This story has been on the headlines for the longest period of time and it still has a lot of attention around it. When the whole HUAWEI incident happened, their sister brand – HONOR was affected in the process. As someone who depends on Google service so much so to a point that its literally embedded into our lives at this point, the fear of trying an Android phone with no Google sounds scary. So, we decided to get our hands on the HONOR 9X Pro to experience it and have a day with no Google and here’s how that went.

Setting up our HONOR 9X Pro

Setting the phone up, the process is still the same – just like any other Android smartphone out there and only thing you might be missing is the option to log into the whole Google services which is pretty much a thing on other android based smartphone to either bring all of your contacts and details in sync.

With that out of the way, HONOR does have Huawei Mobile Services baked right into the system and you can login with a Huawei Account to keep things in sync. My biggest challenge was not having the apps I use on a day-to-day basis but my data which is in sync with Google. But worry not, this is where Phone Clone steps in and saves the day.

Phone Clone

To give it a simple introduction on that, the Phone Clone is an proprietary app from HONOR that allows you to move all your data from the previous device over to your new one. With that said, once you have established the connection – you can move your contacts, call log, messages, media such as Photos, Videos and the Application you use in your previous smartphone. This saves a lot of time and makes things a lot easier for users and save time from downloading every application from scratch and setting it up from the ground up.

AppGallery

AppGallery is basically HONOR answer to Play Store in a non-Play Store world. With that said, this was quite challenging. I managed to find some of the applications that I use on a day-to-day basis like TikTok, WeChat, Lazada, Shopee, Maybank, Hong Leong Bank, Touch ‘n Go eWallet and Boost. In fact, AppGallery is doing everything to include more and more support for local homegrown applications – even Gerak Malaysia, an application which is important in our current situation is also available in AppGallery.

One of my other concern was WhatsApp, but we all know that you can always backup the file locally on your phone and use an MicroSD Card to move the “WhatsApp” folder from your previous phone to your new one – if you want all your medias to be in sync. You can follow the steps below accordingly to get it up and running in no time.

Our Verdict

The whole setting up process from a reviewer or a tech enthusiast perspective, feels normal because when it comes to technicalities it could be a little challenging but you can refer to our video up to see how we did it and its as easy as baking a pie.

On the contrary, the fact that there is a solution to the whole no Google situation is great because it shows that there’s light at the end of the tunnel. There are lots of things I personally missed using the phone for. But we have to give credit where its due because HONOR is doing everything in their place they can to bring in support for more and more amazing applications in no time. Good thing is that you now have all your essential applications on your phone and its only a matter of time Developers include more applications down the line.

If you didn’t know, they are encouraging a lot of developers to join their AppGallery to release their application but on HMS end, they should have a strict guideline because almost 9 out of 10 application in the store are just low grade application. Other than that, you don’t have to worry about your safety and security – and truth be told, after doing everything to get our phone up and running – our HONOR 9X Pro is just as much as usable like any other Android phone out there. 😊

Stay tuned for the HONOR 9X Pro review from us in the coming days.