Honor X9c Smart Review – Tough Budget Phone With The Essentials

The Honor X9c that was launched in Malaysia recently proved to be an interesting midrange phone that was also exceptionally durable. For those who are on a tight budget but who can’t quite afford the X9c, Honor Malaysia has just issued the X9c Smart that has the same durability and toughness as the X9c but pares down its specifications to knock the price down to around the RM1,000 mark.

We managed to get a unit ahead of its official Malaysia debut for field testing – here’s our Honor X9c Smart review where we suss out if it’s a worthy budget phone.

Honor X9c Smart review – What’s new?

Compared to the midrange Honor X9c, the Honor X9c Smart is intended as a budget circa-RM1,000 phone with the same level of durability and damage resistance for the chassis and display as the X9c but with pared down specifications to keep costs down. 

When compared side by side, the X9c Smart features a circular camera housing like the X9c but has a different camera design and slim to almost nonexistent bezels around the housing. The biggest draw to the Honor X9c Smart though is the fact that it has a flat LCD display rather than the curved one on the X9c.

The specifications for the Honor X9c Smart are a step down overall from the X9c and are intended for casual users. You get a more modest MediaTek Dimensity 7025 Ultra processor, 8GB RAM with an additional 8GB of virtual RAM Turbo off the onboard 256GB storage, a rear dual camera with a 108MP camera with EIS with a 5MP camera while the front has a 16MP selfie camera. The phone also runs Android 14 with their MagicOS 8.0.

The battery itself is slightly smaller with slower charging, featuring a 5,800mAh battery with 35W wired fast charging. These specifications make it more of a day to day workhorse for basic users like a college student’s first phone or for parents who just want something to handle the essentials rather than a powerhouse gaming phone or something for editing videos.

Of note is that Honor claims that the X9c Smart has the same levels of toughness as the X9c with drop resistance as well as scratch resistance for the display and backplate which is endorsed via an SGS Five Star Comprehensive Reliability Certification.

@hitechcentury We get a firsthand look at unbox the new HONOR X9c Smart and see what’s in the box as well as compare it to the Honor X9c! #honorx9csmart #honor #malaysia #fyp #techtok @honormalaysia ♬ France Accordion Swing – MIZUSATO Masaki

The Honor X9c Smart is also quoted to be water resistant but does not have an IP65M rating. It could survive immersion in up to 25cm of fresh water for up to 5 minutes and survive 360-degree water jets pointed at it just like the Honor X9c.

Honor X9c Smart review – Build and Design

At a glance, our Honor X9c Smart review sample does bear a resemblance to the higher end X9c especially in its placement of a rear rounded camera housing though closer inspection reveals that the X9c Smart has slim to almost nonexistent bezels around the camera housing and a different camera arrangement along with a completely flat front display. 

The backplate of our Honor X9c Smart review unit comes in Moonlight White along with an alternative shade of Ocean Cyan and while it is made of polycarbonate, it does have a rather attractive finish that makes it mimic a marble table top surface. The base of the phone comes with a single USB-C port, a single mono speaker and a nano SIM card tray. The left and top are otherwise unremarkable but the right side of the phone has a power button and volume rocker.

Up front, the phone has a large 6.8-inch LCD display with FHD+ resolution that is quoted to offer up to 850 nits peak brightness and like the X9c has up to a 120Hz refresh rate along with Eye protection features like Dynamic Dimming and Circadian Night tech for use at night.

A tiny punch hole up top accommodates a 16MP selfie camera that also allows for 2D facial recognition. Fortunately, there is also an under-display fingerprint reader in the lower quadrant of the LCD.

In terms of build and design, our Honor X9c Smart review unit looks and feels well built with an even heft and belying its polycarbonate chassis and price point, feels surprisingly sturdy.

Honor has also bundled in a free 35W charger, USB-C cable and casing with the phone though these are for units intended for Malaysia and other regions may get a different assortment of kit. These extra accessories add quite a bit of value, especially seeing as this is intended as an everyday budget phone.

Honor X9c Smart Review – Specifications and Benchmarks

On the hardware front, our Honor X9c Smart is kitted out with a modest set of specifications in keeping with its role as a budget everyman’s phone. You get a midrange MediaTek Dimensity 7025 Ultra processor built on a 6nm process which has a 5G modem and runs Android 14 with MagicOS 8.0, 8GB RAM with an additional 8GB of virtual RAM assigned off the onboard 256GB of storage.

According to Honor, the X9c Smart will have two years of OS and security updates which means it will get Android 16 and get security updates till 2026.

Here’s how the our Honor X9c Smart review unit looks like on paper:

Price	TBA
Display	6.8-inch FHD+LCD , 2,412 x 1080 pixels resolution, 850 nits peak brightness, 120Hz refresh rate, Dynamic Dimming and Circadian Night support
Processor	MediaTek Dimensity 7025 Ultra
OS	Android 14 w/ MagicOS 8.0
Memory	8GB RAM / 256GB storage
Cameras	108MP F/1.75 + 5MP F/2.2 wide [rear] / 16MP F/2.45 [front]
Battery	5,800mAh w/ 35W HONOR SuperCharge
Size/Weight	165.98 x 75.8 x 7.88mm /193g

The Honor X9c Smart has a performance envelope that veers on the lower end of the midrange with sufficient performance to handle day to day tasks. When subjected to benchmarks, it scored the following:

Geekbench 6 Single Core 949

Geekbench 6 Multi Core 2,178

Geekbench 6 Vulkan 142

PC Mark Work 3.0 Performance 12,403

PC Mark Battery Life 18 hours 7 mins

Oddly enough, 3DMark was mostly unable to run on our test sample but it was able to give results on Geekbench and PCMark which rendered very modest results. Fortunately, these results aren’t fully indicative on its capabilities in field conditions and our Honor X9c Smart review sample offered adequate performance for normal usage scenarios. 

If you keep to web browsing, social media like Whatsapp, Facebook and the like and general day to day tasks like texting, phone calls and the like, the Honor X9c Smart is more than adequate for the job. It’s even grudgingly able to handle a bit of gaming like Call of Duty Mobile on default settings.

It also has a smattering of AI features to make navigation and transferring snippets of text via Magic Capsule that can expand notifications seamlessly. Unfortunately, the Honor X9c Smart only gets two years of OS and security updates which may be something to ponder if you’re looking to hold onto it for longer than that.

The flat FHD+ 120Hz LCD display on our Honor X9c Smart looked somewhat dim in daylight conditions even at maximum brightness but it otherwise offered smooth animations onscreen and its eyesafe features such as Dynamic Dimming and Circadian Night tech make it easier on the eyes especially when used at night.

Unfortunately, the phone only has a mono speaker whereas the X9c has a stereo set though this is not a deal breaker with the mono speaker at the bottom of the phone offering surprisingly good volume for hands free calls and watching movies though bass and detail are somewhat middling at best.

In terms of overall battery life, our Honor X9c Smart review sample with its 5,800mAh battery offered slightly more than a day’s worth with normal usage with a combination of data and WiFi, web browsing as well as usage of YouTube, a few phone calls and constant use of social media through the day.

In PCMark’s battery life test, it managed a very respectable 18 hours and 7 minutes of endurance which is excellent for a budget phone and which even exceeds the Honor X9c’s own battery life test.

Honor X9c Smart Review – Cameras

The rear camera array of the Honor X9c Smart consists of a 108MP F/1.75 camera with autofocus but lacks optical image stabilisation unlike that used in the X9c along with a secondary 5MP F/2.2 wide angle camera.

This setup enables the phone to offer up to 3x zoom by cropping in image from the main sensor and up to 10x digital zoom with the ability to offer up to 1080p@30fps video also with up to 10x digital zoom. The front 16MP camera also offers stills and up to 1080p@30fps video without zoom capability. This setup is somewhat basic but can yield decent shots with patience.

While there is noticeable shutter lag especially when swapping from the ultra wide to the main camera, the phone does yield good shots in daylight and, with a steady hand fair shots in dim light though photos of anything beyond 2x zoom are going to end up soft, more so in low light conditions. 

Selfies from the front camera along with 1080p video from either the front or rear cameras aren’t much to write home about and offer perfunctory performance under ideal light conditions.

In general, the phone will do the job to capture day to day shots – food photos, the odd family shot or two and where you parked but  more demanding video and photography tasks like that asked of a content creator are not its strong suit. 

On that note, the phone does have access to AI Eraser to intelligently remove content from a shot with excellent results and it does have a Highlights Capture mode that automatically captures fast moving shots like pets or someone playing fast-moving sports.

Should you buy the Honor X9c Smart?

While the official price isn’t mentioned yet at the time of writing save that it’s around the RM1,000 mark, you still get one of the largest LCD displays in its price point, good battery life, 5G connectivity and a highly durable chassis at a modest price.

If you’re looking for a phone for someone who only needs the essentials that is also durable, the Honor X9c Smart is definitely worth a look.

Honor X9c Smart review unit courtesy of Honor Malaysia. For more details and to purchase please visit https://www.honor.com/my/