You’ve seen it drop-tested, durability-tested, and ravaged by a lot of Filipino influencers. But now, it’s time to take a detailed look at what this device is all about and what other tricks it has up its sleeves. This is the HONOR X9b 5G.
The device made its rounds on social media due to its supposed ultra-durable build that can withstand being dropped, beaten, and used to chop and squash things. But is it as durable as what the audiences think it is? How do the other specs and features perform? We’ll answer those questions in our HONR X9b 5G review.
HONOR X9b 5G Specs
- Android 13, Magic UI 7.2
- Dual SIM, Dual standby
- 6.78-inch AMOLED display, 2652 x 1220 pixel resolution, 431ppi
- 120Hz refresh rate, 1920Hz PWM dimming
- HONOR Ultra-Bounce Anti-Drop Display
- 2.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 octa-core processor
- 12GB RAM
- Adreno 710 GPU
- 256GB internal storage, non-expandable
- 16-megapixel front camera
- 108-megapixel (f/1.8, PDAF) + 5-megapixel (ultra-wide) + 2-megapixel (macro) rear cameras, LED flash
- Under-display fingerprint scanner, Face unlock
- Single loudspeaker, No headphone jack
- HSPA+, 4G LTE, 5G
- WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band
- Bluetooth 5.1
- GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS
- NFC
- IR blaster
- USB-C port
- Dimensions: 163.6 x 75.5 x 8mm
- Weight: 185g
- Colors: Sunrise Orange, Midnight Black, Emerald Green
- 5,800mAh non-removable battery, 35W wired charging
Design and Build Quality
As you’ve seen in a lot of videos online, the HONOR X9b 5G has a durable screen. This is all thanks to, as the company calls it, the “HONOR Ultra-Bounce Display 360° Anti-Drop Protection.” It offers three-level protection that consists of Single Point Reinforcement Protection, Deep Seal Protection, and then the Wraparound Cushioning.
All of that made the X9b 5G a recipient of the five-star certification for overall drop resistance from Switzerland’s SGS.
As to how durable it is in real-world use, I’d say it should withstand accidental drops, even on higher grounds, even without the case on.
But depending on the angle, height of the fall, and the type of surface it’ll be landing on, the X9b 5G could still get nicks and dents — or even completely broken — since the front is still made out of thin sheets of glass.
So, as tempting as those drop-test videos might be, don’t go around dropping and throwing your phone just for fun.
While it is made to be durable, the HONOR X9b 5G surprisingly doesn’t have any official IP rating for dust and water resistance. But, we did see a rubber in the SIM tray that should help stop water from coming in. It should also handle minor splashes easily.
More than its durability, what we like about the HONOR X9b 5G is how incredibly sleek it is. It’s one of the thinnest and lightest phones we’ve seen in recent months. Plus, the curved sides and edges make it even more comfortable in the hands than those phones that are starting to go back to flat corners.
As for the design, the unit that we got is the Sunrise Orange color, which has a “Vegan Leather” material that’s essentially plastic that looks like leather.
This vibrant color with the leather texture, together with the elegant camera island, gold color accents on the lens, and the HONOR logo, makes it eye-catching and interesting to look at. If it’s not your taste, you can also check out the other traditional colors: Emerald Green, Titanium Silver, and Midnight Black.
Now, let’s take a look at each side of the device, starting with the front. It has a large 6.78-inch AMOLED screen. It doesn’t have the thinnest bezels, but the curves on the side do help make it look more seamless.
A noise-isolating microphone is on top for clear calls, while at the bottom, we have the USB-C port, loudspeaker, the primary microphone, and the dual nano SIM slot. Unfortunately, it lacks a microSD card slot for storage expansion.
The left side is clean, while the right side houses the physical buttons. The lock/power and volume keys are very tactile and clicky, but we do wish they were slightly bigger or protruded a bit higher.
The bottom line is that the HONOR X9b 5G is for those who want to enjoy all its good looks bare, caseless, and have the peace of mind it won’t break easily if it accidentally falls out of their pocket, get sat on, or thrown away by kids (which actually happens a lot).
Just don’t go around showing off and performing random drop tests to people, and you probably won’t have any problems.
Display and Sound Quality
The HONOR X9b 5G has a 6.78-inch 1.5K AMOLED display with a decent 2652 x 1200 pixel resolution, 120Hz dynamic refresh rate, 100% DCI-P3 color, and 92.8% screen-to-body ratio.
Like other HONOR phones, you can play with the Eye Comfort and Sleep settings if you have trouble sleeping while using your phone at night. There’s also an eBook mode which you can easily toggle that turns the whole screen into monochrome.
You can also fine-tune the Color Mode and Temperature, but we left it to Vivid for more entertaining and splashy colors. Smart Resolution is also here for better battery efficiency, as well as Dynamic Refresh rate that intelligently switches between 60Hz and 120Hz — also to save precious battery juice.
In actual use, the display quality is fine. We’ve seen better, but the contrast and colors it provides are nice in the eyes — whether for content consumption, casual usage, or gaming.
A stereo speaker setup would have been nice, but instead, we’re stuck with a single bottom-firing speaker. Like other brands, it also has a 150% volume booster, which works as it should, but the clarity and sound balance could be better.
Hardware and Performance
The HONOR X9b 5G is powered by a 4nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 octa-core processor, with an Adreno 710 GPU, flagship-level 12GB of RAM, and 256GB of non-expandable storage.
HONOR X9b benchmark scores
It performed well in basic tasks and most used apps like messaging, video calls, social media, and taking pictures. We weren’t bothered by annoying lags, delays in launching apps, and other minor issues.
Gaming performance was also good enough. We were able to play Call of Duty Mobile under High graphics quality and Max Frame Rate with no worries. Farlight84’s settings were set to Extreme Graphics Quality and Frame Rate by default, but we were experiencing frame drops and lags, so we dialed down the graphics to Ultra for a much smoother and acceptable experience.
Overheating wasn’t an issue, but like with most phones, the back does start to get warm after a few minutes of playing. It depends on the game and how long you’re playing, though. For the most part, there were no problems in most games like Mobile Legends, PUBG Mobile, and League of Legends: Wild Rift.
Software and User Interface
On the software side, the HONOR X9b 5G ships with the Android 13 operating system with the brand’s MagicOS 7.2 interface on top.
The user interface is clean and easy to get around with, even if you’re a new HONOR user. The Control Center is comprehensive with a bunch of access to quick toggles, and even a special section on the top for AI-suggested settings.
You can also customize the Always On Display (AOD) settings and wallpapers to match your taste.
Both the under-display fingerprint scanner and face unlock also worked reliably during our tests. You can even enable the “Face Recognition with a mask” feature if you’re always wearing one.
For those who are worried about storage space, out of the 256GB, only 12.84GB is allocated for the system — leaving you a lot of room to store all your apps and media. We also spotted a couple of bloatware, but they can be uninstalled easily.
HONOR’s YOYO Assistant is also here, which only has two features: YOYO Suggestions and Magic Text which lets you extract texts from an image.
One-Handed mode is also present, as well as gestures, and Multi-Window for better multi-tasking.
By default, HONOR uses Microsoft Swiftkey on all of its devices. While we prefer Google Keyboard, this one is also great as the keys are spaced ergonomically apart from each other, have easy access to emojis and gifs, and of course, heavily customizable as you can change things like the size and layout.
One of the most-used apps is the Camera, which we had no problems taking pictures with as the camera functions, even the special ones like Multi-Video, are easily accessible. However, we’ve noticed a split-second delay when switching between 1x, 0.6x and 3x lenses.
Overall, HONOR’s MagicOS is a well-made interface that makes interacting with the device seamless. Here’s to hoping the HONOR X9b 5G is eligible to get the next big update.
Camera Quality
HONOR has equipped the X9b 5G with a sharp 108-megapixel main camera but with a low-resolution 5-megapixel ultra-wide and a 2-megapixel macro lens. Fortunately, this one doesn’t have the (almost) useless depth sensor. A 16-megapixel selfie camera is on the front.
Daylight shots from the main camera are decent with natural colors and expressive contrast. Dynamic range is passable but does struggle in challenging lighting scenarios.
The camera did hold up in low-light shots. Colors and contrast are still nice, but as expected, grains and noise have already crept in.
On the other hand, the image quality from the 5-megapixel ultra-wide camera has poor details, which is expected from its low-resolution sensor. Dynamic range is dull, too.
The colors do look appealing like the main camera and the wide field of view can be handy when shooting bigger subjects.
Like the ultra-wide, you can’t expect much from the 2-megapixel macro lens. The colors are uninspiring and the details are lacking.
However, the 4cm shooting distance can be useful for whatever macro shots you want to take. Also, shooting at that distance shouldn’t require that much detail, anyway.
Finally, we proceed to the 16-megapixel selfie camera. This one takes selfies with a lot of details. Plus, we’re seeing the similar appealing colors that the other sensors have.
Portrait Mode also works well on this lens with excellent edge detection. This makes it good enough for stylish portrait shots that are worthy of being posted on social media.
While the ultra-wide is disappointing, the main camera managed to compensate with its good daylight and low-light performance.
Battery and Charging
The HONOR X9b 5G comes with a massive 5,800mAh battery paired with a 35W charger. Quite an impressive capacity considering how thin it is.
In PCMark’s battery loop test, it was able to last for 12 hours and 38 minutes from 100% to 20%.
That’s just about the average score we get compared to other phones. But we did have a better experience in real-world use. With casual web browsing, messaging, and taking photos, we reached the second day with still around 30 to 45% of juice left.
While we do appreciate the large battery, we can’t say the same with the 35W charger. With a battery this large, a much faster adapter would’ve been better. What’s weird is the X9a 5G had 40W support, so it’s disappointing to see that it has been downgraded to 35W.
In our tests, a 15-minute charge managed to get us from 12% to 32%, 30 minutes and we’re at 50%, and one hour got us to 97%. This means that a full 0 to 100% charge will take around an hour and thirty minutes.
Verdict
The HONOR X9b 5G’s advanced front glass is more durable than most of the competition in its price range, which is enough to withstand accidental drops on certain surfaces. Still, being glass — and having spent your hard-earned money for it — we don’t suggest you go drop testing it for everyone to see as it could still break.
Honestly, there are more things we like about this device than its durability. First, there’s the very sleek build that feels light and comfortable to hold. There’s also the eye-catching orange vegan leather rear panel, the snappy and dependable chipset, the fancy curved and colorful display, the great selfie and main cameras, and of course, the massive battery capacity.
Still, it’s not without its flaws. For one, stereo speakers are already warranted for the price, the ultra-wide has a terrible resolution, the charger feels slow for today’s standards, and the lack of an official IP rating is disappointing.
While it’s not perfect, we’d still recommend the HONOR X9b 5G for those who want a smartphone that, in this price range, has an attractive and comfortable design, reliable performance for basic tasks and gaming, can take good shots for social media, and can last for days on a single charge.
Pricing and availability in the Philippines
The HONOR X9b 5G 12GB/256GB has a price tag of Php16,999.
Pros
- Stylish design
- Durable screen and build quality
- Large, colorful, curved display
- Snappy chipset for basic tasks and gaming
- Impressive main and selfie cameras
- Big battery
Cons
- No stereo speakers
- Low resolution ultra-wide
- Poor battery capacity-to-charging speed ratio