Back in July, Honor launched the sturdy and durable X9c in India. Priced at Rs 22,000, this smartphone dukes it out with midrange offerings from OnePlus, Nothing, and Samsung. In Honor’s limited catalogue in India, the X9c is one of the finest offerings. It is powered by the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 SoC, packs a massive 6,600mAh Si/C battery, and is drop-resistant up to 2m. We got our hands on the device earlier this month and have been daily driving it for the last week. Here is our comprehensive review of the Honor X9c.
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In This Article
Honor X9c Review: Design and Display
Before diving into the review, take a look at what you get inside the X9c’s retail box.
- Smartphone
- 66W power adapter
- USB-A to USB-C cable
- Clear plastic cover
- SIM ejector
- Quick start guide
The X9c comes in 2 colour options – Jade Cyan and Titanium Black. The Jade Cyan variant, which we used for this review, has a marble pattern on its back panel. The matte finish lends it a nice in-hand feel. The circular camera island at the top of the back panel is aligned towards the centre, eliminating any kind of drastic wobble. This giant cutout houses the two camera sensors and the LED flash. The smartphone has a curved form factor, with the plastic back blending seamlessly into the frame.
The curved plastic frame houses the volume rocker and the side button on its right edge. The dual SIM tray (no expandable storage support), microphone, USB-C slot, and primary speaker grille are positioned at the bottom. Up top lies the secondary speaker grille. There is no noise-cancelling microphone on this device. However, you get NFC for contactless payments and quick pairing.
The X9c is rated IP65 for resistance against dust and water. It can survive exposure to low-pressure water jets. Its durability is further enhanced by Honor’s ‘Ultra-Bounce Anti-Drop Technology 2.0’, which makes it drop-resistant up to 2m.
The 6.78-inch curved AMOLED display on this device has a 120Hz refresh rate and can reach a peak brightness of 4,000 nits. It is able to maintain legibility in bright outdoor conditions with absolute ease. Surrounding this curved panel are slim and uniform bezels. The front-facing camera is housed in a pill-shaped cutout, similar to the Dynamic Island. The touch response of the display is good. Its curved form factor results in a few accidental touches every now and then, but they don’t amount to a nuisance. The optical fingerprint scanner is snappy and responsive.
There are a couple of ‘Eye Care’ display options that we really like on this device. The handy eBook Mode turns the display black and white for an optimal reading experience. You can also use it to reduce the strain on your eyes. The ‘Honor Eye Comfort Display’ suite lets you enable the ‘Circadian Night Display’, which adapts the screen temperature in sync with your body’s natural rhythm. Essentially, it filters the blue light emanating from the display as you get closer to bedtime. You can choose to enable this filter all day or automate it to kick in at scheduled times.
During the review period, we used the Honor X9c to stream content across OTT apps like Netflix, JioHotstar, and Prime Video. The AMOLED display produced brilliant visuals that were rich in colour and detail. The deep blacks in the images produce amazing contrast and make the colours ‘pop’. The dual speaker setup on this phone produces a good audio output. We would’ve preferred a more pronounced low-end, but it wasn’t egregious enough an issue to whip out our headphones whenever we wanted to watch something.
Honor X9c Review: Performance and Cameras
Powering the Honor X9c is the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 chipset. The smartphone comes in a single 8GB RAM + 256GB storage variant, priced at Rs 22,000. We ran a couple of benchmark tests on this device. Here is how it performed.
- AnTuTu 3D: 689,080
- Geekbench 6: 920 (single-core) | 2,693 (multi-core)
Even though the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 SoC does not put up the best benchmark numbers in this segment, it does a good job of handling routine tasks like calling, instant messaging, emailing, photo editing, media streaming, web browsing, and navigation. During the week-long review period, we did not hit any snags on the Honor X9c. The device does a decent job of optimising apps in the background so that they do not drain the battery at a faster rate than usual. Juggling multiple apps at the same time is not an issue either.
The X9c is a decent device for casual gaming. We played titles like Call of Duty Mobile and BGMI with the graphics and frame rate limited to medium settings. We did not come across any annoying jitters or frame drops. However, pushing the graphics to their maximum settings gives room for the odd lag to creep into the gameplay. The thermal management skills of this device are on par with the segment average. In our testing, the back panel started to warm up after 20 minutes of continuous gaming.
The Honor X9c runs the Android 14-based MagicOS 8 out of the box. It can be updated to MagicOS 9 right away. It is expected to receive the Android 15 (MagicOS 10) update in the coming months. The software experience on offer here is decent, but nothing extraordinary. There is a good range of customisation options for the lock screen, home page, app icons, and Always on Display. However, the lack of an app drawer is rather puzzling.
The ‘Honor AI’ suite on this device consists of basic tools like AI Suggestions (limited to app suggestions on the home page), Magic Text (text extraction from images), Magic Portal (similar to Circle to Search, but with less intuitive controls), and AI Translate. The native gallery app has AI tools for object removal and image expansion.
The massive 6,600mAh Si/C battery pack is one of the strongest suits of this device. It can easily last a day of heavy use with up to 20% charge still left in the tank. We weren’t able to drain the battery even after racking up 6-7 hours of screen time. If you’re conservative with your usage, you can push the battery life to 2 days. The 66W power adapter provided in the box takes up to an hour to fully charge the phone.
The rear camera island houses a 108MP primary shooter and a 5MP ultrawide sensor. There’s a 16MP front-facing camera nestled inside a pill-shaped cutout on the display. The primary shooter takes good shots with all the essential details in outdoor daylight conditions. The images are processed with balanced colours. The device could do better when it comes to exposing the sky while shooting against the natural light. In limited lighting conditions, the primary camera manages to light up the scene quite well, but the shot looks a tad grainy.
Images taken with the 5MP ultrawide lens are considerably softer with a noticeable tonal shift when it comes to colours. While we would’ve preferred a more powerful ultrawide sensor in this array, it does a decent job in outdoor daylight conditions. However, the images taken in limited lighting are dimly lit and very noisy.
The native camera app offers 3 zoom levels for portraits (1x – 3x). The focus and background blur on these portrait shots are very good. The edge detection is on point. However, the portrait shots appear a bit overexposed. The 16MP front-facing camera takes clear and vibrant selfies in good lighting conditions. However, its video recording chops are limited to 1,080p at 30fps. This might frustrate content creators who prefer to shoot Reels and Shorts in 4K resolution. The ultrawide lens is also limited to 1,080p and 30fps specs. Thankfully, the primary shooter can record 4K footage at 30fps.
Verdict
The Honor X9c is a good buy in a price bracket that is flooded with exciting smartphones. Its strongest assets are its durability, display, and battery. With a 2m drop resistance, you can use this phone without a protective case. The 6.78-inch AMOLED display offers a great viewing experience with dual speaker audio output. The 6,600mAh battery pack can hold enough juice to last up to 2 days on minimal usage. The camera array, while not the best in the segment, is reliable in a well-lit environment. The Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 processor is powerful enough to handle routine tasks and casual gaming. However, Honor’s MagicOS 9 skin leaves more to be desired. It is not the most feature-rich OS out there, nor does it have any clever tricks up its sleeve. The software experience does not fill you with excitement.
Pros
- Durable
- Bright display
- Big battery
Cons
- MagicOS 9 does not have an app drawer
- Selfie camera cannot record 4K videos
