Flagship phone, midrange price: the Honor 9 is officially hitting European markets

Honor is a handset manufacturer, which spun off from none other than Huawei a couple of years ago. Its eponymous flagship series bears a strong resemblance to the Huawei P line and is powered by the Kirin chip as well, but has the sweet benefit of being available in more markets internationally (read: Honor flagships actually come to the US) and being cheaper as well! Honor has just announced that its latest top-tier handset will be hitting European markets really soon. Unfortunately, despite hearing talks about a “global” launch prior to the event, there was no launch date for the US to be seen.

So, the Honor 9 rocks a Kirin 960 octa-core SoC, clocked at 2.4 GHz. The phone comes with 64 GB storage — microSD-expandable — and has 4 GB or 6 GB RAM variations, both of which seem pretty generous to us. There's a dual camera setup on the back — a 12 MP main sensor and 20 MP monochrome sensor. Yup, that's an arrangement similar to the one on the Huawei P10, but without the fancy Leica branding on top. Rest assured that the Honor's camera can do the same bokeh / portrait (simulated aperture) and hybrid zoom tricks that the P10 can.



In an attempt to show us just how amazing the Honor 9 is, the company compared its camera to the iPhone 7 Plus and its system performance to the Galaxy S8, claiming that it outdoes both competitors. The comparisons were shown via pre-recorded videos or projected pictures, so we guess... OK?

Now, about that international release — the Honor 9 becomes available in Europe today! The 4 GB variant will be more widely available, costing £379 in the UK and €449.99 for residents of the old continent. The 6 GB premium edition will be in limited quantities and found in France and Italy. No idea what the logic behind that is. As far as colors to go for, you can pick between the silver-esque Glacier Grey, the royal-looking Sapphire Blue, and the trendy-with-a-splash-of-shine Midnight Black.

So, getting one?