Huawei Y series smartphones have proved to be very popular in the Kenyan market. The phones are available at different price points, from the affordable to the mid-range.
The Huawei Y9a was launched in the Kenyan market in October this year and it is available at Ksh. 30,999. I got to test drive the phone and here are my thoughts on it.
Out of the box
- Huawei Y9a
- Charger plug
- USB cable
- Earphones
- Screen protector
- Back cover
- Manual
Huawei Y9a specifications
Dimensions: 6.44 x 3.01 x 0.35 inches
Weight: 197 grams
SIM: Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)
Screen: 6.63 inch IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
OS: Android 10, EMUI 10.1, no Google Play Services
Chipset: Mediatek Helio G80 (12 nm)
CPU: Octa-core (2×2.0 GHz Cortex-A75 & 6×1.8 GHz Cortex-A55)
GPU: Mali-G52 MC2
Internal storage: 128GB
RAM: 8GB
Main camera: Quad camera set up
64 MP (wide)
8 MP (ultrawide)
2 MP (macro)
2 MP (depth)
Selfie camera: Single Motorized pop-up 16 MP
Battery: Li-Po 4300 mAh, non-removable
Colours: Space Silver, Sakura Pink, Midnight Black
Design
The phone comes in an arc design that we have to expect from this class of Huawei devices.
The power button is on the right of the phone and it also doubles up as the finger print sensor. Alongside are volume buttons.
The main camera is at the back in a quad-set up while the selfie camera, a pop-up one, is at the top of the phone. Next to the selfie camera is the 3.5mm headphone jack.
The home button is in the middle with the rest of the controls are on the left and on the right. The dual SIM card port is at the bottom left which also houses the MicroSD port. Next to it is a charging port (middle), loudspeaker, and a mouthpiece.
I love that the build of the phone makes it easy to handle and use the phone and you can even use it with one hand. You can turn on one-handed mode to make using the phone with one hand easier.
Screen
The phone comes with a 6.63 inch touchscreen that is really well lit and has the usual automatic controls that adjusts the light depending on the lighting conditions.
The screen is large enough and I enjoyed gaming on it. Watching videos on it, on any platform, is an enjoyable experience. The large screen also makes using apps such as Instagram and also reading documents easier.
You can also use multiple apps at once with the multi-windows feature although this feature does not work with all apps. It also comes with other features such as eye comfort, eBook mode to make it easier to read eBooks and also the much loved dark mode.
Connectivity
The phone comes with dual SIM and I used it with Safaricom and Telkom Kenya SIM cards. 4G on the phone is quite fast depending on the strength of the network.
On Safaricom, I was able get download speeds of between 20-40Mbps and upload speeds of between15-20Mbps. On Telkom, downloads were between 15-30Mbps and uploads of between 10-20Mbps.
The also comes with Bluetooth, Micro USB, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi Hot Spot and FM radio.
Software
The phone runs on Android 10 coupled with Huawei’s own EMUI 10.1. It has no Google Play Services and comes with Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) instead.
It comes pre-installed with Huawei’s apps such as Huawei Browser, messaging app, Phone Clone, Themes, Email app, Huawei Health and Huawei Music.
You can download other apps that you need via the Huawei AppGallery store. You can download apps such as TikTok, WhatsApp, Instagram, Uber, Twitter among others from the store. Local apps such as Jumia, Safaricom, Telkom Kenya, and Jumia are also available.
Apps that are not available from the AppGallery store can be downloaded from third party websites such as ApkPure and App finder. Through these platforms, you will be able to download and install the apps.
Performance
The phone comes with a Mediatek Helio G80 Octa-core (2×2.0 GHz Cortex-A75 & 6×1.8 GHz Cortex-A55) processor. It also has 8GB RAM.
The processor and the RAM comes quite handy especially when you are running heavy apps. I liked that I was able to run multiple heavy apps and the phone still worked pretty well. I think the absence of a lot of bloatware helps create an experience where the phone runs necessary apps that you need.
Camera
The phone’s camera app has features such as:
- The AI camera enables the rear camera to intelligently recognize things you are about to take pictures of. It can recognize things like plants, food, buildings, concerts, animals, among others and then optimize the image automatically.
- It comes with a portrait mode that adds beautification and bokeh effects to selfies to make them awesome.
- It also has a gesture selfie taking mode for taking more composed selfies.
- Other features include pro-mode, HDR, panorama, aperture, super macro, and high-res for taking high resolution pictures.
The phone works best in well lit conditions as the pictures and video are way more clearer and crisp. You can obviously turn on the flash but the experience is not the same.
Here are some of the photos I took with the phone.
Battery
Storage
The phone comes with 128GB internal storage which is quite adequate. I really tried to fill it up with apps, pictures and music and video downloads but I could only get to 100GB.
In case the memory is not enough, you can add a memory card which is upgradable to upto 256GB.
Final thoughts
Huawei has done really well with the Y series and especially the Y9 versions. The Huawei Y9a is not any different and its performance in general makes it a good buy.
It is available for Ksh. 30,999 and it is available at Huawei Mobile Kenya shops countrywide.