Honor Pad X9 Review – Is this Cheerfully Cheap Tablet the best Tablet for School and Work?

When it comes to budget Android tablets, Malaysians are spoiled for choice with a host of entry-level options though there aren’t many around the RM1,000 price range that have what the Honor Pad X9 has to offer as it not only comes with a free keyboard but also features 4G LTE connectivity too.

We’ve managed to get our hands on a unit for testing for the past couple of weeks. Here’s our Honor Pad X9 review where we share if this budget slate is worth your money.

Honor Pad X9 Review – Build and Design

Budget tablets tend to mix and match different hardware and typically use more affordable materials like polycarbonate to save on costs which makes it an intricate balancing act between performance and cost.

Our Honor Pad X9 review unit has a surprisingly premium looking design with a backplate made of aluminium in a pleasantly fingerprint resistant satin finish with the Honor logo emblazoned in the middle along with a single 5MP rear camera array. The chassis itself is also fairly thin at 6.9mm with rounded edges making it comfortable to wield. Belying its price point, the Honor Pad X9 makes for a well built, sleek design that looks pricier than its intended price point. 

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@hitechcentury Unboxing the all new affordable HONOR Pad X9 that blends large 11.5 inch Eye Comfort display with Android 13, a Snapdragon 685 CPU, 7GB of RAM and 128GB of expandable storage plus a free keyboard case for RM1,099! Plus it also has LTE connectivity too – that’s awesome value for what you pay for! Looks ideal for students and general paperwork with Google Docs or Microsoft Office mobile. @HONOR Malaysia #tech #techtok #hitechcentury #unboxing #tablets #honorpadx9 #fyp #malaysia #mantap ♬ Aesthetic – Tollan Kim

Primarily intended for use in landscape orientation, the tablet has a power button and volume rocker up top with hybrid SIM tray at the bottom that allows users to pack in a nano SIM card for 4G LTE connectivity on the go along with a microSD card to augment the onboard storage with up to 1TB sized cards. The addition of 4G LTE is a rarity at this price point which makes the Honor Pad X9 especially useful for sixers who need internet connectivity but work in areas with no WiFi connectivity.

Flanking the SIM card tray are a pair of speakers with an additional two per side on the left and right side of the tablet for a grand total of six speakers which is a feature typically reserved on higher grade tablets.

Up front, our Honor Pad X9 review sample hosts an 11.5-inch TFT LCD Eye Comfort display with 1,200 x 2,000 pixels resolution, a 120Hz refresh rate and the ability to go up to 400 nits peak brightness. While the bezels are somewhat thick on all sides for a circa-2023 tablet, it isn’t much of a quibble at this price point. Located on the upper half of the slate is a 5MP camera for video calls.

For the Malaysia market, Honor has bundled in a USB-C cable, a relatively budget 10W charger and, of note, a free keyboard case designed specifically to fit the Honor Pad X9. The keyboard case snaps on to the rear with magnets with the rear portion fitting snugly onto the backplate to protect it from scratches and nicks. Emplaced in the edge of the case is a USB-C port for charging the keyboard itself which is a pleasant bonus as you can use the same charging cable to charge both the tablet and keyboard itself.

The base of the tablet itself hosts a non-backlit keyboard that has  a numeric keypad that pairs up to the tablet via Bluetooth. When combined with the Honor Pad X9, the total weight of the case and keyboard masses about 600g or so which is still lighter than toting a laptop around.

When unfolded, the tablet magnetically latches into a groove at the top of the keyboard to form a secure typing position that works best when placed on a desk though it is still somewhat usable when placed on a lap for use on a bus or train. 

Overall, the Honor Pad X9 is a well built affair belying its price point with the addition of a bundled keyboard case adding substantially to its value. Perhaps the only quibble here is that the tablet lacks any dust or water resistance though at this price point it’s not a deal breaker.

Honor Pad X9 Review – Specifications and Performance

In terms of specifications, our Honor Pad X9 review sample is surprisingly well equipped for an entry-level tablet. You get a midrange Snapdragon 685 octacore processor built on a 6nm process that was made earlier in 2023 paired with 4GB RAM and an additional 3GB of virtual RAM that Honor refers to as RAMTurbo that is permanently assigned off the onboard 128GB of storage.

Oddly enough, Honor’s MagicOS firmware doesn’t allow for users to modify this amount of virtual storage though this is more than sufficient for general productivity work and gaming. 

Running under the hood is the latest Android 13 as well as their own MagicOS 7.1 which is the latest version of their firmware. Fortunately, bloatware is kept to a minimum here save for a preinstalled copy of WPS office for offline documents, spreadsheets and the like, Netflix and a shortcut to the Booking online website. Here’s how our Honor Pad X9 review sample stacks up on paper…

 

Price	RM1,099
Display	11.5-inch TFT LCD, FHD+ (1,200 x 2,000 pixels), 120Hz refresh rate, 2-400 nits, 203ppi
Processor	Snapdragon 685
Memory	4GB RAM + 3GB RAM Turbo / 128GB +microSD card up to 1 TB
OS	Android 13 w/ Magic OS 7.1
Cameras	5MP F/2.2 rear / 5MP F/2.2 front
Battery	7,250mAh Li-Polymer (13 hours quoted), w/ 10W charger
Size/Weight	267.3 x 167.4 x 6.9mm /499g

Bar these additions, Honor’s MagicOS has a few tablet optimised tweaks like the ability to run up to four unique apps onscreen though heavy multitasking will likely slow down performance, a quick access bar at the bottom for recent apps as well as separate sliders for controls and notifications off the upper left and upper right corners of the tablet display. Interestingly enough, regular users of Huawei tablets will likely take to Honor’s MagicOS like a duck to water.

Oddly enough, our Honor Pad X9 review sample did not allow for us to install any benchmarking apps to test how the Snapdragon 685 performs though it acquitted itself nicely in general usage scenarios.

The tablet ran the usual array of apps in a smooth fashion without significant throttling. Google Docs and Microsoft Office ran without issue with the provision of the bundled keyboard allowing for easy writing and processing paperwork on the go.

Multitasking was a breeze as well and opening up a browser and YouTube simultaneously onscreen made for an entertaining experience. The Honor Pad X9 was also able to competently tackle gaming too with Call of Duty Mobile on medium graphics and even Genshin Impact on default settings though the latter has long load times. 

For its price point, the Honor Pad X9’s display which has a fair 203 pixels per inch (PPI) proves to be remarkably capable with smooth animations on account of its 120Hz refresh rate and sufficient detail and brightness for most scenarios though the reflective finish and peak 400 nits makes it hard to view in sunlight.

On the bright side, pun notwithstanding, the tablet’s six-speaker array is able to kick out enough sound to fill a small room. While the bass wasn’t sufficiently beefy, it does have a fair amount of detail and for what you pay for, it’s more than enough to comfortably binge watch your way through a few episodes of One Piece on Netflix.

The provided keyboard case offers a comfortable typing experience with its 1.6mm key travel and makes churning through large chunks of text a pleasant affair. In tandem with its 4G LTE connectivity, this makes the Honor Pad X9 a surprisingly capable option for schoolwork.

On that note, the front selfie camera is sufficient for video calls in brightly lit environments and the rear camera does a decent job to take down shots in the day time for homework, notes on the whiteboard and the like.

In terms of battery life, our Honor Pad X9 review sample and its 7,250mAh battery was comfortably able to last a full day of heavy use with a combination of 4G LTE, WiFi and a combination of social media, gaming and watching a few shows on the move. More frugal usage for just checking emails and web browsing can easily stretch this to a couple of days. Charging it on the provided 10W charger takes quite some time though with a full charge requiring close to 4 hours.

Is the Honor Pad X9 worth buying?

The Honor Pad X9 stands out among its budget tablet peers as it not only has a decent 120Hz display but also 4G LTE connectivity via a SIM card slot along with a free keyboard case too, all of which are rarities at its RM1,099 price point. This combination of features and its exceptional bang for the buck make it ideal for students and those on a budget.

Honor Pad X9 tablet review sample courtesy of Honor Malaysia. To purchase please visit https://www.hihonor.com/my/tablets/honor-pad-x9/