Honor X9b review: room for improvement, but very promising

Honor X9b review

Honor X9b review: The Honor X9b comes as the latest offering from the brand in the Indian smartphone market. It might take some time for you to get accustomed to its name, but its design and other key features are instantly captivating. The handset is touted to be the most durable and reliable smartphone across segments. The smartphone features an “ultra-bounce 360-degree anti-drop resistance and cutting-edge cushioning technology”, making it the first such device to receive a Five-Star Overall Drop Resistance certificate. The Honor X9b also boasts a cutting-edge 120Hz refresh rate 1.5k AMOLED display, a 108MP primary camera, and a 5,800mAh battery.

Are these reasons enough to buy the Honor X9b or is there more to the smartphone than meets the eye? Keep reading to find out.

Verdict

The Honor X9b might fit your bill if you are in the market for something durable, stylish, and with a big battery for under Rs 30,000. The smartphone also provides a respectable viewing experience. However, when it comes to aspects like performance, cameras, and charging speeds, it might leave you wanting more.

Design and display

For the Honor X9b design, the company seems to have taken a leaf out of Realme’s playbook. However, the OEM has taken a step by keeping the phone both sturdy and stylish. The handset is five-star overall drop resistance certified by Switzerland’s SGS. This seems to have been possible with the shock-absorbing material, called cushioning technology, which provides the display structural integrity against drops from up to 1.5 meters. The display is said to be protected 360 degrees on all six faces and four corners even on hard surfaces like marble, and without tempered glass.

While I didn’t test that claim during my review period, we will be evaluating the smartphone’s structural integrity soon. So, stay tuned to 91mobiles social media channels for updates.

Despite the promised sturdiness, the handset doesn’t compromise on the looks. The Honor X9b exudes premiumness with its ‘luxury’ watch and jewellery-inspired circular camera module and vegan leather back. That said, the vegan leather back is exclusive to the Sunrise Orange colour variant. The phone also comes in a subtle Midnight Black hue, which features a matte finish instead of vegan leather. Nevertheless, the camera module on both variants is surrounded by two golden rings. The outer ring has ridges that enhance the prominence of the camera module, while the inner ring highlights the text ‘Matrix AI Vision Camera’ etched on the smartphone.

Additionally, the handset flaunts a curved screen and a plastic frame. The phone is also quite sleek and lightweight, despite packing a beefy 5,800mAh battery. The smartphone weighs just 185 grams and measures 7.98mm in thickness. This makes the device comfortable to wield and hold for prolonged usage. The handset is protected against minor splashes, thanks to the IP53 rating.

Up front, the Honor X9b sports a 6.78-inch AMOLED display with 1.5k resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, 1920Hz PWM dimming, and 1200 nits peak brightness. There is a centre punch-hole for the selfie camera, but it doesn’t impact the viewing experience all that much. The handset comes with visibly thin bezels, but I have seen thinner bezels on smartphones within the segment. Nevertheless, you get an immersive viewing experience with crisp and vibrant colours, high contrast ratio, and good dynamic range. The viewing angles also remain respectable, and the outdoor visibility of the smartphone is acceptable. The 120Hz refresh rate works fine across UI and supported apps.

Sadly though, the Honor X9b only features a single bottom-firing speaker, which performs adequately but falls short of the immersive experience offered by phones with stereo speakers. If it helps, the X9b ships with wired earphones that are plugged into the USB Type-C charging port using the Type-C dongle provided in the box, for an enhanced listening experience. The earphones’ sound quality is passable.

Cameras

The primary camera on the Honor X9b is a large 108MP sensor, paired with 5MP ultra-wide lens and a 2MP macro unit. For selfies and video calling, the handset sports a 16MP snapper. The image quality is acceptable in areas with ample lighting conditions, especially from the main 108MP camera which outputs 12MP images by default. There is slight oversaturation, but the details are substantial. That said, the dynamic range could have been better. The primary camera is also capable of clicking portraits with good edge detection; however, it smoothens out the facial detailing and presents skin tones with high contrast.

As for the 5MP ultra-wide camera, it fails to capture crisp shots due to its low resolution. The colours also appear faded and there is a noticeable warping across the frame. Additionally, it only offers a 110-degree field-of-view (FoV), which is narrower than what most others offer. Lastly, the 2MP macro sensor disappoints as it’s challenging to avoid blocking light while taking shots from a mere 4cm distance. Consequently, it leads to hazy results, affecting the fine details of small objects.

The selfies from the 16MP front camera are likeable in daylight, even though the skin tones may not look quite accurate. The low-light performance of the smartphone is a little underwhelming. There are smartphones within the segments doing a much better job when the sun goes down.

Performance and software

The Honor X9b is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 SoC, which debuted in India earlier this year with Realme 12 Pro. It is a mid-range octa-core chipset with up to 2.2GHz clock speed, Adreno A710 GPU, and a built-in 5G modem. The SoC is paired with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of non-expandable storage. That said, the RAM is expandable virtually up to 8GB using a portion of the phone’s storage.

Starting with the benchmark scores, the Honor X9b achieves 4,84,172 points on AnTuTu. On Geekbench, it attained a score of 855 in the single-core test and 2,828 in the multi-core test. Regarding handling intense loads, the handset can perform at 83 percent of its peak performance per the CPU Throttle test. While these scores are marginally lower than those of the Realme 12 Pro, I’m pleased to report the handset performed satisfactorily in real-world usage.

Mind you, the handset is not being marketed as a performance-focused smartphone, yet it can handle most things. I did not face any app crashes or awkward freezes while using the smartphone for my basic activities involving streaming, browsing, navigation, and some gaming. I tested the phone’s gaming ability with the popular battle royale game BGMI. It ran the game well without becoming uncomfortably warm, albeit with some compromises. To maintain smooth performance, you’ll need to keep the game at moderate graphics and frame rate settings.

Software-wise, the Honor X9b runs Android 13-based MagicOS 7.2 out of the box. It is a slightly dated software, but the company claims a new update is coming. The handset is expected to receive two years of major software upgrades and three years of security updates. As things stand, the software is heavily customised and comes with some proprietary apps, including Honor App Market, Game Center, and Honor’s Email app, alongside the usual suite of Google apps. There are a few third-party apps as well, which can be uninstalled if they are of no use to you after the initial device setup.

Be that as it may, the software looks intuitive and easy to navigate. A top-down swipe from the right brings the control centre, while a similar swipe from the left brings the notifications panel. There is also an AI suggestions widget, among other things, on the home screen that suggests apps based on your activity for quick actions.

Battery and charging

Coming to one of the key USPs, the 5,800mAh battery on the Honor X9b is rated to last up to three days between charges depending on the usage. However, with my usage, I found myself looking for a charger by the end of the second day. If you are a slightly heavy user, you might have to charge the device at least once after a day and a half of usage. The screen-on-time I was getting was roughly around nine hours, which is impressive. What might not look impressive though is the PC Mark battery result and the charging speeds of the smartphone.

On the PCMark battery test, the handset could only score 13 hours and 34 minutes. This is lower than some of the smartphones with 5,000mAh battery in the same segment. When it comes to charging, the handset supports 35W fast charging. Sadly, there is no charger bundled in the box. The company will be shipping a 30W charger separately but only for a limited time.

That said, the charging speeds are quite slow on the smartphone. Even with the official 30W charger, the Honor X9b takes two and a half hours give and take to achieve a full charge from 0-100 percent. Slightly faster charging speeds would have been appreciated here.

Final verdict

The Honor X9b presents itself as an enticing smartphone, thanks to its durability, style, and formidable 5,800mAh battery. The handset also excels with its 120Hz AMOLED display and a 108MP primary camera, which shines in daylight. However, if you prioritise top-notch performance, faster charging speeds, and versatile camera setup, you may want to explore other options.

Some of the alternatives to consider are the POCO X6 Pro (review), Motorola Edge 40 (review), and Realme 12 Pro+ (review). The latter shines as a camera-focused device, while the Motorola Edge 40 offers clean software and some nifty features like an IP68 rating and wireless charging capabilities. The POCO X6 Pro, meanwhile, may not have the contemporary curved screen panel, but it stands out as one of the most powerful and feature-packed smartphones within the segment.

Having said that, the Honor X9b comes across as a suitable choice if you prioritise durability, battery life, and a commendable viewing experience. The handset is retailing in India at Rs 25,999.

Editor’s rating: 7.5 / 10

Reasons to buy

• It’s a premium-looking smartphone with a ‘shatter-proof’ display.
• The display offers an enjoyable experience regardless of your activity.
• The battery life on the smartphone is quite promising.

Reasons not to buy

• The handset takes more than two hours to achieve a full charge.
• The cameras are not the best in class.