Huawei’s sub-brand Honor is apparently working on a direct sequel to last year’s Honor Note 8, i.e. the Huawei Honor V8 Max. The alleged Huawei Honor Note 9 or Honor V9 Max was leaked in a live image showcasing its metallic back panel, complete with a fingerprint recognition sensor and a dual camera setup. Although the front of the device is not shown in the leaked image, sources speculate that the smartphone will feature a large display panel and an impressive screen-to-body ratio, similar to the latest flagship phones that the likes of LG and Samsung are working on.
The Huawei Honor Note 9 — as shown in the leaked image above — appears to boast an exterior design that’s only slightly reminiscent of the Honor Note 8 and actually seems somewhat similar to the iPhone 7 Plus. Two antenna bands travel across the smartphone’s back panel at the top and bottom, and a dual camera setup resides in the upper-left corner of the panel, accompanied by an LED flash centered in the middle. The sequel to the Honor Note 8 seems to retain the position of the rear-fitted fingerprint scanner, which could indicate the Huawei Honor Note 9 will not carry any front-facing physical buttons. Not much is known in regards to the smartphone’s internal hardware, but sources suggest that the device will be powered by an in-house HiSilicon Kirin 960 System-on-Chip, featuring four ARM Cortex-A53 cores clocked at up to 1.84GHz, and four high-power ARM Cortex-A73 cores clocked at up to 2.36GHz. The chipset also incorporates the Mali-G71 MP8 (8-core) GPU operating at up to 1,037MHz and supports LPDDR4 RAM with frequencies of up to 1800MHz.
Given that the Huawei Honor Note 8 was equipped with a 2K display boasting a resolution of 2560 by 1440 pixels, the market expects no less from the Honor Note 9 and recent rumors hint at a similar 2K panel. Either way, the Huawei Honor Note 9 is likely a few more months away from its market debut, considering that the previous model was officially announced in August and released in September of 2016. Until the Honor Note 9 ends up hitting the market, more details on the device are bound to emerge online as Huawei and its sub-brand will need to push the device through the usual certification procedures with China’s TENAA and other regulatory agencies. Earlier this year, the smaller Honor 9/Honor V9 sans the “Note” and “Max” monikers was spotted in TENAA’s database showcasing a similar design to the Honor Note 9 at hand, complete with a dual-camera setup and a rear-fitted fingerprint sensor. However, the Honor V9 appears to be equipped with a more conventional screen, whereas the alleged Honor Note 9/Honor V9 Max will reportedly pack a larger borderless panel.