New phone - Honor 9 Lite

Whilst I have gone back to using the Galaxy S5 for a week or so I have also been looking at reviews for budget smartphones.  All I use the phone for is internet browsing (news. football scores etc), info on places to visit and what's there, the usual stuff, plus Google maps, Social Media and of course Blogger!  

With the S6 being sealed and playing up again with charging and the sudden loss of battery - how many phones with no apps running go from 85% to 0% in a few hours - and the battery inaccessible, I went back to the old (worthless!) S5.  

It is a revelation after the S6.  Much slower to charge, quite slow to open apps but a positive side is that it has a memory enhancing micro SD card slot. 

Standing in Starbuck's waiting for the app to open is embarrassing when everyone is held up behind or you are blocking one till waiting for the payment page to open!!!   Yes, I know. First world problems!

I googled for the top rated/performing budget smartphone and read a few comparisons of phones from Huawei and Xiaomi.  As the names suggest all Chinese. The Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite came out as the best performer with the Honor 9 Lite and Huawei P Smart a close second/third.

In UK the Xiaomi is new on the UK market and seems to only available to buy from Hong Kong or Chinese based suppliers.  This phone is also closer to the £200 ceiling I set for a purchase.

The Huawei and Honor are basically the same phone with slight differences in the body and the cameras fitted. The Honor came out slightly ahead of the Huawei and as the object was to secure a deal on a budget phone, it was also much cheaper. 

I emailed tech support at all three companies via their UK websites and both the H's replied quickly.  I wanted to check that the UK version was able to roam across Europe and the US. With a trip to Florida coming up and my service provider, Three UK, doesn't charge extra for overseas roaming, I want the phone to work without too much messing about.  I will probably take the S5 along with me just in case!

So after four days of reading reviews at lunchtimes and on the train home,  I took the plunge.  

Oddly the blue Honor 9 Lite is the cheapest at £126.50 with free delivery tomorrow.  The black phone anywhere was £169.99.  As someone that doesn't care what colour my phone is I would be a mug to pay the higher price. I am sure there will be a cover available to protect it at a modest price.

It arrives tomorrow. Hopefully Claire will be in to receive it and I can play with it over the weekend.

My review to follow.

https://www.hihonor.com/global/products/smartphone/honor9lite/


Reviews

https://www.zdnet.com/product/huawei-honor-9-lite/
https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/review/budget-smartphones/honor-9-lite-3671709/