Huawei released the Honor 7A back in April, and now in June Huawei released another handset the Honor 9N. Both the devices from Huawei have the new screen ratio, but the 9N comes with a notch, while the Honor 7A have thick bezels at the top and the bottom. There are a host of other differences between both of the phones, although they are from different price range, the difference is just of 3000 INR, so let us have a look which is the better product for your money and if Honor 9N is the right way to spend 3000 INR more on a mobile phone.
Design & Build
The Honor 7A comes with an all-metal build while the Honor 9N comes with a metal borderer sandwiched between two glasses. Honor 7A turns out to be a unibody metal built which gives the phone a sturdy and tough feel to it, while it feels light in hand, also have a better distribution of weight. The Honor 9N is heavy and due to the glass back feel much heavier than it is. The phone is not managed with weights quite good and hence we have to strain our arms to hold the phone.
Both the phone has almost the same placements in terms of the specs, as the Honor 9N comes with a single front camera, same as that of the Honor 7A, the 9N has a dual camera setup same as of the Honor 7A, the difference at the back is with the camera unit, where on the 9N its vertical on the 7A it is horizontal. Overall the Honor 9N feels better in hand due to the premium choice of material, but the 7A also does feel good considering the price point.
Display
Talking about the main component of a smartphone which is 5.84 – inch and 5.70 – inch on the Honor 9N and the Honor 7A respectively. Due to the notch on the Honor 9N, the display feels a bit smaller as the sides around the notch are technically unusable. The display on the 9n comes with an FHD+ resolution while the display on the 7A comes with an HD+ resolution. This results in the unit on the 9N to have better and crisp images as compared to the later handset.
Both the display unit are capable of producing some good images, which have a good amount of contrast and saturation. On the software side, both are included with the display tweaking panel where you can custom choose the saturation, temperature, and other things so that you can choose the best for your eyes.
Performance
Honor 9N comes with the HiSilicon Kirin 659 SoC while the Honor 7A comes with Snapdragon 430. The 9N comes with a 4GB RAM and have 64GB of Internal storage while the Honor 7A comes with 3GB of RAM and 32 GB of internal storage. Both the phones have the facility to increase the storage via an SD card up to 256GB. Both the units are capable of doing the day to day job, but it is clear that the Kirin 659 from Huawei is a better performer of the two, as it competes with the likes of Snapdragon 630 SoC.
If you will be using the phone daily for a bit of gaming and calling, and social media then you are going to have a good time with the Honor 9n, as it has better SoC, while the Honor 7A is only good for calling, and a light social media dose. The Honor 7A is not capable of handling intense multitasking of more than 3 apps where it will start to hang while the Honor 9N is a capable multi-tasker.
Camera
On the camera front, the Honor 9n is equipped with a 13MP rear camera which is the primary unit while on the secondary unit we have a 5MP unit, on the Honor 7A we have 13MP and 2MP setup. On the front story is different while on the Honor 9N we have a dual camera where we have 16MP and 2MP setup, on the Honor 7A we have just an 8MP setup.
The hardware of the Honor 9N is better and that does reflect in pictures, the pictures at least from the back is same on both of the devices especially in the daylight, the major changes occur in the night. On the front unit Honor 7A lacks behind just due to a single camera, and we have the Honor 9N ahead with sharper and much better-saturated images. The colors produced by both the phones are the same.
Pricing
The Honor 9N retails for 12,999 which is 4000 higher than the Honor 7A which retails at 8,999 INR. The Honor 9N is available with lavender Purple, Black, Robin Egg Blue, and Sapphire Blue. While the Honor 7A comes with a limited choice of just the Aurora Blue, Black, and Gold. All the three colors on the Honor 7A looks good, while the 4 colors of Honor 9N might confuse you we will suggest you to get the Lavender Purple which looks mind-boggling.
Verdict
Both the units are quite good the Honor 9N has an overall great package which retails at a handsome amount, while the Honor 7A have a better price tag with a bit of compromise on the styling and the performance. If we keep the performance and style factor to a side, and consider someone with a tight budget then the Honor 7A will be a better bet considering the fact that there will be more support from the Custom ROMs department, as on Kirin units there are less custom ROMs available.
The Honor 7A and the Honor 9A are good units if you are using them for daily work, while if you want a device for gaming then the Honor 9A will be a better bet. While if you want a device for daily work where your phone might drop frequently then the Honor 7A will be better as it has a unibody metal build. Have you read our review of the Honor 7A? And even the Honor 9A? If not then do read the reviews before finalizing. Also, let us know which one you will be choosing of the two.