Honor 9N Teased Ahead of Its India Launch Set for July 24

Huawei sub-brand Honor has now confirmed that instead of the initially speculated Honor 9i or Honor Play that could be rebranded as Honor 9X, it is set to launch the Honor 9N in India on July 24. The Chinese brand has also showcased the back panel of the upcoming handset that sports a dual rear camera setup and a rear-facing fingerprint sensor. Last week, Honor sent invites for a launch event where it is set to launch the new model. The handset is expected to be the rebranded version of the Honor 9i (2018) that was launched in China last month as an upgrade of the original Honor 9i that debuted in India in October last year.

The official Honor India Twitter account on Monday posted a couple of teasers along with hashtag #Honor9N to confirm the moniker of the upcoming model. "Beauty is not what meets the eye but an essence that is all around us! Get ready to witness beauty like never before at the grand launch of #Honor9N on 24th July!" the company tweeted. Notably, the same tweet included a brief video that reveals the back panel of Honor 9N that includes the dual rear camera setup along with an LED flash module and a fingerprint sensor.

Another tweet posted by Honor India suggests an enhanced camera experience through the Honor 9N - using hashtag #NoOrdinaryBeauty. This suggests an upgraded set of two image sensors at the back and a large sensor at the front. The brand could also include some artificial intelligence (AI) backed features.

If we believe some previous reports, Honor 9N could be the Indian version of the Honor 9i (2018). The handset was launched in China with a price tag of CNY 1,399 (roughly Rs. 14,400) for the 64GB storage variant, while its 128GB storage option is available in the country at CNY 1,699 (roughly Rs. 17,500). It runs Android 8.0 Oreo with EMUI 8.0 on top and features a 5.84-inch (1080x2280 pixels) full-HD+ IPS display. Under the hood, there is an octa-core HiSilicon Kirin 659 SoC, coupled with Mali T830-MP2 GPU and 4GB of RAM. The handset has a dual rear camera setup with a 13-megapixel primary sensor and a 2-megapixel secondary sensor. A 16-megapixel sensor is also available at the front with a beauty mode. The Honor model also has 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth, GPS/ A-GPS, Micro-USB on the connectivity front and packs a 3000mAh battery.

Apart from the Honor 9i (2018), Honor last month launched the Honor Play with a 6.3-inch display and a 19.5:9 aspect ratio and a HiSilicon Kirin 970 SoC, coupled with up to 6GB of RAM and GPU Turbo technology. The Honor Play has a rear camera setup with a 16-megapixel primary sensor along with an f/2.2 aperture and PDAF and a 2-megapixel secondary sensor with an f/2.4 aperture. For selfies, the handset has a 16-megapixel sensor at the front with an f/2.0 aperture. The model has 64GB of onboard storage and packs a 3750mAh battery.

Does Honor 9N have what it takes to beat Redmi Note 5 Pro, Realme 1, Zenfone Max Pro M1? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.