The Honor Pad X9 is a big-screen iPad challenger with a dinky price
Honor might be best known for its Android smartphones, like the Honor 90 and flagship Magic 5, but the Chinese company has a line-up of large, budget-friendly tablets that start from £150 less than the most affordable iPad.
But can these Android tablets compete with the best-selling iPad range from Apple? To find out, we put the Honor Pad X9 through its paces.
The X9 is the third model to join Honor's current tablet lineup, following in the footsteps of the Pad 8 and X8 released last year.
Honor X9 is a big boy, standing 167mm tall, 267mm wide, and 6.9 thick which makes it taller than the wider more square-looking iPad 9th gen, with the Honor having much more screen-to-body ratio. This is a tablet designed for backpacks, not one you'll throw in your pocket.
While Apple is still keeping the Home Button around on its most affordable tablet, Honor has opted for the sort of all-screen design that you'll only find when spending £400+ in the Apple Store. The Pad X9 has an angular, minimalist design that looks smart. Despite its large size, it's lightweight too at 495g that's fine to hold for long periods – just try not to drop it on your face.
One of the most compelling things about the X9 is its incredibly competitive price, at only £179.99. For comparison, the cheapest comparable Apple tablet is the 9th gen iPad for £369. That's over £180 cheaper.
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While the Honor Pad 8 is £199 and the more budget Honor Pad X8 is currently £139.99, it is a little confusing having all the tablets in a similar price range with close specs but the X9 is placed in the middle of the Honor lineup.
Other comparable devices at this price are the Nokia T21, Amazon Fire Max 11 and the Samsung Tab A8, which the Honor Pad X9 manages to beat.
It comes in one colour, Space Gray, which is very reminiscent of Apple and the back is made from solid aluminium, but the glass front has no reinforcement or protection despite feeling pretty hard.
While it'll be resistant to day-to-day use, I would not want to throw it in my bag loosely and would be seriously worried if it was dropped. You’ll also need to watch out for water too as the X9 doesn’t have an IP rating which shouldn't be a big a worry like it would be with a smartphone.
The minimal back looks smart with its smooth matte finish and feels comfortable while not attracting fingerprints and scuffs. There is no audio jack, which is pretty standard as it supports Bluetooth 5.1.
The Honor Pad X9 is a really neat and slick-looking tablet that betrays it's affordable price (Honor)On the subject of sound, the output from the six speakers dotted around the display When held in landscape, you get two on the left and right, and two on the bottom. The audio quality was clear and loud enough to watch films in a moderately busy environment even without headphones.
It also features a single camera on the back and a small front-facing camera for video calls which, while serviceable is pretty basic the quality was lacklustre, which is fine for family calls but I'd really only recommend using it if you didn't have your phone to hand.
Since the entire front of the tablet is taken up with screen, you'll find a generous 11.5-Inch display to enjoy boxsets, ebooks, games, or video calls with friends and family.
These look wonderful on the IPS display, which is further enhanced by a smooth 120Hz refresh rate that provides smooth scrolling and is great for gaming. It is also backed up by a higher-than-HD resolution of 2000 x 1200 keeping films and games sharp.
The display is bright and is ok outdoors at 400nits but is much better for indoor use. Colours are vivid but HDR 10 is not supported so you won’t see those strong contrasts and deeper blacks.
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