Huawei’s had a big year in 2018, and they’re capping it off with the release of their refreshed lower mid-range offering, the Y9 2019. The new phone dangles the promise of quad-cameras, powerful mid-range processor and modern styling at a price that’s hard to ignore. Here in the Philippines you can buy it through Lazada via Cash On Delivery.
Display and Design
The Y9 2019 features a 6.5-inch 19.5:9 IPS display with 2340 x 1080 resolution. This gives a vibrant and great viewing experience with good viewing angles. Contents are still viewable even at direct sunlight with just at least 70% brightness which should take care of some people’s brightness woes.
There are a few material changes to the Y9 2019 compared to the Nova 3i though, most notably the material used on the rear of the phone. While the frame of the device is metal (more specifically, aluminum) Huawei says that the rear is made from plastic.
Software
Just like with the Nova 3i and Honor 8X, the Y9 2019 runs on EMUI 8.2 based on Android 8.1 Oreo. There’s nothing special with this OS if you’ve been reading reviews on recent Huawei devices here on our website. But if this is the first time you’re seeing this, then expect that its user interface is simple, clean, and organized with a visible touch of Huawei’s own unique style of design.
As usual, there are Google apps pre-installed, as well as Huawei’s own native apps: Phone Manager, Health, HiCare, Huawei App Gallery, Tips, Party Mode that features multiple devices outputting the same music, Game Suite, Facebook, Booking.com, and Ride mode. Out of the 64GB of storage, there’s a plentiful 52.5GB storage.
Performance
The Y9 2019 runs on 4GB RAM, the same Kirin 710 chipset as the Nova 3i and Honor 8X, and Mali-G51 MP4 GPU. Expect that tasks such as file transfers, video streaming, multi-tasking, and social media browsing will run smoothly. The fingerprint scanner works well and is very fast as it can unlock the phone in less than 0.3 seconds. The face unlock, on the other hand, has a respectable unlocking speed.
My gaming experience was above average as I can play Asphalt 9: Legends, PUBG Mobile, and Mobile Legends with decent frames per second. Not much frame drops happened during my game testing which is pretty cool given that the Y9 2019 is an affordable device. Warming can be felt at the back part of the phone but it didn’t reach a temperature that’s uncomfortable.
Camera
The Y9 2019 comes with a quad-camera setup, meaning, it has dual rear and front lenses– both secondary lenses are meant for depth-of-field effect. The user interface of the camera is straightforward as the QR code scanner, flash, moving picture, AI camera, and settings can be found on top for the rear camera. There are five main modes for the rear camera namely Aperture, Night, Portrait, Photo, and Video while other modes like Pro mode, Panorama, AR lens, Light painting, HDR, Time-Lapse, Filter, and Watermark can be found on the “More” tab.
The rear cameras are composed of a 13-megapixel f/1.8 snapper and 2-megapixel f/2.4 rear sensor with PDAF. The lower aperture of the rear camera means that it should be able to perform better in low light.
And it does, somewhat. Images taken with the phone in less than ideal conditions are good, though it’s not going to match the performance of more expensive phones. Colors are vibrant, and there’s plenty of detail to be had.
Like Huawei’s recent offerings the Y9 2019 has AI-enhanced shooting capabilities, which basically means the phone has scene recognition that adjusts contrast, exposure, and saturation depending on what you’re shooting. Unlike their other phones, you’ll have to turn it on yourself and it isn’t on by default.
As far as selfies go, you’ll be enjoying enhanced bokeh effects thanks to the secondary camera, though the phone is a little aggressive when it comes to beautifying your face.
Battery
The Y9 2019 packs a 4000mAh battery, PCMark’s battery benchmark puts the Y9 2019 at 11 hours and 32 minutes with their standard battery drain test. That translates to around a day’s worth of usable battery life with heavy use, with plenty left over. The only thing we don’t like about the phone is the fact that it doesn’t have fast charging thanks to the lack of a USB Type-C connector.
Full Specifications:
- Android 8.1 Oreo, EMUI 8.2
- Dual SIM, Dual Standby (Hybrid, 2 nano or 1 nano+microSD)
- 6.5-inch Full HD+ IPS 19:9 Display, 2340 x 1080 pixel resolution, ~396ppi
- 2.2GHz HiSilicon Kirin 710 octa-core processor
- 4GB RAM
- 64GB internal storage, expandable up to 256GB
- Mali-G51 MP4, GPU Turbo Technology
- 13-megapixel + 2-megapixel front cameras with f/2.0 aperture
- 16-megapixel + 2-megapixel rear cameras with f/2.2 aperture, dual LED flash
- Fingerprint scanner, Face unlock
- WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, WiFi hotspot
- HSPA+, 4G VoLTE
- Bluetooth v4.2
- GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS
- Colors: Midnight Black, Sapphire Blue, Aurora Purple
- Dimensions: 162.4 x 77.1 x 7.9 mm
- Weight: 173g
- 4,000mAh Li-Ion non-removable battery
One For All 