Kirin 659 is still a performer

Huawei’s homegrown mid-range SoC will be turning a year old this year, and it still shows its muscles. Garnering a score of 87923 in AnTuTu, the Kirin 659 is a performer, and it shows even on real-life tests. Armed with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage (which is expandable of course), these are enough for the average user.

Throughout our usage of the Honor 9 Lite, we experienced a few lags here and there, and it is noticeable especially in opening the camera app. While it is tolerable at best, we do hope that Honor issue software updates to optimize its RAM management.

 

With its specs, the Honor 9 Lite is suitable for a variety of games, including some favorites like PUBG Mobile. As usual, we use GameBench to get a detailed analysis of the Honor 9 Lite’s performance when it comes to games.

 

Starting off with PUBG Mobile, the Honor 9 Lite can handle this fan-favorite game at low settings. With a respectable median FPS of 26, along with 97% stability, you’ll have a good time shooting down enemies and claiming that Chicken Dinner with the Honor 9 Lite.

 

The same goes for racing games like Asphalt 8. At high graphics settings, the Honor 9 Lite scored a respectable median FPS of 20, along with a 100% framerate stability. This makes it a great budget gaming buddy when it comes to racing genres.

 

Completing our slew of game performance tests, we tried pushing the Honor 9 Lite’s internals with Marvel Future Fight on high settings. While you can play the game on max settings, the Honor 9 Lite struggles through: You only get a median FPS of 19 and an FPS stability of 51%. While it is highly recommended to play games like this at low graphics settings, gamers can coast through with the Honor 9 Lite at high graphics settings, but expect frame drops here and there.

 

EMUI has a few tricks to boot

Along with Android Oreo, using the Honor 8 Lite’s EMUI is a smooth experience, and we appreciate the tricks that come with it, which include fingerprint scanner gestures, a pedometer monitor in the lock screen, and game suite—which is essential in running games at optimized settings.

 

The Honor 9 Lite comes with both face unlock and fingerprint unlock options, though we really recommend the latter for convenience purposes. Speaking of the latter, we liked how the fingerprint scanner has gesture functions for capturing photos, navigating through the photo gallery, and checking notifications. Being a rear-mounted variety, the gesture functions are a big help for those who might have difficulties using the Honor 9 Lite’s display using one hand.