Honor 9N vs Honor 9 Lite: One has a notch, the other has four cameras

Huawei sub-brand Honor has had a pretty good streak in the affordable segment in India off late. This is largely because of Honor’s emphasis on providing competitive hardware inside phones that look premium at a low price. Earlier this year, the company launched the Honor 9 Lite, which brings an all-glass design combined with an 18:9 display and four cameras, all for a starting price of Rs 10,999. Seven months later, the company has followed this up with the Honor 7N.

The Honor 7N was launched in India on Tuesday, July 24 at a starting price of Rs 11,999 for the 3GB + 32GB version. The phone is offered in three variants with the top-end version offered with 4GB + 128GB configuration priced at Rs 17,999. In the middle, we have a 4GB + 64GB variant that is priced at Rs 13,999. The Honor 9N is priced close to the 9 Lite and shares a lot of similarities while at the same time offers a few unique features.

The Honor 9 Lite is a phone that’s just seven months old in the Indian market, so it’s still pretty fresh. The phone has received a positive response among consumers and is among the best selling phones on Flipkart right now. It is also one of Honor’s most successful phones in the country. The company announced last month that it started manufacturing the phone locally as part of the ‘Make in India’ initiative and it doesn’t seem as though the company is planning to discontinue the model anytime soon.

— The Honor 9N brings a 5.84-inch Full View full-HD+ IPS LCD display with a 2280×1080 pixel resolution similar to the more premium Honor 10. The phone bears a notch on top and a chin, allowing for a taller display on a compact form factor. The Honor 9 Lite, on the other hand, has a symmetrical design with an 18:9 full-HD+ display with evenly narrow bezels on the top and bottom. When it comes to display, both the phone will offer a crisp and vivid 1080p resolution, but you will need to ask yourself whether you’re a fan of the notch or not.

— As far as the rest of the design goes, both the Honor 9N and the Honor 9 Lite look almost identical, especially from the back. Both offer an all-glass body with a dual 2.5D curved glass on both sides and layered with a nano-optical film. They also come with a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor as well as support for face unlock.

— The similarities continue under-the-hood as well as both the phones come powered with an octa-core Kirin 659 chipset based on a 16-nanometer process. The base variant of both the phones come with 3GB of RAM along with 32GB of internal storage, which is expandable up to 256GB via microSD card. This means the Honor 9N is likely to offer a similar performance to the Honor 9 Lite.

— Both the Honor 9N and Honor 9 Lite run Android Oreo out-of-the-box with Huawei’s custom EMUI 8.0 on top. As far as software is concerned, both the phones are pretty up-to-date and should offer a similar EMUI experience as well. Additionally, both the phones support dual SIM and house a 3,000mAh battery.

— The dual camera setup on both the Honor 9N and Honor 9 Lite are again similar with a 13-megapixel primary sensor and a 2-megapixel secondary sensor for depth sensing. The rear camera systems get LED flash support and 1080p video recording, among other things.

— Apart from the notch on the Honor 9N, the other big differentiator between the two phones is the front camera. The Honor 9 Lite comes with a pair of selfie cameras while the Honor 9N goes with a traditional single sensor, probably to keep the notch smaller. The Honor 9 Lite gets a similar 13MP + 2MP configuration on the front as on the back.

— The Honor 9N may not get a dual selfie camera system, but it does get a higher resolution camera with a 16-megapixel sensor with support for portrait selfies and and 3D beauty effect.

— In conclusion, both the Honor 9N and Honor 9 Lite offer a lot of the same specs, which means you’re likely to get similar performance out of both. The differences mainly lie in the display and camera. If you do not mind the notch, then the Honor 9N will offer a slightly bigger FHD+ display compared to the Honor 9 Lite. You’ll also be getting the same premium all-glass feel.

— While the rear cameras on both the phones are identical, the tricky part will be the front camera. The 9 Lite offers dual cameras, but with a resolution lower than the 16MP sensor on the Honor 9N. Without a better in-depth review of the Honor 9N, we cannot say if its selfie camera trumps the 9 Lite just yet.