HONOR X9c 5G Review - Affordable recording breaking toughness!
HONOR X9c 5G goes official in the Philippines today dubbed as the toughest smartphone for the year yet.
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| HONOR X9c |
To recall, the smartphone boasts an improved All-angle drop resistance body, IP65M rating for dust and water resistance, gorgeous design, 6.78-inch AMOLED screen, Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 SoC, large 6,600mAh silicon carbon battery, 108MP main cam and 16MP selfie camera.
AND now, here's a full review of HONOR's ultra-tough device.
Let's unbox it first.
Unboxing/Accessories
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| HONOR X9c box |
To start, we received the typical box layout bearing the phone's design at the center and its logo on each side. It also indicates the storage model we got which is a 12GB/256GB version.
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| What's inside |
Opening it up you'll see the X9c 5G unit itself, the transparent phone case, 66W charger, USB-C cable, SIM injector tool, and the paperwork.
Yes, the phone is labeled as a tough device. But, it also has a pre-installed screen protector.
Build Quality/Design
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| Look at that gorgeous back |
Once you pick up the phone, you'll realize how premium and solid it feels from all angles. At the back, it has a polycarbonate body with a pearl-like appearance, a circular camera bump with a silver outer frame housing the 3 image sensor, and an LED flash.
The colorway we got here is the Jade Cyan with a unique shiny design. The back cover glows whenever light hits the surface as if you're looking at either a polished marble or a pearly shell.
Despite that, it has a smudge-free rear cover so it's safe from oily fingers.
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| The side view |
You will find the volume rocker and fingerprint reader on the right side. While the left side is a blank frame.
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| Top and bottom view |
The upper part has three microphone holes and below you'll find a SIM card slot, microphone hole, USB-C port, and speaker grill. There's also a speaker located above the pill-shaped notch to provide the stereo effect.
The most durable smartphone from HONOR at this price point yet
While it boasts head-turner looks, don't be deceived as the HONOR X9c 5G is the real deal when it comes to durability.
In case you haven't seen our drop, crush, chop, and heat test you may click here.
In our video, we were able to toss around the phone, drop it from the 2nd floor of the house, chop our garlic and ginger with super sharp Japanese knives, drizzle it with boiling water, and even steam it using the espresso machine. All that and the phone survived and didn't leave scratch.
Now that you've witnessed it, that's how durable the device is, which by the way received a 5-star rating from SGS for Drop Resistance. Moreover, it has an IP65M rating to protect it from dust ingress and even survive moving water.
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| HONOR X9c Guinness World of Record |
Our HONOR X9c 5G unit took part in the Guinness World Record last January 6. It made history for the most people performing a phone drop test with up to 264x simultaneously.
We're going to be honest here: After the grueling challenge, our unit sustained grazes, scratches, and dents in the frames. But the screen, the back cover, and even the glass on its camera remained unscathed.
HONOR was able to do such crazy things because it has back-to-back double-tempered glass, under-screen shock-absorbing material, and a three-layer water-resistant structure.
You may also view HONOR's full explanation in a separate article here.
Multimedia Experience
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| HONOR X9c 5G's display |
The HONOR X9c 5G features a 120Hz 6.78-inch AMOLED screen with 1.5K 2700 x 1224 resolution, 1.07 billion colors, 4,000 nits peak brightness, 3840Hz PWM dimming, and 100 percent DCI-P3 color gamut.
Very good display for the price
The phone's display provides rich details and accurate colors thanks to its high-resolution panel and over a billion colors.
By default, it provides a balance between cool and warm tones, but you can always tweak them to your own preference. Set it to warm if you prefer a slightly yellowish display, and set it to cool if your eyes are used to bluish output.
HONOR made big upgrades to the display. The X9b 5G had 1920Hz, now the X9c gets doubled at 3840Hz making it a lot safer to look at when you're using the device for extended periods.
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| Very bright screen |
Another improvement is a peak brightness of 4,000 nits. That's almost 4x higher than the 1200 nits of the predecessor. This makes the display more useful under sunlight especially when checking out your phone on a bright afternoon or when shooting photos and viewing the images with less hassle.
In the audio department, it has a stereo speaker setup that produces up to 300 percent volume. While it is certainly loud at max, you can hear piercing sounds on its highs. We also notice a good separation of details, and vocals while the bass has little thump.
The audio shines the most at 60-70 percent volume as personally that would be our sweet spot when listening to music with proper musical presentation.
Ultimately, we had an enjoyable viewing and listening experience whether on entertainment or other means.
Cameras
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| HONOR X9c 5G cameras |
The HONOR X9c 5G boasts a 108MP main camera with OIS/EIS + 5MP ultrawide sensor + LED flash.
On paper, it does look the same as the X9b. One of the differences is the addition of OIS and EIS. A small but meaningful upgrade to have steady, less blurry and should provide a big help on lowlight photography or videos. Another difference is that HONOR removed the 2MP filler camera.
If you look closely, there appear to be three sensors. However, the circle next to the LED flash just creates an illusion of having a third sensor.
Rear Camera Samples
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| 1x daylight |
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| 3x in-sensor zoom |
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| Indoor 1x |
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| In-door 2x In-sensor zoom |
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| Low light indoor |
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| Night shot outdoor 1st sample |
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| Night shot outdoor 2nd sample |
Our tests showed that its main camera is capable of getting highly detailed photos with fairly nice colors, and decent dynamic range for our outdoor and indoor shots. It also has up to 3x lossless zoom allowing us to shoot our subject from a distance while retaining the quality.
The 5MP ultra-wide is useful for taking scenic views although the dynamic range would lessen a little bit. It's mostly noticeable once you zoom in on the image. It would have been better if HONOR upgraded this sensor.
But generally, the HONOR X9c 5G's primary camera is capable of producing color-popping food shots you can share on your stories on Facebook or Instagram.
Moreover, using the Portrait mode allowed us to get a nice artificial bokeh effect behind our subject thanks to its decent edge detection.
Next is the low light shots. We were able to get good detailed night photos, there are some visible noises in the sky while if you look at the leaves of the trees, you would notice a slightly reduced photo quality.
Selfie Camera Samples
The HONOR X9c 5G uses a 16MP f/2.45 selfie shooter. Since it is housed in a pill-shaped camera, you could spot a depth sensor for your portrait selfies.
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| Selfie outdoor without blur |
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| Selfie outdoor w/ blur |
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| Standard low-light selfie |
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| Outdoor night shot w/ blur |
In terms of output, it provides good-quality images in daylight and indoor scenarios, you could spot some redness around the cheeks in indoor lighting. But the details looked definitely alright.
Meanwhile, its portrait mode allows the selfie camera to shoot with background blur for that dramatic result. Were getting a passable bokeh effect on all scenarios. However, at night, you would notice a change in color tones compared to standard.
Speaking of low light, it's evident there's deterioration. in picture quality. You could see a lot of noise and flares behind and it looks grainy.
For videos, the main camera is capable of taking 4K videos with its back cameras. The stabilization helped in minimizing the shake. Just don't expect it to perform better than other photo-video focused smartphones.
For casual users, this is good enough for sharing decent content on TikTok or reels.
The front-facing camera shoots 720p or 1080p 30 fps and can be configured to different aspect ratios like 16:9 or 21:9.
Performance
The HONOR X9c 5G had a similar processor to its predecessor. It has 2.2GHz 4nm Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 paired with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage.
Below are our benchmark tests:
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| HONOR X9c 5G benchmarks |
AnTuTu - 589,117 points
Geekbench - 858 for single core, 2,618 for multi-core
3D Mark Wild Life - 2383 points, Average FPS (14.27)
CPDT - 514.1 MB/s sequential write speed, 658.1 MB/s sequential read speeds
If you're coming from X9b, it literally won't make much of a difference in performance. The chip should be capable of running current apps and some games at medium to high settings.
In real-life usage, it does perform smoothly on scrolling, and switching between apps, and image processing is decently fast.
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| HONOR X9c 5G MLBB and PUBM game settings |
For gaming, it is capable of running Mobile Legends smoothly at Ultra settings on both graphics and frame rate (120).
For PUBGM, we opted to do balanced and 120 fps since it's an open world with active players to fight with. Going up any further will no longer achieve the extreme frame which may affect your competitive gameplay. But it's up to you whether to choose better visuals or smoothness.
For battery, the device has upgraded 6,600mAh coming from the 5,800mAh of X9b. It also has a faster 66W HONOR SuperCharge versus the 35W of the previous model.
SOLID battery performance!
In our PC Mark test, we received a 15-hour and 28-minute score during the continuous video loop and activity test.
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| HONOR X9c battery PC Mark test |
This very impressive result comes from its large capacity along with the help of an efficient 4nm chip. Thus providing great battery life.
In actual usage, the phone survives up until the next day before using the supplied 66W charger. Speaking of which, you only need to wait around 1 hour and 15 minutes coming from 12 percent battery.
In terms of connectivity, the device has 5G, 4G, WiFi, Bluetooth 5.1, GPS, NFC and dual SIM.
The 5G signal is strong in our area since we are near the tower so we can easily experience uninterrupted connectivity and it never went down to 4G.
It goes the same with its WiFi connection with always strong 6 full bars. For Bluetooth, our wireless headphones don't experience delays and connection dips even when paired with the wireless gamepad.
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| The HONOR Magic OS 8.0 Android 14 |
For OS, the HONOR X9c 5G runs Android 14 with MagicOS 8.0 skin on top. The UI experience feels light and as mentioned earlier, we had a seamless transition between apps.
Similar to many Android, it allows customization on wallpaper, widgets, transition, font, layout, and icons. If you're into tweaking stuff, then this one is for you.
Apart from the AI eraser, there are also useful AI features like Magic Text, AI Suggestion, and Magic Portal.
The Magic Text allowed us to hold a picture and then quickly extract the text, AI Suggestion for recommending apps based on the number of using them. While the Magic Portal allows us to touch and hold the screenshot thumbnail and transfer them to another app.
Pros - Extremely durable, splash resistant, bright display, decent memory, long battery life, OIS, stereo speakers, affordable price
Cons - Same chipset, nearly the same cameras, could use a better ultra-wide
HONOR X9c 5G Specs
Display: 6.78-inch Ultra-Bounce Anti-Drop 2.0 curved AMOLED screen w/ 120Hz refresh rate, 3,840Hz PWM dimming, 1.5K 2700 x 1224 resolution at 437 ppi
CPU: 2.2GHz 4nm Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 octa-core processor
GPU: Adreno
RAM: 12GB
ROM: 256GB
Back Camera: 108MP f/1.75 w/ OIS, PDAF + 5MP f/2.2 ultra-wide + LED flash
Selfie Camera: 16MP f/2.45
Battery: 6,600mAh Silicon-Carbon w/ 66W HONOR SuperCharge
OS: Android 15 w/ MagicOS 8.0
Connectivity: WiFi 802.11 (2.4GHz/5GHz), 5G, 4G LTE, Bluetooth 5.1, OTG, NFC, GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo, dual SIM (nano)
Sensors: Accelerometer, light, orientation, proximity, gyroscope, sound, magnetic
Others: In-Display fingerprint sensor, IP65M dust and water resistance, stereo speakers, USB-C, Colors: Titanium Purple, Titanium Black, Jade Cyan
Dimensions: 162.8 x 75.5 x 8.0 mm
Weight: 189 g
Price: PHP 16,999
Verdict
For PHP 16,999, the HONOR X9c 5G is undeniably built for longevity, featuring an exceptionally durable design that resists impacts, drops, scratches, extreme temperatures, and even short water exposure.
While online content showcasing its toughness may be tempting, we don’t recommend replicating such stunts. These demonstrations highlight the phone's safeguard features for accidental scenarios—not everyday use.
The device also offers a bright, eye-friendly display, making it suitable for extended use.
In terms of performance, while it's decent overall, HONOR could benefit from upgrading the chipset—perhaps in the next iteration. That said, you still get adequate RAM, storage, and excellent battery life, ideal for users on the go.
Meanwhile, the phone is also capable of taking high-quality shots with its main camera but they have been using the same 5MP ultra-wide since X9a 5G. We'd like to see an upgrade in this area too. An upgrade here would be a welcome improvement in future models.
If the features above align with your priorities, the HONOR X9c 5G might be worth considering. However, if you're upgrading from the X9b, it’s better to hold off for now—there’s no need to upgrade every year.
Overall, this could be a great choice for those in need of an extra-tough device with great display and LONG battery life without breaking the bank.
Build/Design - 4.85
Multimedia Experience - 4.5
Cameras - 4
Performance - 4
Average - 4.36/5
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