Honor 9X review: Above average phone with excellent design, long battery

It’s so much easier to pick a flagship phone. Most of them have discernible characteristics and one is not easily mistaken for the other. In contrast, the sub-Rs 20,000 category of smartphones is a muddled marketplace. Major players such as Xiaomi, Samsung, Huawei and BBK Electronics (Oppo, Vivo and Realme) have flooded the market beyond recognition. You get more to choose from, but it is also considerably harder to zero in on that one phone. And there isn’t that one phone anymore unless you know what you want from it exactly.

The Honor 9X makes that choice a bit easier. It’s one of the few phones in the price range that come with a large, uninterrupted, almost borderless screen with a pop-up selfie camera.