The HONOR X9c 5G builds on the legacy of its predecessor, the HONOR X9b, but with significant enhancements in design, durability, and functionality. Sporting a sleek marble-like back, the HONOR X9c gives off a premium feel while maintaining a sturdy construction. Its design, inspired by luxury timepieces, seamlessly integrates aesthetics and practicality.
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As you may have seen in the last few days, the smartphone has taken over social media by storm with all the drop and boiling tests. However, could the phone live up to its hype? Let's dive into the details to see how it performs across design, display, performance, camera, and battery life.
Review Summary:
Pros
- Excellent + Durable build and design
- Bright vibrant display
- Long battery life with fast charging
Cons
- Last year's chipset
- Ultrawide camera sensor needs improvement
Design
The HONOR X9c 5G maintains most of the design language of its predecessor, the HONOR X9b. However, we are not treated with a vegan leather backing this year; instead we have a high quality plastic material that feels smooth on the hands. This kind of texture perfectly fits the Jade Cyan hue, which makes the phone look and feel great. The texture is not new to our senses; in fact some previous HONOR smartphones come with the same build.

The camera module is inspired by a Rolex timepiece where it features a circular module just like its predecessors. The edge of the module is trimmed with silver accents which also resembles the edge face of a Rolex watch. There are two sensors housed in this camera module alongside the LED flash. When seen on the side, the frame seamlessly fuses with the backing, complementing the curved edge of the display on its other end. The HONOR X9c 5G looks and feels like a well-made device with its sturdy construction and beautiful design.
The metal-like frame houses a slew of ports and buttons. The most prominent of which are the volume keys and power button on the right side. The top only has the secondary microphone; whole the bottom is crammed with the SIM tray, USB-C port, speaker grille, and another microphone.
How tough is the HONOR X9c 5G?
Since we are talking about the design, let's delve into the main selling point of this device - its toughness. As of this writing, I'm pretty sure you've seen several videos of the phone being smashed into fruits and nuts, boiled in a pot, or dropped on a certain height. One thing's for sure, you won't buy the phone just to drop or boil it; but in any case you do, I should say that the handset will survive these activities. The phone now has drop resistance of up to 2 meters; for comparison, last year's X9b only has 1.5-meter resistance.
The front panel's glass now feature's what the company calls "5-Star All Angle Ultra Tough Drop Resistance" that is certified with SGS; and the X9c also comes with IP65m rating. However, these do not mean that it's resistant to wear and tear. My phone's frame gathered some scratches when I dropped it on an uneven surface (rubble of stones). Nevertheless, I must say the glass front holds up well in my testing. With this, I could tell that the front panel is quite tough. But still, glass is glass; I have seen some isolated cases where the glass breaks when the phone fell at certain angles - like the corners where the glass transitions into curved edges. But again, for accidental drops, I think the phone will survive most of the time.
Display
Speaking of the display, we have a 6.78-inch AMOLED panel with 120Hz refresh rate at 90.7% screen-to-body ratio. This screen is one of the best looking panels in the company's lineup. The glass is still curved on the edges which gives the phone a slimmer profile.
What makes the display interesting is the new peak brightness of up to 4000 nits (X9b only has 1200 nits). I don't have to worry when using the phone outdoors, or even under direct sunlight. When it comes to the display quality, I am quite impressed with the panel. The sharpness and color accuracy are the stuff that I commend with HONOR phones. Although, I should say that the phone does not support HDR playback. This means that while the screen registers to be of high quality, it does not support the best visual output from streaming platforms like Netflix.
Nevertheless, it's still a great display. Streaming my favorite shows with this handset is such a breeze. Its viewing angles are also very generous. The optical fingerprint sensor embedded on the display is still as snappy from the first time I activated it. Aside from the fact that my HONOR X9c has withstand a lot of smashes and bumps, there are no obvious dents on the screen. This makes the overall display performance very solid.
Performance
Just like last year, the HONOR X9c is also powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 chipset. This SoC is built under 4-nanometer process technology. There are four cores of Cortex A78 clocked at 2.2GHz, and four cores of Cortex A55 with 1.8 GHz speed. On top of that, the X9c packs a beefy 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. There's no option to expand the storage via microSD card, and the SIM tray supports two Nano-SIM cards.
In my everyday use, I have experienced little to almost nonexistent issues in terms of app crashes, or performance hiccups. Not unless I try to put it under strenuous activities like playing high graphic games or doing some mobile video edits.
The phones is smooth overall in dealing with the basic stuff like surfing the internet, jumping through multiple apps, composing emails, listening to music streaming platforms, and even doing games like Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. In fact, I have spent a lot of time playing MLBB with this phone and it faired pretty well in my gameplay. Of course, it did not gave me the highest quality Graphics and Refresh Rate. But still, the settings were high enough (High settings for graphics and refresh rate) to make me appreciate and excel in the game.
Additionally, other popular titles are also playable like Genshin Impact, Call of Duty Mobile and Garena Free Fire in decent graphic settings. I would say that I have not experienced any heating issues over extended period of gameplay.
Cellular and Wireless LAN connectivity are also on-point. I did not experienced any signal drop as long as there is a cellular reception. The HONOR X9c supports Wi-Fi 5 which is pretty compatible with my home network. The phone also support Bluetooth 5.1 LE, NFC and Infrared.
The overall performance of the handset is pretty good especially in gaming and content consumption. I hope this will still be the case in the next coming months of usage.
Camera
The HONOR X9c 5G touts a dual camera setup that is top-billed by the 108MP main sensor with f/1.8 aperture and PDAF capability. This is complemented by a 5MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera. On the front, the phone has a 16MP selfie camera with f/2.5 aperture.
In good lighting condition, photos exhibit great quality with lots of details and color accuracy. Contrast is also good after the software post-process. The camera tend to overexpose the whites, even in good lighting. Other than that, the camera produces good photos overall.
The camera app supports 2x and 3x zoom. While 2x zoom mimics the quality of photos taken in 1x, photos in 3x zoom tend to lose details. I rarely find myself using this option but it will always be a welcome feature whenever I need to take zoomed shots from a distance.
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Sample Photo: 0.6x vs 1x Zoom |
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Sample Photo: 2x vs 3x Zoom |
On the other hand, there's nothing special about the ultrawide camera. Photos coming from this sensor lacks details, and for some reason it also overexposes some bright sections.
Selfies are also good enough for social media use. It produces good skin texture and supports Beauty mode that you can customize in terms of skin softness, contour and tone. The portrait mode is fine; however, the bokeh effect needs to be improved.
Software and Battery
On the software department, the HONOR X9c 5G boots with MagicOS 8 that's based on Android 14. There's a familiar ring to the software since it looks a feels like the same skin from another brand. However, one good thing about it is that it comes with Google Play Store and Google Mobile Services.
We have the same flat icons in squarish design. I like how simple the interface looks; it's also easy to use and even gives users a small tutorial on gestures upon turning on the interface the first time. The control center is also simple providing a space for notifications at the bottom of the interface. One feature that I've used a lot is the HONOR Share, which is a file sharing system across HONOR devices. For cross-device sharing, there's the Nearby Share which seamlessly transfer files to other supported Android devices.
The HONOR X9c 5G packs a 6600 mAh battery, which is quite larger than most of its competitors. The battery could easily last up to one day of usage. This comes in a mixed use scenarios which includes streaming videos, occasional gaming, flipping thru different social media apps, and browsing the internet. At the end of the day, I still have enough juice for the second day but of course, I prefer to charge the phone every night.
If you're like me who's a fair to moderate user, you don't have to worry about the battery when using this phone. The HONOR X9c supports 66-watt HONOR SuperCharge. Recharge the device would take about 68 minutes from 0% to 100%.
Should you buy the HONOR X9c 5G?
Using the phone for almost a month made me realize the great value this phone gives to my daily routine and workflows. With its practical design, I don't have to put it a case and it's tough a as rock. Of course, there's some wear and tear that could accumulate over time but it still looks great. Its performance is also something that doesn't degrade easily.
What I love about the HONOR X9c 5G is the convenience of having a durable smartphone that you can slip anywhere in your pockets or bags. It never disappoints whenever you need it for quick photo sessions or content consumption. Lastly, its longer battery life adds a lot to the smartphone's superb dependability. At Php 16,999, it's definitely an easy phone to recommend.
HONOR X9c 5G Specifications
Display:6.78-inch FHD+ AMOLED (2700 x 1224 at 437 ppi)
120Hz refresh rate, 4,000 nits peak brightness
Asahi AGC DT-Star2 Glass (Double tempered protection)
Performance:
Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 (4nm) CPU
4x Cortex-A78 (2.2GHz) + 4x Cortex-A55 (1.8GHz) GPU
Adreno 710
RAM: 8GB
Storage: 256GB
Camera:
Rear Cameras:
108MP main (f/1.75, OIS)
5MP ultrawide (f/2.2)
LED flash, up to 4K video recording
Front Camera:
16MP (f/2.45), up to 1080p video recording
Audio:
Dual stereo speakers
Connectivity:
5G, Dual SIM
Wi-Fi 5 (dual-band)
Bluetooth 5.1, NFC, GPS
USB Type-C
Software:
MagicOS 8.0 (Android 14)
Security:
In-display fingerprint sensor
Face unlock
Durability:
IP65 dust and water resistance
Battery:
6,600 mAh with 66W HONOR SuperCharge
Dimensions & Weight:
162.8 x 75.5 x 7.98 mm
189g
Colors:
Jade Cyan, Titanium Black, Titanium Purple