For around 8,000 baht, it's hard to find a phone that utilises the whole 6.59-inch front panel without notches or punch holes for uninterrupted media consumption. The Huawei Y9 Prime 2019, however, provides just that.
The main selling point of this phone is its high-resolution screen that can go up to full HD level, 2340 by 1080 pixels, (this can be lowered for longer battery life) but it doesn't get very bright and can be a little hard to read on in broad daylight. In order to give us a full front panel with no notches, Huawei has opted to hide its 16MP front camera in a pop-up.
Talking about the cameras, they're.... OK. To get nice sharp photos, you'll need a well-lit environment and steady hands. Shooting photos and videos indoors or in dimly lit scenarios will require you to hold your breath and stay very still for the entire time you're pressing the shutter button, or else you'll end up with blurry results. Good thing that they provide three rear lenses giving you a variety of photo options: normal, bokeh and ultrawide.
I really like the shiny deep green body of this phone. Even though it's made of plastic, and not glass or metal like other flagship phones, it gives the same look with more durability; it won't shatter like expensive glass phones.
For those who are worried about Huawei not having Google services (Google Play, Gmail, etc) due to the recent spat between the US and China, don't worry: this phone does still has them.
Having dual SIM capability is handy for constantly switching between work and personal life with one phone. With the not-that-fast CPU and 4,000mAh battery, even with a lot of gaming and constant social media consumption, it will easily last you a day-and-a-half. Wi-Fi reception is noticeably not as good as with the 10K+ baht phones, but 4G reception makes up for that.
Personally, I still find the EMUI user interface a bit too big, childish and cheesy, so I quickly replaced it with Nova Launcher for a faster and more modern feel.
What really puts me off this phone is the abysmal bottom-firing speaker. It's tinny, not very loud and too easily be covered by your hand.
All the buttons are on the right side; I accidentally pressed the wrong button quite often while gaming. A few weeks of use should eliminate this though.
If you can live with the few gripes that I mentioned above, this mid-range phone is unrivalled in the 8K price range.
SPECS
CPU: Hisilicon Kirin 710F (quadcore 1.7GHz)
Camera: 16 MP (front), 16+8+2 MP (rear)
RAM: 4GB
Storage: 128GB
Battery: 4,000 mAh
Connections: Dual SIM, USB-C
OS: Android 9 with Huawei's EMUI 9.1 on top
Price: 7,990 baht
