Honor 9 Lite Gets Ride Mode Safety Feature; Honor 7X, Honor 9i to Follow

Honor 9 Lite smartphone is getting a new 'Ride Mode' feature. Huawei brand Honor on Friday rolled out the new safety feature via OTA (over-the-air) update exclusively for Honor 9 Lite smartphone in India. The feature is similar to the S Bike mode that Samsung had announced with the Samsung Galaxy J3 in 2016. With the Ride Mode feature, two-wheeler riders will be urged to follow safe smartphone usage. The feature will enable users to safely operate their smartphone while riding a bike. The company has also informed that the feature will also be rolled out to other Honor smartphones like Honor 7X and Honor 9i.

The Ride Mode update on the Honor 9 Lite will be rolled out in batches and will be completed by the end of the month. Once you get the update, you will be able to access the Ride Mode feature by activating it either from drop-down notifications menu or by going to the phone's Settings menu. Once you enable the feature, callers will be notified that the user is currently riding, and cannot answer calls. The feature essentially functions as a Do-Not-Disturb option that sends a message to the caller saying that the user will not be able to attend the call since they are riding. However, the caller will also get an option to call the rider in case of an emergency.

"Honor has been leading the market through consumer-centric innovation, and the new Ride Mode feature continues our innovation and further reiterates our commitment towards the betterment of smartphone experience. Ride Mode feature will be useful for millions of Indian bike rider and encourage safe smartphone usage while bike riding," said P Sanjeev, Vice President, Sales, Huawei Consumer Business Group.

The Honor 9 Lite is a dual-SIM smartphone that runs EMUI 8.0, based on Android 8.0 Oreo. It features a 5.65-inch full-HD+ (1080x2160 pixels) IPS display with 18:9 aspect ratio. The smartphone is powered by a Huawei HiSilicon Kirin 659 SoC, paired with 3GB and 4GB RAM variants. Also, it has dual camera setups on the front and back - both with 13-megapixel and 2-megapixel sensors. It recently started receiving the Face Unlock feature via an OTA update in India

The smartphone comes with two storage options - 32GB and 64GB. Both options support expansion via microSD card (up to 256GB) in a hybrid dual-SIM configuration. In terms of connectivity, Honor 9 Lite offers 4G VoLTE, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, GPS/ A-GPS, Micro-USB with OTG support, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The smartphone packs a 3000mAh battery and weighs 149 grams.

The 3GB RAM/ 32GB storage Honor 9 Lite variant is priced at Rs. 10,999 in India, while its 4GB RAM/ 64GB variant is available at Rs. 14,999.