Huawei has had a roller coaster of a ride this year. But they are not letting anything pin them down. And in this spirit, the Chinese tech giant launched the brand new Huawei Y9 Prime 2019 here in Nepal. The phone, among other things, packs the trendy pop-up selfie camera. Now I know you must be thinking that the phone will be very expensive hitting around 40-50k mark. Well, guess again, THE PHONE IS PRICED AT JUST RS. 29,990. I mean, could the price get any cheaper. (Those wondering, yes that was an obvious “Friends” reference.)
But, before you run out and buy yourself a brand new Huawei Y9 Prime 2019 there is a lot you need to know. From the more obvious like “What all do you get in the box?” to the more critical questions like “Is it the best option at the price range”. Well, to save you the trouble, we went and got ourselves a brand new Y9 Prime 2019. And to answer these questions here is our initial impression and hands-on review of the phone.
Huawei Y9 Prime 2019 Initial Impression
The Huawei Y9 Prime 2019 comes in some pretty good packaging with a white lid and a picture of the product itself. Popping off the lid, you are immediately greeted by the phone itself in all of its glory. Keeping the phone aside, you get another smaller box. Sitting on top of that box is a neat looking sim-ejector tool! Pulling the contents of the box, we get a transparent TPU case and some paper works. The TPU case is not a regular one this time. There’s a cut-out over the top, and you know why. Putting them aside, the last three items in the box are a wall adapter, a Type-C USB cable, and a basic set of earphones.
Going back to the phone, the Huawei Y9 Prime 2019 looks absolutely stunning. Peeling off the protective plastic the first thing that I noticed was this shiny shimmer like plastic back. I know, the plastic is kind of a let-down, at first, but the look and feel are quite amazing. I felt as if I was holding a normal glass-backed phone. Having a plastic back does have it set of advantages. For one, it will not crack as easily as a phone having a glass body. It also makes the phone lightweight helping in easy wielding of the device.
Something that immediately jumped at me is the display of the phone! Huawei has adopted an edge-to-edge panel. Well, kind of! There is still a small chin at the bottom but it is not that obstructive. You get a total of 84.3% screen-to-body ratio! And the display itself is a pretty good one at that. The Y9 Prime 2019 packs a 6.59 inches Full HD (1080 x 2340 pixels) IPS display with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio. The panel offers great colors, viewing angles, and brightness levels. Truly impressed!
Under the hood, the Y9 Prime 2019 packs an octa-core Hisilicon Kirin 710F processor along with the Mali-G51 MP4 GPU. The SoC is backed by 4GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. These combinations make up a great performing phone! The Y9 Prime was easily able to handle everything I threw at it. Everything from scrolling through our website to playing graphics intense games was a smooth experience on the phone. Speaking of which, gameplay on this device was a hypnagogic experience due to the presence of the edge-to-edge display.
Moving on, at the software end, the phone runs EMUI 9.1 based on Android 9.0 Pie. This iteration of EMUI felt very snappy. I faced no lags or stutters during my usage. I also love the gesture controls the phone employs. The animations are smooth and the transition seamless. Overall, I enjoyed using this version of EMUI.
In the camera department, the Huawei Y9 Prime 2019 packs a triple rear camera set up. These combinations are made by an f/1.8 16MP wide-angle, an f/2.4 8MP ultra-wide, and an f/2.4 Depth sensor. And the main highlight of the phone, the pop-up selfie camera, comes with an f/2.0 16MP sensor. On initial impressions, the cameras take some great pictures. The selfie shooter on the phone is also quite impressive for a mid-tier smartphone.
That said, due to my limited time with the phone, I can’t comment further on the cameras. I will cover them more vigorously in our in-depth camera review which by the way is coming out real soon. Stay tuned!
And finally, powering the device all up is a large 4000mAh non-user removable battery. The battery life of the phone was amazing during my usage. I got somewhere around 6 hours of on-screen time with the phone. This without a doubt will be enough to get users through a day of usage on a single charge. Huawei has finally listened to their consumers and packed in a USB Type-C port on the Y9 Prime 2019.
Huawei Y9 Prime 2019 Initial Impression: Early Verdict
The Huawei Y9 Prime is a mixture of the latest trends and affordable pricing. The phone brings the pop-up selfie camera for just Rs 29,990 which is insane. Huawei also has packed in a complete package with a great edge-to-edge display, powerful internals, capable rear cameras, and a large battery that will last you all day.
That said, is it the best phone you can buy at the price range? Well, it is still too soon to answer this question. I will put the phone through its paces in the days to come and finally answer the above question for you guys in our full review. So stay tuned for that! One thing, though, I can say without hesitation is that the Y9 Prime 2019 is one of the better phones under Rs 30,000 here in Nepal.
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