Honor X9c Review: What’s special about this midrange smartphone

March 16, 2025, 12:33 PM
by Md. Mehedi Hasan

UNB News
Publish- March 16, 2025, 12:33 PM
Md. Mehedi Hasan
Update- March 16, 2025, 01:21 PM

Honor X9c

Leading smartphone brand Honor launched the Honor X9c globally on November 5, 2024, expanding its mass-acclaimed midrange lineup, the Honor X series. In Bangladesh, pre-booking started on March 13, 2025, soon after Honor announced the phone becoming available for the local market. Let’s find out the key features, pros, cons, and pricing of the Honor X9c.

Key Features of the Honor X9c

The Honor X9c cuts right into the middle of the saturated midrange market. To make a statement, the phone must outshine or throw close competition to segment dominators like the Xiaomi Poco X7 Pro, Samsung Galaxy A55, and Oppo Reno13 F. Here is a comparative overview of the phone's key features and functionalities.

Design

The Honor X9c’s design is a far cry from the minimal and flat appearance of most same-priced phones. Though the phone is sleek and super slim in hand, it features an unprecedentedly strong build quality and extends the Honor X series’ legacy of building tough smartphones.

The phone's titanium finish, combined with Honor’s Ultra-Bounce Anti-Drop Technology 2.0, withstands rough drops, tears, and scratches. It also offers an IP65M water and dust resistance, which manifests the minimum dust impact and 360-degree safety against water splashes. The phone can survive extreme heat as high as 50 degrees Celsius.

The phone has a plastic back with no glass protection and is curved on the sides, both from the front and back. The rear panel shimmers in a polished gradient aesthetic yet accumulates sharp fingerprints from slight touches.

A circular camera module uses a black central stage to house two primary lenses and a flash. Around the stage is a peripheral rim styled with engravings and bevels that give a fine finish to the overall camera panel’s design. Without deviating from its thematic approach, Honor offers the phone in three color variations: Titanium Purple, Titanium Black, and Jade Cyan

The phone measures 6.41 inches by 2.97 inches by 0.31 inches in dimension and weighs around 189 g. While the Xiaomi Poco X7 Pro and the Oppo Reno 13 F come at a similar height, weight, and depth, the Samsung Galaxy A55 comes shorter, bulkier, and heavier.

Display

The Honor X9c has a 6.78-inch curved AMOLED display that renders visuals at a 1224 x 2700 pixel resolution. Cramming 437 pixels per inch, the display gleams with crisp and vibrant colors detailing accurate references from the source. Using an AMOLED display has become a norm for phones at this budget, except for the Samsung Galaxy A55, which uses a Super AMOLED panel.

The display offers an unbeatable 4000 nits brightness level for effortless maneuvers in direct sunlight. Users will also get a pleasant touch responsiveness from its 120Hz refresh rate. With the curved display, bezels and chins are at their minimum and offer a 90.7% screen-to-body ratio.

Cameras

The Honor X9c’s camera module comprises a 108MP (f/1.8) wide and a 5MP (f/2.2) ultrawide lens, marking a notable uplift in the list of competitors that offer 50MP main shooters. However, the absence of a telephoto lens may work as a deal breaker for the phone.

On the front, in a capsule hole at the top, lies a 16MP (f/2.5) selfie shooter. It’s a steep descent from the Oppo Reno13 F and Samsung Galaxy A55’s 32MP and a slight downgrade from the Xiaomi Poco X7 Pro’s 20MP lens. Apart from this, the primary lens can videograph at 4K resolution at 30 frames per second frame rate.

Hardware

The Honor X9c runs on a first-generation 4nm Qualcomm SM6450 Snapdragon 6 processor, which is powered by four 2.2 GHz Cortex-A78 and four 1.8 GHz Cortex-A55 cores. The Oppo Reno13 F comes with the same processor, the Samsung Galaxy A55; despite having the same core layout, it uses 2.75 GHz Cortex-A78 and 2.0 GHz Cortex-A55, and the Xiaomi Poco X7 Pro topples the competition with Mediatek Dimensity 8400 Ultra’s one 3.25 GHz Cortex-A725, three 3.0 GHz Cortex-A725, and four 2.1 GHz Cortex-A725 cores.

An Adreno 710 GPU chipset executes graphical instructions in the Honor X9c, offering a smooth gaming and app-playing experience. In benchmark and AnTuTu tests, the Adreno 710 performs lower scores in every category than the Xiaomi Poco X7 Pro’s Mali-G720 MC7 but does better than Xclipse 530 in most categories except 3D rendering.

Paired with Qualcomm’s 4nm processor and GPU, the Honor X9c provides smooth gameplay that can last several hours without experiencing lags or heat strikes.

Software

Honor introduces Magic OS 8, an AI-empowered operating system built on top of Android 14 that streamlines navigation through several cutting-edge user experience services: Magic Portal’s intuitive shortcut recommendations, Magic Capsule’s visually appealing notifications, and Magic Ring’s seamless third-party connection between devices like cars and printers.

To serve users with the power of modern AI, Magic OS 8 brings a dedicated large language model, MagicLM, which provides text and speech interactions throughout different channels, such as system apps and browsers. An AI assistant called YOYO Agent will let users automate regular tasks like playing audio and videos, scheduling, taking notes and reminders, and allowing voice search.

Battery and Charger

The Honor X9c offers a massive 6600 mAh silicon carbon cell that runs for days with moderate use before running out of charge. Only the Xiaomi Poco X7 Pro puts up a fight by offering a 6550 mAh battery with its Indian edition. The A55 and Reno13 F run on weaker batteries.

The 66W fast charger given with the phone takes only a couple of hours to recharge the fully depleted battery. The phone also supports a reversed wired charging system, aligning with the mass expectation.

Pros and Cons of the Honor X9c

Pros

- Curved AMOLED, 120Hz, 4000 nits brightness
- 90.7% screen-to-body ratio
- 108MP main camera, 4K video, ultrawide lens
- Snapdragon 6 Gen 1, Adreno 710 GPU
- Magic OS 8 with AI features (Magic Portal, Capsule, Ring, MagicLM)
- 6600 mAh battery, 66W fast charging, reverse wired charging.

Cons

- Plastic body, no glass protection, fingerprint-prone
- No telephoto lens, 16MP front camera weaker than rivals
- Adreno 710 underperforms vs. Mali-G720 MC7
- No wireless charging

Price of the Honor X9c in Bangladesh

The Honor X9c is available in Bangladesh at BDT 45000. However, the price is subject to change.

Conclusion

The Honor X9c has stirred hype, showcasing unparalleled features like a glamorous design, a powerful processor, top-of-the-line primary lenses, an enduring battery, a curved display, and a fast charger. Yet it struggles to meet expectations in several categories, like a weak selfie shooter, touch-accumulating rear panel, and lack of audio jack. Anyone who needs a well-balanced performance and decent primary camera at a mid-range price can buy the Honor X9c.