HONOR recently launched a follow-up to the very successful HONOR X9c 5G, which was heavily marketed mainly for its durability. The new HONOR X9c Smart 5G aims to follow its footsteps, but for a price that is more accessible.
Design and Build Quality
The HONOR X9c Smart 5G’s design bears a striking resemblance to the HONOR X9b 5G, especially with its round camera module, minus the leather rear surface. The build is mainly plastic, which is totally fine, and while the rear panel’s surface feels the same as the X9c 5G, the patterns are noticeably different.
This uses a matte finish on its flat sides, in contrast to the X9c 5G’s glossy curved sides. And that is because this phone also uses a flat display, which I personally prefer. Of course, there’s no headphone jack.
When I said following its footsteps, I meant more of in terms of the durability features that it has. As such, the HONOR X9c Smart 5G also has a bag of durability tricks up its sleeve. For one, it has a scratch resistant back cover. It also has water resistance, and according to HONOR, it can withstand a 2-meter drop as well as extreme temperatures. Well, we’ll have to find out if those things are true.
Display-wise, you get 6.8-inches of real estate with a 120Hz refresh rate. It’s not AMOLED, so don’t expect deep blacks and punchy colors, but so far, I’m not bothered by that. It’s a decent screen for daily use and media consumption.
Performance
Performance-wise, the HONOR X9c Smart 5G packs a Dimensity 7025-Ultra, which may not be as beefy as the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 on the HONOR X9c 5G, but it should pack enough punch for daily tasks and even a bit of gaming, depending on what you want to play. We’ll need more time to try it out for the full review, but so far, we haven’t run into any major issues with performance.
You also get 12GB of RAM, which I think should be the new standard, and 256GB of storage, which could be better, but is personally more than enough.
Camera
For the HONOR X9c Smart 5G’s cameras, you get a 108MP main shooter with 3x lossless zoom paired with a 5MP ultra-wide unit. It’s personally my ideal combo. I’m happy they didn’t put in a 2MP macro camera just for quantity, if you know what I mean.
So far, photos I took with the device looked good in relation to its price. The details are there, sharpness is on point, and the depth of field effect looks convincing enough. We haven’t tested video yet, but we’ll be sure to include it in the full review.
The 12MP front camera also shows good promise in terms of quality, at least with decent lighting. We’ll also try this out video-wise.
AI Things
HONOR has also equipped with HONOR X9c Smart 5G with several AI features, including the popular AI Eraser for removing photo bombers – whether people or not, and Magic Capsule, which lets you interact with some apps without actually having to open the app. A good example would be controlling playback on Spotify.
As usual, you’ll need to be connected to the internet for some of these features to work. We’ll be exploring the other AI features of this phone on our full review.
Battery
HONOR has equipped the HONOR X9c Smart 5G with a 5,800mAh battery, bolstered with 35W wired fast-charging. While it isn’t as fancy as the X9c 5G, it’s still a pretty decent feature to have. We’ll see how long this phone can last with our typical workload, and how long it takes to recharge.
The Verdict So Far
While I can’t put a final score on the HONOR X9c Smart 5G yet, as there’s still several things to test, I will say that it’s decent for its PHP 13,999 price tag, even better if you can get it for its discounted price of PHP 10,799 during the Shopee 3.3 Super Brand Marathon.
It looks good, doesn’t feel cheap, it performs well for daily use, and the cameras seem pretty good for the price. We’ll need more time with it for a final verdict.
So far, the only downsides I’m seeing are the absence of a headphone jack and expandable storage, as well as a single speaker setup.
Emman has been writing technical and feature articles since 2010. Prior to this, he became one of the instructors at Asia Pacific College in 2008, and eventually landed a job as Business Analyst and Technical Writer at Integrated Open Source Solutions for almost 3 years.
