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REVIEW: The Huawei Y9a offers you good features and affordability but still no Google

Tech news 20 April 2022

About a month ago, Huawei sent us their Y9a device to review after the tech giant launched the device in January 2022, in South Africa.

The Huawei nova Y9a features a 64MP quad-camera setup, a 6.63-inch (2400×1800) FullView Display, 40W HUAWEI SuperCharge and 8GB + 128GB of storage.

Let's get into the review and show you our thoughts:

What we received inside the box:

The device,
A warranty card and a booklet guide,
A protective case,
Sim card ejector and
A USBC cable with a 40 Watts SuperCharge adapter.

The design of the device is simply lightweight, yet felt sturdy and large in my hand. There was no notch or hole punch for the front-facing camera. It also comes with narrow bezels, an aluminium body, a generously large display and equally substantial camera housing on the rear with the back of the device being made of plastic.

The 6.63-inch FullView Display is big, gets plenty bright outside, and is immersive because there is no notch here interrupting your viewing experience while the width of the device is 76.5mm and the height is 163.5 mm.

On the top of the device, you can find a motorized pop-up selfie camera, it features 16MP, which delivers a motorised sound every time it appears and disappears from its slot on the top of the phone. The camera happens to take solid, clear selfies too and it offers a slightly wider field of view.

The quad-camera array found on the rear end of the device features a large 64MP primary lens that captures rich detail, particularly in well-lit environments and there are the 8MP ultra-wide angle, 2MP macro and 2MP depth-sensing lenses which provide solid all-around shooting.

Due to its Super Night Mode capability and a complex set of built-in noise-reduction algorithms, the Huawei Y9a is able to take decent quality photos in a low-light environment.

Here are two examples of the camera's quality:

1. This image was taken of me in a low-light setting

2. This is a close-up image of a cup of coffee that I ordered

Inside the device, one will find an octa-core MediaTek Helio G80 processor, which is paired with 8GB RAM and 128 onboard storage.

The device is speedy when needed and did not show any signs of sluggishness while multitasking.

The device is powered by a 4200mAh battery that makes for many hours of uninterrupted usage, the battery lasted me the whole day with just a single charge. Also, the 40W SuperCharge power adapter charges your phone to 100% in less than an hour.

However, one thing I noted was after an hour of gaming on the device, it did get quite heated in the back and I needed to give it a chance to cool down for about 10 minutes.

Another thing to note is that this device does not come with Google services. One would need to use Huawei's services which are the AppGallery, Petal Search and Petal Maps.

I found that Huawei's services are more than capable of offering you everything that you need.

I was also able to still get apps such as Whatsapp, Twitter, and Spotify by searching for them in Huawei’s App Gallery which then provided me with the direct Android APK file to download.

This set-up may not be ideal for most people, it can get frustrating because it is an extra effort but I didn't mind.

Overall, it is obvious that the Y9a is a good phone and it delivers on several fronts such as a great display, premium design, generous battery and great camera but the software does need more work, and in time I do believe Huawei will make it better.

At a retail price of R6 499, you are getting your money's worth in terms of hardware and camera specifications but making sacrifices on the software, might not be ideal for everyone.

I didn't mind having to make the extra effort to re-download apps or getting the apk versions but you might not find it easy.