Huawei Y9 Prime 2019 Review – Cheerfully Cheap Performer

Perhaps one of the last phones that Huawei has issued with Google mobile services, the Y9 Prime 2019 is an interesting proposition that comes at a reasonable price tag and an ensemble of features that make it a very competent entry level phone.

The box itself comes with a modest array of accessories that include a soft TPU casing, a USB Type-C charging cable, a charger and a pair of wired earbuds. The phone also has a preapplied screen protector on the front which rounds out a quite comprehensive selection of kit.

The phone itself is notable for an entry-level offering  as it sports a pop-up 16-MP selfie camera to ensure maximum screen real estate for the 6.59-inch IPS LCD FullView display with a 19.6:9 aspect ratio. 

The backplate is done up in a reflective blue finish that is gently rounded on the sides to make it easier to wield with the upper left corner packing a triple camera array along with a rounded fingerprint reader.

The right side of the Y9 Prime 2019 sports a volume rocker and power button while the left is otherwise bare. The top comes with the motorised mechanism for the selfie camera and the hybrid SIM card tray. The base itself has the usual bottom firing mono speaker and a USB Type C port to charge the phone. 

Overall build quality is solid though the phone finish is plasticky to the touch and attracts fingerprints aplenty which requires frequent wipedowns. Unfortunately one downer is the lack of any dust or water resistance which means you will need some care to prevent it getting hit by rain or dust. For what you pay for, the Y9 Prime 2019 has pretty fair build quality and some fair specifications for what you pay for. 

Huawei Y9 Prime Specifications and Performance

In terms of hardware, the OPPO Y9 Prime 2019 has the following hardware which mark it distinctly as an entry-level phone:

Specifications
Price RM799
Display 6.59-inch FHD+ Fullview display IPS LCD, 391ppi
Processor Kirin 710F 2.2GHz
OS Android 9
Memory 4GB RAM/128GB storage
Camera 16MP + 8MP + 2MP (rear) / 16MP (front)
Battery 4,000mAh
Size/Weight 163.45 x 77.26 x 8.85mm / 196.8g

The Kirin 710F octacore processor is a slightly more efficient version of the midrange Kirin 710 that is built on a 12nm process and was first announced in 2018, which makes it somewhat long in the tooth. The phone runs Android 9 overlaid with their EMUI  user interface and proved to offer fair performance for what you pay for. Of note is that the phone still supports Google Play services so it still runs full fat Google services including Gmail, Google Maps and the like.

In terms of synthetic benchmarks, it got the following:

Geekbench 4.4.1 1,534 single core score 5,443 multi-core score
PCMark Work 2.0 Performance 5,859
3DMark Sling Shot Extreme OpenGL ES 3.1 878
3DMark Sling Shot Extreme Vulkan 941
Antutu 3D 131,265

Apps loaded with a relatively modest delay of a few seconds and it was able to run PUBG mobile at modest settings without issue and Call of Duty Mobile with some minor jerking when initially loading matches and swapped between multiple apps and a dozen open browser tabs without issue. Granted, there was some modest delay for a few seconds but at this price point, it’s not anything to quibble over.

The display is generously sized without the usual notches cut in for selfie cameras and had fair clarity and colour rendition indoors.Viewability was middling under sunlight even if you dial brightness to maximum.If the displayed colours don’t quite appeal but you’re able to tweak it to taste in the settings. The audio from the sole bottom firing mono speaker is fairly loud but understandably lacks detail and has poor sound staging but is otherwise sufficient for watching the odd clip or two on YouTube and gaming.

Battery life on the whole was surprisingly good with moderate use stretching to a day and a half though the lack of any fast charging or wireless charging means that it’ll take several hours for it to get juiced to full. 

Huawei Y9 Prime Cameras

The rear triple camera array is a fairly modest affair that combines a 16-MP F/1.8 primary camera with a secondary 8-MP wide angle camera and a 2-MP depth sensor that allows for 16MP snaps and 1080P@30fps video on both the front and rear.

The front-facing selfie camera pops up on demand on a silent motorised mechanism and according to Huawei is sufficiently robust enough to survive 15kg of pressure.

One important thing to note is that the Y9 Prime lacks any optical zoom or optical image stabilisation though there is a modicum of electronic image stabilisation. 

Shots with any of the rear cameras aren’t anything to write home with softness and some grain which are especially pronounced on the wide angle camera. The front selfie camera does a decent job with the usual array of beautification filters on hand to make almost any mug pleasant but it lacks the more sophisticated modes seen in newer more recent phones. 

Huawei Y9 Prime Price and Verdict

If you’re looking for a budget phone with a larger screen and good battery life, the Huawei Y9 Prime is right up your alley with a pleasantly fair RM799 price tag though this is tempered by middling camera performance, plasticky build quality along with a lack of more sophisticated features like fast charging, water resistance and NFC.

What we liked Large notchless display, smooth popup selfie mechanism, good battery life
What we didn’t No fast charging, finish is a fingerprint magnet, more RAM would be nice, no water resistance
We say The Huawei Y9 Prime 2019 is an affordable phone that has a large display, has Google services support and excellent battery life tempered by middling cameras and a somewhat plasticky build but at its asking price, it’s not a major issue to quibble over. 

Review unit courtesy of Huawei Malaysia.