Last year, smartphone maker Honor made a comeback in India after a 3-year hiatus. The X9b is a mid-range smartphone that competes in the ₹25,000 – ₹30,000 price bracket with stiff competition from other phone makers like Realme, Redmi, OnePlus and Oppo. The Honor X9B does manage to stand apart from the competition owing to quite a few factors.
The curved display trend is strong in this segment and the Honor X9b pulls it off quite nicely. It features a sleek look with a large 6.78-inch 120Hz curved AMOLED display which features Honor’s Ultra-Bounce Anti-Drop technology. This protects the display in case of accidental falls. The display itself looks sharp and offers a crisp resolution for media consumption. The back uses a polycarbonate construction with a premium-looking matte finish. The highlight though is the circular camera module which houses a triple-camera setup. The edges are quite slim and the smartphone feels light for single-hand usage.
Powering the Honor X9b is Snapdragon’s 6 Gen 1 gaming chipset. With 8GB of RAM, the smartphone easily takes care of day to day tasks and some casual gaming. It runs on MagicOS 7.2 based on Android 13. A highlight is the 256GB internal storage that comes as standard and the overall user experience is smooth but there is quite a bit of bloatware that needs to be uninstalled after first setting up the smartphone.
Coming to the camera setup, the X9b gets triple cameras at the rear – 108MP main camera, a 5MP ultra wide and depth camera and a 2MP macro camera. The primary camera captures social media worthy pictures under good lighting conditions. For selfies, you get a 16MP camera which again captures good quality pictures under good lighting conditions but performance under low light scenarios could have been better.
The most impressive bit about the smartphone is its battery life. The slim body neatly integrates a large 5,800mAh battery pack that easily lasts for about a day and half with moderate usage. It also supports 35W fast charging that tops up the smartphone in double quick time.
At ₹25,999, the Honor X9b isn’t the most powerful or best camera smartphone in its segment but it makes up for it with its impressive build and battery life. To conclude, the Honor X9b is a great choice for someone who wants a good looking smartphone that is well-built and can easily handle day to day tasks without having to make you frequently search for the charger.
₹ 25,999 onwards (8GB + 256GB)
