Honor 9X Pro Scheduled for the Global Release on February 24, the First Honor Device to Launch with HMS

Although MWC 2020 was canceled, Huawei hasn't pushed back its launch date for the upcoming big event. Huawei, as well as its sub-brand Honor, will still be unveiling their respective flagships on February 24 but at 'all scenario intelligence conference' where the Honor 9X Pro is also expected to make a debut.

Owing to the US trade ban, Huawei cannot legally ship their devices with Google Mobile Services pre-loaded on them. And to work around this problem, Huawei is planning on using Huawei Mobile Services as an alternative to GMS. As per Android Authority, the Chinese manufacturer has officially confirmed that Honor 9X will be the first Honor device to launch globally with HMS.

That said, the phone will run on last year's Android Pie (9.0) and when you couple that with the limited Huawei Mobile Services, it's unlikely that Honor 9X Pro will give any 2020 sub-flagship a run for its money, and that could be a reason we see much-lowered Huawei price tag.

As for the spec details, the Honor 9X Pro features a Kirin 810 processor at its heart, which is far more robust than the 710/710F that drives the base variant. The processor is paired with up to 8 GB of RAM and either 128GB/256GB of expandable storage, based on RAM and storage, we may see different variants with different Huawei prices. 

The Pro edition is expected to sport a 6.59" display that produces an FHD+ resolution. The design details are thin on the ground, but the display will be a FullView panel with the front-facing camera module installed on a motorized pop-up module. 

Speaking of which, you get a 48MP primary shooter on the back, combined with an 8MP ultrawide sensor and a 2MP depth-assist lens. For snapping selfies, the 9X Pro carries over the 16MP shooter from its sibling.

Note that the camera setup and the 4,000 mAh battery are borrowed from the standard Honor 9X, which begs the question: does simply bumping up the processor merit the 'Pro' moniker? The only major design change worth mentioning would be the fingerprint sensor. Honor has moved the physical fingerprint scanner from the rear shell to the side, where it now doubles as the power button.