This year, we have seen three main devices under the Huawei Y Series. This is the company’s line targeting the youth and this year we got the Huawei Y5 Prime 2018, Huawei Y7 Prime 2018 and the latest one, the Huawei Y9 2019. These are the devices that Huawei has officially launched in the country and are the phones that I have personally used and reviewed.
The three Y Series devices offer very different things and experiences. It is also clear how the company has improved some of the key features when you look at the specifications of these phones.
Design and Build
The one area where you will notice the difference is in the design and build of these three phones. The Huawei Y5 Prime 2018 is the smallest of the three with a 5.45-inch display. The Huawei Y7 Prime 2018 comes in second with a 5.99-inch display and the Huawei Y9 2019 has a 6.5-inch display. The 6.5-inch display of the Y9 2019 is massive but I am still able to use the phone comfortably. I am used to big displays so this size is not too big for me.
The Y5 Prime 2018 and Y7 Prime 2018 phones have HD (720P) display while the Y9 2019 has a Full HD (1080p) display.
All three phones have solid builds. They feel sturdy even the cheapest one, the Y5 Prime. As for the colour options, I have all three phones in blue. The Huawei Y5 Prime 2018 has a matte finish, the Y7 Prime 2018 has a glossy blue finish and the Y9 2019 has a sapphire blue finish. All these look beautiful but I prefer the Sapphire blue one on the Y9. It looks different from what you can get from other manufacturers out there.
Read Now: Huawei Y5 Prime 2018 Review
Performance
When looking at what powers these three phones, this is where you will see how different they are and see the improvements the company has added on the different phones.
The Huawei Y5 Prime 2018 has a 1.5GHz MediaTek processor that is paired with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage space. This is a decent combination for a smartphone that is available for Ksh 10,500 and above.
The Huawei Y7 Prime 2018 on the other hand has the 1.4GHz Snapdragon 430 processor, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage space. This is a Ksh 17,000 smartphone so these specs are not so bad.
As for the new Huawei Y9 2019, it comes with the company’s latest mid-range processor, the Kirin 710. This processor is paired with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage space. This is delightful and actual performance has been impressive so far.
All these Y series devices perform well. They handle basic tasks with ease but as expected the Y9 tops this list. I have not had any issues with this phone so far and I do not expect to have any. The Y9 2019 is particularly impressive when it comes to gaming. It has a feature called game acceleration that when activated optimizes system settings to ensure the best gaming performance. This feature can lead to battery drain but is worth using.
All phones come with Android 8.1 Oreo out of the box with EMUI custom UI on top.
The Cameras
The cameras of these three phones provide a clear picture of how different these phones are. Having used the three cameras, I have noticed improvements in the quality of the photos from the Y5 to the Y9. The Y5 Prime 2018 has a 13MP camera at the back and a 5MP selfie shooter. The Y7 primes on the other hand has dual 13MP and 2MP combination at the back and an 8MP selfie camera.
The Huawei Y9 2019 has 4 AI camera, two at he back and two in front. At the back it has a 13MP and 2MP combination while at the front it has a 16MP and 2MP combination. The AI mode on the back camera helps add contrast when you are taking photos when the lighting is not the best. This results in photos with vivid colours. You can enable and disable the AI mode and even better, you can disable the AI mode after you take a photo just to see the difference. This AI mode can also identify what you are about to take a photo of and optimize the settings for that particular environment.
All these phones can record Full HD videos with the Y9 having an added advantage as it can record Full HD videos at 60 frames per second.
Read Now: Huawei Y7 Prime 2018 Review
The Batteries
The Huawei Y5 Prime 2018 has a 3020mAh battery, the Y7 Prime 2018 has a smaller 3000mAh battery while the Huawei Y9 2019 has a massive 4000mAh battery. I am using the Y9 2019 as my main smartphone and this battery is just something else. The batteries on the Y5 and Y7 Prime 2018 easily last an entire day and so is the one on the Y9 2019 even with heavy usage.
In most cases, I get a little over 8 hours of screen on time with the Y9 2019. This is good and in a few cases I got over 11 hours of screen on time.
All Huawei Y series phones come with a standard power saving mode and an ultra-power saving mode. The ultra-power saving mode is useful when running low on battery and want to still use some apps. You can use it to kill all other apps and have access to the apps you really need to conserve power.
One thing I am not happy with is the fact that none of these phones support fast charging of any kind. It would have been helpful especially for the Huawei Y9 2019.
Extras
The Huawei Y5 Prime 2018, Y7 Prime 2018 and the Y9 2019 support 4G LTE. The Y9 2019 can have 4G SIM cards on both trays, something we do not see on all Android phones out there. All these phones also come with Face unlock and the Y7 Prime 2018 and Y9 2019 have fingerprint sensors in addition to Face unlock.
As mentioned above, all these phones are available in Kenya right now.
Also Read: Huawei Y9 2019 Vs Tecno Camon X Pro
