Aside from reasonably priced smartphones, HONOR also brought a new budget Android tablet in the Philippines.

The HONOR Pad X9 offers an all-around tablet experience on a budget. With its sleek design, decent specs, and long-lasting battery life, this tablet looks like a good option for those looking for a reliable device without breaking the bank. In this review, we will take a closer look at the HONOR Pad X9 and its features to determine if it is worth the investment.

HONOR Pad X9 Specs

  • Android 13, MagicOS 7.1
  • 11.5-inch FHD+ IPS display, 2000 x 1200 pixel resolution, 203ppi
  • 120Hz refresh rate, 100% sRGB
  • 2.8GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 685 octa-core processor
  • Adreno 610 GPU
  • 4GB RAM
  • 128GB internal storage, microSD support
  • 5-megapixel front camera
  • 5-megapixel rear camera
  • 6x stereo speakers
  • WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band
  • Bluetooth 5.1
  • USB Type-C
  • Dimensions: 267.3 x 167.4 x 6.9mm
  • Weight: 495g
  • Colors: Space Gray
  • 7,250mAh non-removable battery

Design and Build Quality

The HONOR Pad X9 impresses with its simple but sleek design, giving it a more premium feel than its price suggests. It features a solid gray back panel with the HONOR branding in the middle, creating a minimalist look.

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Up front, it’s a similar story. Bezels are not the smallest I’ve seen with an 86% screen-to-body ratio, but it’s kinda better that way, so there’s a place to rest your fingers on. It’s just the typical rectangular slab, nothing too fancy.

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Around the flat edges, there are a bunch of tiny speaker holes that are integral to its audio prowess. But we’ll get into that later.

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The power button and volume rocker are placed on the same side, just above the front-facing camera. This ensures that they won’t get in the way when using the device in landscape mode, especially when watching content or playing games.

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With its weight of 499 grams, it’s definitely not light. It’s on the heavy side, but I never had an issue carrying it around, although using it for a long period can probably be tiring.

The flat aluminum frame, along with its 6.9mm thickness, also helps in making it comfortable to hold. For kids and the elderly, it’s still very manageable with two hands. Tablets like this are not made to be used by one hand, anyway.

Display Quality

The HONOR Pad X9’s size is perfect for everyday use, as it’s compact enough for school or work and large enough for movies and games. An 11.5-inch IPS LCD screen with a 2,000 x 1,200 pixel resolution is not the crispiest display out there, but it does the job. It’s just weird that HONOR calls it a “2K” display, even if it’s not. In fact, it’s only a notch above 1080p which is not bad either, so there’s really no point in misleading consumers.

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While the lack of an anti-glare coating makes outdoor viewing challenging, its maximum of 400 nits of brightness doesn’t help either. I had no problems using it indoors, as the screen gets bright enough.

The good thing is it goes down to 2 nits, which makes it easier to use in low-lit environments. Like the HONOR 90 5G, it’s equipped with eye-protection technologies and has TUV Rheinland certification.

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This tablet comes with a 120Hz refresh rate, which means scrolling in the interface and other supported apps is smoother. The high refresh rate also helps in improving gameplay, especially for timing-sensitive games.

Hardware and Performance

Unfortunately, with its 6nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 685 4G processor and Adreno 610 GPU, there’s really not enough power to max it out all the time. Not to mention there’s only 4GB RAM, which is no longer adequate for heavy multitasking and gaming. The 3GB RAM extension from the storage could improve performance, but it’s not as reliable and can sometimes make the device run even slower. Regardless, there’s no way to turn it off here, unlike in other brands where this is optional.

HONOR Pad X9 Benchmark Scores

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The HONOR Pad X9 is by no means slow, especially for its price. Performance on day-to-day tasks like browsing the web, social media, photo, and video editing, as well as office apps is okay, but running multiple apps side-by-side makes it struggle a bit.

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Although its large screen can run up to 4 apps simultaneously, I don’t recommend it if you want a smooth experience. Not all applications support split-screen, but other apps can be used in floating windows. You can resize the windows to either split it equally or have one app take up to 75% of screen real estate.

128GB of storage is no longer big in 2023. Sure, you can store plenty of photos and videos on it, but there’s only so much space for huge apps and games. Fortunately, the HONOR Pad X9 supports microSD card expansion of up to 512GB, in case you need it.

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Playing games on the HONOR Pad X9’s huge screen is pretty enjoyable. However, it struggled in most games we tried. Esports titles like League of Legends: Wild Rift, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Call of Duty: Mobile, and PUBG Mobile all ran well on medium to high settings.

There are some occasional stutters and frame drops, but it’s not so bad to the point of being unplayable.

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On the other hand, more resource-intensive games like Honkai: Star Rail, Genshin Impact push the device to its limits, and it often gets bogged down barely keeping up at 30fps. If a good gaming experience on high-end games is what you’re looking for, this tablet is not the one for you.

Audio

Perhaps the most exciting feature of the HONOR Pad X9 is its exceptional audio quality. With six (6) surround sound speakers placed strategically around the device, it makes watching movies and any video content more immersive.

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It’s really loud and louder than most affordable tablets we tried before. In fact, it’s even loud enough to be shared with friends. Even though it’s not OLED, the screen is good enough to enjoy watching your favorite shows. It also supports multi-directional sound, which elevates the whole multimedia experience to the next level.

Camera Quality

The cameras are sufficient for taking occasional photos. Not good enough for social media, but decent enough to take pictures of notes, receipts, etc.

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While the design looks like a dual camera setup, it’s actually just a single 5-megapixel sensor with an “AI Camera” branding. You can check sample shots below:

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5-megapixel main camera
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5-megapixel main camera
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5-megapixel main camera

The 5-megapixel front-facing camera’s quality is good enough for online meetings and selfies, which means that you could use this for online classes and work. HONOR Pad X9’s built-in microphone picks up voices well, although audio quality can sometimes be affected by background noise because noise cancelation is not available.

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5-megapixel front camera

Connectivity

And with its 4G LTE connectivity support, you don’t need to connect to public Wi-Fi when you are out and about. Even if it’s only a budget tablet, HONOR made sure to equip it with the necessary connectivity options for those who are always on the go.

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Another interesting highlight of the HONOR Pad X9 is the HONOR Connect feature. If you have a HONOR phone, you can actually integrate it with the tablet. This allows you to transfer pictures and videos, as well as receive and send text messages between each HONOR device.

In addition, you can even share your phone screen inside the tablet for better seamless integration.

Keyboard Case

For those who might need a dedicated keyboard, HONOR also offers a physical keyboard that doubles as a case. It protects the tablet and connects via Bluetooth, but it only attaches using magnets.

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It also has its own battery and doesn’t support auto sleep when the case is closed off, which is really a bummer. Typing on the keyboard is surprisingly good, and the quality of the buttons is actually impressive for the price. This kind of keyboard and case usually costs over Php2,000, but this one’s included in the package.

Battery Life and Charging

With a 7,250mAh battery, it’s no surprise that the HONOR Pad X9 lasted well over a day of light to moderate usage. Staying on WiFi helps the device last longer, but using mobile data and 4G LTE drains it faster.

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Unfortunately, it only comes with a mediocre 22.5W charger out of the box, which means that charging times are dreadful. It takes around 1.5 hours to fill it up from 0% to 100%.

The European release supports 35W, so I tested it out with another HONOR charger to see if it charges faster. As it turns out, the global HONOR Pad X9 also supports SuperCharging for quicker top-ups. The only difference is the included charger in the package.

Verdict

But all of these small qualms are nothing when we look at the overall value that the HONOR Pad X9 offers. For only Php11,990, you’re getting an Android tablet with a huge 11.5-inch IPS screen, decent processing power, excellent audio experience, and free keyboard.

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The 4G LTE connectivity is a great addition too, as most affordable tablets only have WiFi. There are not a lot of good tablets out there, and there’s certainly nothing that can match the HONOR Pad X9 package right now. Without a doubt, it is the most compelling all-around budget Android tablet in the Philippines today.

Pros

  • Large IPS screen with 120Hz refresh rate
  • Good processing power
  • 6 speakers with excellent audio quality
  • 4G LTE connectivity

Cons

  • Only 4GB RAM

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