto Mode
Flowers Pic With AI Mode on Huawei Y9 2019
AI Mode
Image With Auto Mode on Huawei Y9 2019
Auto Mode
Image With HDR Mode on Huawei Y9 2019
HDR Mode
Image with AI Mode on Huawei Y9 2019
AI Mode

Huawei Y9 2018 also brags about the AI features, which proves to be just a gimmick as the scene recognition is pretty bad. Before buying this phone for AI capabilities in the camera section, you should know that AI is not consistent at all. It is quite aggressive, radical, and unnatural.

With Auto Mode on Huawei Y9 2019
Auto Mode
With HDR Mode on Huawei Y9 2019
HDR Mode
With AI Mode on Huawei Y9 2019
AI Mode

Other than that, auto mode, portrait, and HDR take some nice clicks while popping up the right colors in the frame. Although Night mode performs well, it demands the phone on a tripod as it takes almost 20 sec for a single click and minds it; the phone needs to be perfectly stable when the light is being gathered for the Nightshot.

Picture With Auto Mode on Huawei Y9 2019
Auto Mode
Picture With HDR Mode on Huawei Y9 2019
HDR Mode
Picture With AI Mode on Huawei Y9 2019
AI Mode
Portrait Mode on Huawei Y9 2019
Portrait Mode

Verdict

Are you still wondering whether you should buy this phone or not? It all depends upon your budget and requirements. No phone is perfect, especially when the cost restraint also comes into play. Huawei Y9 2018 is not a bad phone at all as it has a great design element, immersive display, and a nice set of cameras, but if you want this phone to play games or extreme multitasking, look somewhere else.

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