Honor X9a 5G Review – The most durable budget-friendly smartphone from Honor for 2023!

by Fanboy SEO · Published January 21, 2023 · Updated June 25, 2024

Here’s my Honor X9a 5G review which features a curved display, 5G capabilities, 64MP main camera and more!

First off, an unboxing video:

Honor X9a 5G Unboxing

Design

The design is pretty standard for an Android-based smartphone. I do have to commend them for giving us a sturdy phone that’s also super thin clocking in at 7.9mm super slim design!

A view for the top part of the smartphone

The front camera features a pinhole front camera and a super durable design too.

Here’s a look at the right hand side of the phone which houses the power button and the volume rocker/ controller

The bottom part of the smartphone features the forward firing speakers, the USB port and the SIM card dock

Left side of the smartphone which also gives us a a nice slim design which clocks in at 7.9mm slim body

Here’s the back of the Honor X9a 5G

Display

OLED Curved Display

One of the smartphone’s biggest feature would be the Premium OLED Curved Display which gives this phone an extra boost of sexiness. And just like it’s branding message, it really does feel premium and even better is the fact that you don’t need to shell out tens of thousands just to get this.

More on this curvature. It features a 45 degree golden curvature at the edge of the screen making it pleasing to the touch.

The screen also features OLED display featuring 1.07 billion colors display which restores the true tone of the world via your pictures and videos. The full screen brightness is 800 nits making clear whether you are using the phone during daytime and nightime.

honor x9a 5g

The other biggest selling point for this smartphone is the sheer durability of the screen. I actually dropped this on a moving tricycle and its still “alive and kicking”.

@popazrael ayaw talaga mabasag ito Honor X9a. sige go lang @thefanboyseo hahaa #honorph #honorx9a ♬ Suspense – ligarmusic

@thefanboyseo #honorx9a #premiumoledcurvedscreen #2daybattery #HONORX9a5G #techtok #fyp #geektokph #tiktokphilippines #foryoupage #geektalkph #geektalk #foryou ♬ original sound – FanboySEO

The HONOR X9a 5G features a Deeply Reinforced Glass which uses a 0.65mm and further enhanced to take 900MPa2 . Some of the tests that it can endure includes being a drop test, a steel ball impact test and a roll test with a car.

: The Honor X9a 5G getting run over by a car

: The Honor X9a 5G getting run over by a car

During the media junket, the phone was even pelted with pellets from a pellet gun and even dropped at a distance of 5 feet.

Camera

The zooming for the photo mode is pretty good too. The colors are tight and it doesn’t really look too tacky unlike other mid range smartphones.

There are a variety of modes to chose from when you use the camera. These include:

Pro mode
Panorama
HDR
Time-Lapse
Stickers
Super Macro
High-Res
Story

The front camera is pretty standard but it does take good quality photos (again considering the price range)

Selfies

I was impressed with the Night mode on this phone surprisingly.

Videos

For shooting videos there are several options to choose from. You can go for the recommended resolution which are the following:

1080p with a 16:9 aspect ratio
720p resolution with 21:9 aspect ration
720p res with 16:9 aspect ratio

Frame rate can go for 30fps or 30 frames per second. Here’s a sample of the video output.

UI and UX and other Details

The X9a 5G runs on Android 12 as well as Magic UI 6.1, the latest UI for the HONOR mobile phone brand. It’s got smooth interface that is made sleeker with the curvy edges of the phone. I honestly thought that this was a perfect phone to using swiping motion rather than the traditional three button setting in other smartphones. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 was a good choice to make for some great gaming experience too but I wouldn’t recommend maxing out the stats for games like Call of Duty or even Genshin Impact.

Battery Life

They weren’t lying when they said the phone can take a long time to drain. Below is a photo I took of the Honor X9a 5G, 48 hours since our trip to Tagaytay.

All that because of the phone’s 51mAh battery which even gets better when you find out that it’s doing fast-charging at around 40watts with the HONOR SuperCharge system.

Overall, the HONOR X9a 5G is a great “get” especially if you’re the outgoing type. You don’t have to worry too much about scratches or anything like that, it’s under P20,000 (officially priced at P16,990) and has decent to good camera. It’s great on the touch too with the curved OLED screen and charges very fast.

Follow me on Twitter at @thefanboyseo for more geek news and updates!