The keyword “Play” was introduced by HTC in their naming schemes for smartphones that were a mix between power and affordability. Huawei’s chosen the same path and the Honor V9 Play sees its introduction into the smartphone world with mixed specifications that include both the good and not so good ones. With an expected launch price of 18,000 rupees, you’ll be more happy than dejected by what the smartphone has to offer.

The design department sees a slightly different approach

While the front panel is typical Huawei with the bottom bezel sporting the company’s name at the expense of function keys, the metallic back panel sees Huawei take a slightly different approach to their designin; similar to the Lenovo K6 with only the position of the LED flash different, the metallic back is finely polished as well. Its dimensions at a 7.7mm width and 145g finely compliment the smartphone’s all-round build causing the device to touch premium parameters.

Dissecting the display

At first sighting, we expected the Honor V9 Play to sport a 1080p HD resolution without any problems at all. However, our expectations have fallen short as the smartphone’s 5.2 inches IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen with 282ppi pixel density stretches just about enough to produce a 720p resolution. We’re not saying that the display produces pixelated results. In fact, 720p resolutions go pretty well indeed with display sizes like these. It just would’ve been a better idea going for a 1080p screen due to their significant increase in graphical quality.

The cameras department promises adequacy

When we say adequacy, we mean that the smartphone’s camera sensors aren’t the most feature-laden but they do shelter some good muscle. That’s exactly the case with the V9 Play’s primary and selfie sensor; its primary camera features a 13 MP sensor with phase detection autofocus and an LED flash. Other customary features include geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection, HDR and panorama. Again, not the most feature-laden but definitely worth its salt.

The selfie camera features an 8 MP sensor of its own that’s highly capable of producing some good snapping. Everything looks good here, yes?

Hardware allows you to Play as you will

The smartphone’s built-in Android Nougat is powered by an octa-core processor with 3 or 4GB variant dependent RAM. There’s no doubting the device’s capacity to smoothly cater the hectic demands of the Nougat meaning that lag’s highly unlikely to stop by.

Its 32GB of internal storage plus an external card-slot expandable up to 256GB is another nifty piece of news; we’re just very happy to see something bigger than 16 gigs in there. A rear-mounted fingerprint scanner sits atop its back panel while underneath it we have a 3000 mAh non-removable battery that juices the smartphone. Its colour pallet includes black, blue, gold, red and rose gold.

Huawei Honor V9 Play pros:

• Offers really good all-round specifications for the price it commands
• The smartphone’s processing power is its crowning feature; it promises no lag atop the Android Nougat leaving you with a seamless user experience to enjoy
• Two adequately sized camera sensors
• 32GB of internal storage is one of its strongest points
• All-round build quality and dimensions are pretty sleek
• As much as 5 different colours to choose from

Huawei Honor V9 Play cons:

• Lacks fast charging technology