HONOR X9a 5G Review – A tough going phone

HONOR is not getting slow down when it comes to device releases, ever going with something to surprise us and we did an unboxing of it HERE, you can check it out where we explore some of the features of the HONOR X9a 5G as a start.

This will be a deeper dive on the review which we will talk and explore more about the phone and some of the main features of the HONOR X9a 5G

Design

It looks similar eh? That’s because it is a combination of the hero mid ranger HONOR 70, the similar hardware found on HONOR X9 5G and the China exclusive HONOR X40, all three model aspects and esthetics combined into one device, of course not everything but some of the most important things are into one. From the front you will see the ever loved curved display, and it is a tough one as it can take hits multiple time while still maintains and hold just nice with no breaks or scratches so far. Towards the back of the display, HONOR retains the a very similar design language to the HONOR X9 with the ring camera setup that still looks fresh today and still looks cool. With the models combined, the HONOR X9a held with a 7.9mm slimness and just 172 grams on the weight only, making it one of the thin and light phone within the starter mid range category. You also get a finger print scanner under the display for unlocking the phone, and its a pretty accurate one.

Display & Audio

Further elaborating on the display, the HONOR X9a houses a curved 6.67inch AMOLED screen capable of projecting 1.07 billion colors which carries a 20:9 aspect ratio. Our experience with it is pleasant with deep rich colors that does represent at accurate level when browsing and watching a few video clips at 120hz refresh rate. It does 1920Hz PWM dimming and blue light filter so this can be viewed quite comfortably in darker areas while then over outdoors the phone brightness can boost up to 800nits which is very usable and viewable at most conditions. Touch responses is good also with the 300Hz touch sampling rate.

Sound or audio wise, while HONOR chose to have one down firing speakers only, it is still audible enough for the most part, loud enough in a medium size room and further backed and supported by HONOR Histen sound effect if you are using your headphones, which you can use it with the bundle in USB C to 3.5mm adaptor or direct USB Type C headphones to listen your favorite tunes wherever you are.

Camera

Rear : 64MP Main Camera(F1.8) PDAF
5MP Ultra Wide with Depth Camera(F2.2)
2MP Macro Camera（f2.4)
Front : 16MP (F2.45)

Day Shots

Night Shots

The camera setup is a slightly upgraded sensors from the China cousin variant, the HONOR X40 with a slight bump up on the main rear camera that is still on performs at the level best within its category level and this is expected with the usual under the bright environment shots came out nice as it should be. During night time, that’s where the HONOR X9a slightly underperform where more time is needed to take the right shots, with steady hands you can absolutely compensate it due to the lack of OIS, relying only on PDAF to do the best it can. If you are just using it for casual shots, video taking and post it up over social media and high resolution uploads on bright shots, yes it can do it right and even clear on certain levels. Video taking can go up to 1080P at 30FPS, on par and standard with most of the phones available today and my usual comments and experience still stands, you do need good hands and bright area to capture it just nice, if the surrounding is on a slightly gloomy tone, your results may came out slightly grainy, but still usable.

Performance, Features & Benchmarks

Now over to the performance, the HONOR X9a 5G is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 5G Octa Core SOC with 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 256GB of internal storage. While the specs is not screaming power it still delivers good multitasking apps flowing in and out on switching and transitions, which still keeps up when comes to demanding apps and games. We tested the whole day up to 11 hours and the remaining battery capacity still holds pretty good, recharging it will take about less than 50 minutes to get it back to full with ease and you can continue using it further. This time around HONOR RAM Turbo, which is a VRAM allocation has been increased/expanded to an additional 5GB, this allows more flexibility when switching apps or multitasking.

Beneath performance, HONOR X9a is driven with MagicUI 6.1 with Android 12, for the first time HONOR brought in several features from the higher end models such as HONOR Share which allows wireless printing and file sharing, while HONOR muti-screen collaboration allows you to share your phone screen to your PC or Laptop.

We also manage to get some of the benchmarks for this phone which I would say within our expected when it comes to performance with most of the available Snapdragon 695 phones we have today and as we emphasize, this phone’s objective is to cater the masses as a mid ranger.

Technical Specifications

Verdict & Conclusion

The HONOR X9a 5G is one tough phone that we ever tested, and it is a fun one carrying around. Although it is not a flagship phone and definitely not on a top of the class hardware specification, HONOR still keeps some of the premium design language over to a mid range which remains loved for certain users like the curved screen, combined with a crystalized constructed tough screen that makes it a beauty with a beast strength.

Price & Availability

The HONOR X9a 5G is available from 4th of January 2023 onwards carrying a pricetag of RM1499 and it is widely available for purchase from HONOR authorized dealers and major telco carriers.

For more information on the HONOR X9a, click HERE to find out