The onus for creating budget phones within the Huawei family has generally fallen to Honor, Huawei’s sister company that shares resources with its larger sibling. But with rumblings of a Huawei Y9 now on the horizon, it seems that Huawei is moving away from some of the fun midrange and flagship phones it’s known for, and dipping its toes back into the budget waters. Here’s everything we know about the Huawei Y9.
Design
Huawei has shown off bezel-less full screen displays for a few phones now, so it’s not remarkable that it would be looking to continue this trend with the Huawei Y9. Our first look at a potential design for the Y9 comes from tech leaker Bang Gogo, and shows a sizeble handset with dimensions that are somewhat similar to the older Huawei Y7 in size. The matching size, along with the shrunken bezels and larger screen indicates that the Y9 will have a screen size larger than the 5.5 inches seen on the Y7, and will likely be around the 5.8-inch size.
#Huawei #HuaweiY9 2018 #FCC pic.twitter.com/oHeX9mvfAI
— ???? ????️ ???? ???? (@bang_gogo_) March 7, 2018
Angles of the bottom of the phone reveal a headphone jack, next to a Micro USB port — which would be a disappointment if true. The Honor 7X used a Micro USB port instead of the latest USB-C being adopted by many phones, and it was one of the few downsides to that phone.
On the plus sides, shots of the back of the phone appear to show a metal body, with plastic antennas at the top and bottom of the phone in a style reminiscent of the iPhone 7’s bands. There are two camera lenses — true to form for Huawei, which may be expanding to three camera lenses in the Huawei P20 — and a fingerprint sensor positioned in the middle of the phone, partway up the rear.
These images should of course be subject to speculation and a small amount of doubt — but they now have some backing, thanks to a teaser from ever-reliable Evan Blass of Venturebeat.
Teaser for upcoming Huawei Y9 pic.twitter.com/4aHksGdoQS
— Evan Blass (@evleaks) March 8, 2018
The poster shows little save an outline, and is likely not for the world’s first transparent smartphone, as jokingly suggested by many Twitter users. The outline does match the outline shown in the Bang Gogo images, up and including the antenna bands at the top and bottom of the phone, as well as the positioning of the two camera lenses at the top left of the phone. Amusingly, a light in the background of the image matches perfectly with the flash on the original images, which could just be a coincidence.
Features
The image tweeted by Blass, showing an outline of the new phone, reveals little but does say “Ready to meet the new you?” This could be a nod to a potential AR emoji feature in the Huawei Y9 — since we’ve seen Apple and now Samsung create their own versions of this software it may be time for Huawei to reveal its take. On the other hand, it could simply refer to the rumored inclusion of a second front-facing camera.
Cameras
Images show the Huawei Y9 clearly with two rear-facing camera lenses, as has become something of a standard in smartphones. What’s more interesting is a mention in another tweet that the Huawei Y9 will incorporate two front-facing cameras for the first time.
#Huawei #HuaweiY9 2018 #render pic.twitter.com/ZCJcfonlKt
— ???? ????️ ???? ???? (@bang_gogo_) March 7, 2018
Release date
According to leaks from Bang Gogo, the Huawei Y9 is due to release in Thailand on March 16. There is no word on a potential release in the United States or anywhere else in the world right now, but we can hope.
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