Huawei Malaysia’s new budget smartphone is a bigger Nova 3i

Apart from the P and Mate series, Huawei still make budget phones under its Y series. Before the year is out, the Chinese smartphone maker is introducing the Huawei Y9 2019 for the Malaysian market. The device will go on sale beginning this Sunday in conjunction with the Double 11 Festival. 

According to Huawei Malaysia, the Y9 2019 is their best entry-level smartphone so far. Interestingly, the hardware does pack a punch and it shares a couple of similarities with the current Huawei Nova 3i and honor 8X.

For starters, the Y9 2019 features a large 6.5″ FullView display with a notch that pushes Full HD+ resolution of 2340×1080 pixels. Under the hood it gets a 12nm Kirin 710 Octa-Core processor that’s mated to 4GB of RAM. Internally, it has 64GB of storage which is still expandable via microSD up to 256GB extra.

For imaging, the Y9 2019 gets a total of four cameras. Upfront, it has 16MP f/2.0 + 2MP f/2.4 selfie cameras while the rear gets a 13MP f/1.8 + 2MP f/2.4 combo. According to the global product page, the device gets 3D lighting effects for portrait shots as well as AI assisted scene recognition. 

Despite being an “entry-level” device, the Y9 2019 features a 3D glass back design that comes in midnight black, sapphire blue and also aurora purple that comes with a gradient effect. 

Powering the large device is a 4,000mAh battery which is rated to last up to 9 hours of gaming or video playback. It charges via microUSB and it still comes with a 3.5mm headphone jack. Out of the box, the Y9 2019 runs on Android 8.1 Oreo with EMUI 8.1 skin on top. 

The Y9 2019 will go on sale on 11 November but Huawei has yet to reveal its pricing details. Based on its Chinese price tag (1,499CNY), the device is likely to be priced under RM1,000 in Malaysia. As a comparison, the Nova 3i is currently priced at RM1,099, while the honor 8X is going for RM949.