Huawei Y9s launches in South Africa for R6399, but what’s new?

Remember we mentioned the Huawei Y9s last year? Well, the phone is finally in South Africa.

Huawei announced on Wednesday that the phone’s now up for sale, making it the first device the company has announced for South Africa this year (excluding the “New Edition” P30 Lite).

Although Huawei’s replaced the “Prime” with an “s”, this phone sports remarkably similar specs to its older brother.

Up front, there’s a 6.59-inch display with 2340×1080 resolution, internally it’s powered by the Kirin 710F chipset, and arrives with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. There’s also a microSD card slot. A 4000mAh battery powers the entire package.

Stop me if you’ve heard this all before.

But Huawei’s focusing most of its marketing efforts on the camera options, which sees the only major change.

At the rear, a new 48MP primary camera sits alongside an 8MP wide angle lens and 2MP depth sensor. The 48MP is a big upgrade from the 16MP primary snapper on the Y9 Prime.

Up front, a selfie camera pops out from the frame sporting a 16MP sensor — the same as the Y9 Prime.

But there are other interesting design tweaks. Unlike the Y9 Prime, the Y9s sports a Nova 5T-like side fingerprint sensor which should make unlocking the phone easier.

It also adds a new colour option, “Breathing Crystal” to its arsenal.

As for the price, Huawei’s slapping a R6399 sticker onto the phone, making it a direct competitor to the likes of the Hisense H30 and Samsung Galaxy A51.

That’s also a R1000 increase over the Y9 Prime’s launch price. But does a larger camera sensor and side fingerprint sensor warrant the premium? We’re not so sure.

Feature image: Huawei