Huawei is among the frontrunners in terms of smartphone innovation, be it photography, NPU-related applications, or a comprehensive set of feature in its Android skin - EMUI. Even though its sub-brand Honor has experimented with various remedies to the notch, including hole-punch displays and sliders, Huawei took a long time before it could embrace something like a pop-up selfie camera. The first Huawei smartphone to feature a pop-up camera was the Huawei P Smart Z, which was launched in Europe in May. Huawei is now bringing the P Smart Z to India by rebranding it as the Huawei Y9 Prime. Notably, there's an additional camera on the back, which we didn't see on the European devices.

The Huawei Y9 Prime is equipped with a massive 6.59-inch full HD notchless "Ultra FullView" IPS LCD display. This display has a screen-to-body ratio of 91% and an aspect ratio of 19.5:9. The Huawei Y9 Prime can be seen as an upgrade over the Y9 (2019) which came with a rather dated wide notch. To accommodate this large display, Huawei has moved the ambient light sensor to the chin.

The pop-up camera is used to veil a 16MP camera for selfies. The pop-up camera takes a second to extract, as per the company, and that may not be the fastest considering its primary competitor in the segment, Realme X (our review), is claimed to take 0.74 seconds for the pop-up camera to elevate. The front camera supports 4-in-1 pixel binning technology for brighter selfies.

As an upgrade over the Huawei P Smart Z, the Y9 Prime features triple cameras on the back. This setup includes a 16MP primary sensor, an 8MP wide-angle sensor, and a 2MP depth sensor. The smartphone uses Huawei's prowess for AI photography which can identify more than 500 scenes and optimize them for better contrast and colors. In addition to the Night Mode, the Y9 Prime supports 3D studio lighting modes. Furthermore, there's support for slow-motion videos captured at 480fps.

A HiSilicon Kirin 710F chipset powers the Huawei Y9 Prime and this SoC, as per Huawei, is a slight upgrade over the Kirin 710. In addition, there's 4GB of RAM and 128GB storage on the smartphone, which can be expanded up to 512GB using a microSD card. To enhance the gaming experience on the smartphone, it comes with Huawei's GPU Turbo 2.0 and the company vouches for a 4D gaming experience.

huawei y9 prime emui

The smartphone is equipped with EMUI 9.0 based on Android 9 Pie and we can expect an update to EMUI 9.1.

The Y9 Prime gets a 4,000mAh battery but there is no mention of fast charging support of any sort, which is where the smartphone lags behind competitors. The smartphone gets a USB-C connector for charging and audio playback. In addition, the smartphone also comes with a headphone jack.

Specifications

Huawei Y9 Prime

Dimensions
  • 165.3×77.3×8.8 mm
  • 197g

Display
  • 6.59″ Full HD+ IPS LCD Display
  • 1080 x 2340

SoC

HiSilicon Kirin 710F

RAM & Storage

4GB + 128GB

4,000mAh

USB

USB Type-C

Fingerprint Scanner

Rear-mounted

Rear Camera
  • 16MP primary sensor, f/1.8
  • 8MP wide-angle sensor, f/2.4
  • 2MP depth sensor, f/2.4

Front Camera

16MP, f/2.2

Android Version

EMUI 9.0 on Android 9 Pie

Huawei Y9 Prime: Price & Availability

The Huawei Y9 Prime comes in two different color variants – Emerald Green and Sapphire Blue – and the back comes with a dual-finish design. The only variant i.e. 4GB/128GB model of the Huawei Y9 Prime is priced at ₹15,990 (~$235). The Y9 Prime will be available in India starting August 7th via Amazon India as well as through major retail chains across India. Huawei is expected to leverage its new partnership with Micromax for a wider offline distribution of the smartphone.