How Does It Fare Against Tough Competition In The Midrange Segment?

Back in July, Honor launched the sturdy and sturdy X9c in India. Priced at Rs 22,000, this smartphone dukes it out with midrange choices from OnePlus, Nothing, and Samsung. In Honor’s restricted catalogue in India, the X9c is one in all the best choices. It is powered by the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 SoC, packs a large 6,600mAh Si/C battery, and is drop-resistant as much as 2m. We bought our palms on the system earlier this month and have been day by day driving it for the final week. Here is our complete evaluate of the Honor X9c.

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Honor X9c Review: Design and Display

Before diving into the evaluate, check out what you get inside the X9c’s retail field.

Smartphone
66W energy adapter
USB-A to USB-C cable
Clear plastic cowl
SIM ejector
Quick begin information

The X9c comes in 2 color choices – Jade Cyan and Titanium Black. The Jade Cyan variant, which we used for this evaluate, has a marble sample on its again panel. The matte end lends it a pleasant in-hand really feel. The round digital camera island at the prime of the again panel is aligned in direction of the centre, eliminating any sort of drastic wobble. This large cutout homes the two digital camera sensors and the LED flash. The smartphone has a curved type issue, with the plastic again mixing seamlessly into the body.

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Honor X9c Review: Design and Display

The curved plastic body homes the quantity rocker and the aspect button on its proper edge. The twin SIM tray (no expandable storage help), microphone, USB-C slot, and first speaker grille are positioned at the backside. Up prime lies the secondary speaker grille. There isn’t any noise-cancelling microphone on this system. However, you get NFC for contactless funds and fast pairing.

Honor X9c Review: Design and Display

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The X9c is rated IP65 for resistance against mud and water. It can survive publicity to low-pressure water jets. Its sturdiness is additional enhanced by Honor’s ‘Ultra-Bounce Anti-Drop Technology 2.0’, which makes it drop-resistant as much as 2m.

The 6.78-inch curved AMOLED show on this system has a 120Hz refresh fee and might attain a peak brightness of 4,000 nits. It is ready to keep legibility in brilliant out of doors situations with absolute ease. Surrounding this curved panel are slim and uniform bezels. The front-facing digital camera is housed in a pill-shaped cutout, much like the Dynamic Island. The contact response of the show is sweet. Its curved type issue outcomes in a number of unintentional touches every so often, however they don’t quantity to a nuisance. The optical fingerprint scanner is snappy and responsive.

display display

There are a few ‘Eye Care’ show choices that we actually like on this system. The helpful eBook Mode turns the show black and white for an optimum studying expertise. You may also use it to cut back the pressure in your eyes. The ‘Honor Eye Comfort Display’ suite allows you to allow the ‘Circadian Night Display’, which adapts the display screen temperature in sync together with your physique’s pure rhythm. Essentially, it filters the blue gentle emanating from the show as you get nearer to bedtime. You can select to allow this filter all day or automate it to kick in at scheduled instances.

home page

During the evaluate interval, we used the Honor X9c to stream content material throughout OTT apps like Netflix, JioHotstar, and Prime Video. The AMOLED show produced sensible visuals that had been wealthy in color and element. The deep blacks in the photographs produce superb distinction and make the colors ‘pop’. The twin speaker setup on this cellphone produces audio output. We would’ve most popular a extra pronounced low-end, however it wasn’t egregious sufficient a difficulty to whip out our headphones every time we wished to observe one thing.

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Honor X9c Review: Performance and Cameras

Powering the Honor X9c is the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 chipset. The smartphone comes in a single 8GB RAM + 256GB storage variant, priced at Rs 22,000. We ran a few benchmark exams on this system. Here is how it carried out.

AnTuTu 3D: 689,080
Geekbench 6: 920 (single-core) | 2,693 (multi-core)

Honor X9c Review: Performance and Cameras

Even although the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 SoC does not put up the finest benchmark numbers in this phase, it does job of dealing with routine duties like calling, instantaneous messaging, emailing, picture modifying, media streaming, net searching, and navigation. During the week-long evaluate interval, we didn’t hit any snags on the Honor X9c. The system does a good job of optimising apps in the background in order that they don’t drain the battery at a sooner fee than ordinary. Juggling a number of apps at the similar time will not be a difficulty both.

apps apps

The X9c is a good system for informal gaming. We performed titles like Call of Duty Mobile and BGMI with the graphics and body fee restricted to medium settings. We didn’t come throughout any annoying jitters or body drops. However, pushing the graphics to their most settings provides room for the odd lag to creep into the gameplay. The thermal administration abilities of this system are on par with the phase common. In our testing, the again panel began to heat up after 20 minutes of steady gaming.

The Honor X9c runs the Android 14-based MagicOS 8 out of the field. It could be up to date to MagicOS 9 straight away. It is anticipated to obtain the Android 15 (MagicOS 10) replace in the coming months. The software program expertise on provide right here is respectable, however nothing extraordinary. There is an effective vary of customisation choices for the lock display screen, dwelling web page, app icons, and Always on Display. However, the lack of an app drawer is relatively puzzling.

magicos magicos

The ‘Honor AI’ suite on this system consists of fundamental instruments like AI Suggestions (restricted to app ideas on the dwelling web page), Magic Text (textual content extraction from photographs), Magic Portal (much like Circle to Search, however with much less intuitive controls), and AI Translate. The native gallery app has AI instruments for object elimination and picture growth.

The large 6,600mAh Si/C battery pack is one in all the strongest fits of this system. It can simply final a day of heavy use with as much as 20% cost nonetheless left in the tank. We weren’t capable of drain the battery even after racking up 6-7 hours of display screen time. If you’re conservative together with your utilization, you’ll be able to push the battery life to 2 days. The 66W energy adapter offered in the field takes as much as an hour to completely cost the cellphone.

weather weather

The rear digital camera island homes a 108MP major shooter and a 5MP ultrawide sensor. There’s a 16MP front-facing digital camera nestled inside a pill-shaped cutout on the show. The major shooter takes good photographs with all the important particulars in out of doors daylight situations. The photographs are processed with balanced colors. The system may do higher when it involves exposing the sky whereas capturing against the pure gentle. In restricted lighting situations, the major digital camera manages to gentle up the scene fairly nicely, however the shot seems a tad grainy.

Honor X9c Review: Performance and Cameras

primary camera

Images taken with the 5MP ultrawide lens are significantly softer with a noticeable tonal shift when it involves colors. While we might’ve most popular a extra highly effective ultrawide sensor in this array, it does a good job in out of doors daylight situations. However, the photographs taken in restricted lighting are dimly lit and really noisy.

Honor X9c Review: Performance and Cameras — Ultrawide lens

The native digital camera app provides 3 zoom ranges for portraits (1x – 3x). The focus and background blur on these portrait photographs are superb. The edge detection is on level. However, the portrait photographs seem a bit overexposed. The 16MP front-facing digital camera takes clear and vibrant selfies in good lighting situations. However, its video recording chops are restricted to 1,080p at 30fps. This may frustrate content material creators preferring to shoot Reels and Shorts in 4K decision. The ultrawide lens can also be restricted to 1,080p and 30fps specs. Thankfully, the major shooter can document 4K footage at 30fps.

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Verdict

The Honor X9c is an effective purchase in a value bracket that’s flooded with thrilling smartphones. Its strongest belongings are its sturdiness, show, and battery. With a 2m drop resistance, you need to use this cellphone with out a protecting case. The 6.78-inch AMOLED show provides an excellent viewing expertise with twin speaker audio output. The 6,600mAh battery pack can maintain sufficient juice to last as long as 2 days on minimal utilization. The digital camera array, whereas not the finest in the phase, is dependable in a well-lit atmosphere. The Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 processor is highly effective sufficient to deal with routine duties and informal gaming. However, Honor’s MagicOS 9 pores and skin leaves extra to be desired. It will not be the most feature-rich OS on the market, nor does it have any intelligent methods up its sleeve. The software program expertise does not fill you with pleasure.