Honor claims that its new mid-range smartphone, the Honor X9d, is “unbreakable”, and no this isn’t a homage to the M. Night Shyamalan classic starring Bruce Willis, but they mean it in the literal sense - it packs enough protective gear inside and outside to take a whole lot of body shots and shrug it off with ease.
But the phone also isn’t a one a trick pony either - it’s got a 108MP camera, a reasonably snappy Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 chipset, a 6.79” 120Hz OLED display, a massive 8300mAh battery pack, sleek profile, and the complete MagicOS 9.0 experience fitted with all of the AI features Honor has managed to come up for their Android skin.
Honor X9d
The Honor X9d delivers where it counts with exceptional durability, massive battery life, and a complete feature set, making it a solid mid-range choice for those who prioritize longevity over luxury.
Pros
- Genuinely impressive durability
- Bright 6000 nits OLED display
- Full MagicOS 9.0 experience with useful AI features
- Sleek profile and no camera bump
- Massive 8300mAh battery lasts two days easily
Cons
- Design feels like it's trying too hard to look premium
- Occasional UI sluggishness and stutters
- Camera performance is merely adequate
After using the phone for nearly a week, I can see the appeal of the Honour X9d. At AED 1299, there is enough value here to consider, although the overall package is expectedly mid-range. The OS feels slower and stutters here and there; the design has a ‘trying to look expensive’ feel; and the cameras are nothing to write home about. So while it’s built like a tank, it’s not designed to punch above its weight.
Design, Display and Features
The Honor X9d comes in a multitude of colours, such as Forest Green, Sunrise Gold, Midnight Black, and Reddish Brown, the last of which is what we got as our review unit. I don’t want to be too harsh about the design considering the price, but it’s simply not my vibe. It’s less about the colour scheme and how it's all been put together, which gives the impression that it's trying to look more expensive than it actually is.
The gold trimmings on the sides and camera ring, and the faux-leather back, make for an interesting combination, and the sleek profile makes the overall package work, but it doesn’t feel as premium as it's trying to pass off as. But hey, the design is functional and looks are subjective, and for that, the X9d is just fine in my books.
You will also notice there is no camera bump, which is refreshing. This could be because of the thickness of the phone and all of the protective gear Honor has fitted into it, but it’s appreciated. There is no wobble when the phone is placed flat on the desk.
So, let’s come to the “unbreakable” claim here. The X9d is fitted with a 6-layer drop-resistant structure and Ultra Bounce Anti-Drop Technology 3.0, which Honor claims is 112% stronger than its predecessor, as well as a shock-absorbing bracket reinforced back shell, and ultra-deep tempered glass, which helps it to disperse the force rather than take it on the body.
Honor says the phone has been tested to withstand drops on surfaces such as cobblestone, asphalt, tactile paving, and ten other types of stone ground, and as such it has both the Premium Performance Certification and the SGS 5-Star Comprehensive Reliability Certification to its name.
I haven’t exactly put the claims serverly to the test, but I have sloshed it around the house, smashing it against the wall and dropping it on the ceramic floor, and the phone seems to have managed to shrug it off. All of the pictures taken for this review are after smashing it around the house, and I couldn’t spot a single dent or scuff mark on the body, screen or anywhere else. This, in and of itself, is impressive, as most modern phones would have already taken some damage, but the X9d kept going.
I can’t say how it will hold up to routine abuse on more challenging surfaces, but the phone gives me confidence it will survive. To further appease your mind, the X9d also holds a Guinness World Record for the Highest Smartphone Drop, surviving a fall from 6.133 meters without a crack.
On the front, you have a 6.79” OLED display with 2640x1200 resolution and 120Hz refresh rate support, as well as all of the eye-protection features from Honor, such as dynamic dimming and other such accoutrements. It’s your standard OLED screen with vibrant colours and deep blacks, but more impressively, it can reach a whopping 6000nits of peak HDR brightness, so screen legibility under direct sunlight poses no problem whatsoever.
The camera module houses a 108MP main camera featuring a 1/1.67” large sensor with OIS and EIS stabilisation, as well as a 5MP ultrawide camera. A 16MP selfie camera is also present.
In terms of I/O, there isn’t much here. The top features a speaker grill and microphone, the right side has the volume and power buttons, and the bottom has another speaker grill along with the SIM card tray.
Cameras
The Honor X9d is fitted with a 108MP main camera and a 5MP ultrawide camera, and they are average at best. Honor usually has a firm grip over their camera performance, but considering the budget pricing, expectations need to be kept in check.
At best, the main camera is able to keep a good balance of highlights and colour reproduction in daylight shots, and presents a largely clean picture. But under scrutiny, things fall apart quickly. There is quite a bit of oversharpening on edges, plenty of compression even under light shadows, and there is a general lack of detail preservation.
The same can be said for 3x digital zoom, which again takes clean pictures, but doesn’t hold up when it comes to keeping the details intact. The cameras are good enough to view the images on the phone itself and share on social media, but not for any serious work.
The ultrawide camera is the least impressive one. There is plenty of fringing and bending on the sides, and the lack of detail preservation is exacerbated further due to the lower-quality sensor.
Nighttime shots exhibit the same problem with oversharpening and lack of clear details, but at the very least, it allows a lot of light in to present a very useable picture.
Benchmarks and Daily Performance
Our review unit of the Honor X9d came with the Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 chipset, along with 12GB RAM and 256GB of storage.
| Benchmark | Score |
|---|---|
| 3DMark Wild Life | 3802 |
| 3DMark Steel Nomad Light | 352 |
| Geekbench 6 CPU Single Core | 1092 |
| Geekbench 6 CPU Multi Core | 2094 |
| Geekbench 6 GPU | 2887 |
For all intents and purposes, the Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 chipset performs well with MagicOS 9.0. It’s zippy in daily tasks, the animations are smooth, and there are barely any slowdowns when switching between apps or when clicking pictures and sharing them in messaging and social media apps. Of course, the chipset is a bit old now, so expect a sluggish UI at times and occasional stutter, but nothing that stands out as an annoyance.
What I do appreciate about the Honor X9d is that it features the full-stack of MagicOS 9.0 features without compromise. You get the latest operating system, running on Android 15, as well as the full suite of Honor AI features, including AI Suggestions for apps, AI Subtitles and Translation, AI Writing, and even Call Translation.
You also get what is possibly my favourite feature across any Android phone - the Magic Portal. You can press and hold on images or text to evoke the Magic Portal and share it instantly to any other app in a single swipe. This gets rid of the limitations of Android phones in general of not being able to copy images and other multimedia from other apps, like X.com for example, and paste it on any other app - a feature that’s supported on iOS. It’s a clever workaround that makes sharing content a whole lot simpler.
Battery Life
The Honor X9d features possibly the largest battery capacity in its price bracket. The 8300mAh silicon-carbon cell provides enough juice to run through two days of heavy use, and still have enough left in the tank to keep you going before you need to plug it in. When I got the phone, it was around 70% charged, and even after setting it up and using it for the entire day —mostly doom-scrolling on Instagram and watching YouTube videos —I still ended the day with around 37% remaining.
I didn’t notice the phone getting too hot or even warm during use, or even after performing all of the benchmarks. This could be due to the multi-point temperature monitoring safeguards Honor has added, which keep a check on battery health and keep it ticking even under extreme heat or cold conditions. Honor also claims the battery features an anti-aging algorithm that ensures six years of ultra durability with a promise of maintaining performance even after years of use.
A 66W wired charger is included in the box, providing speedy recovery; however, there is no wireless charging. But it supports wired reverse charging, which provides around 7.5W to charge your earbuds or smartwatches, and with that massive battery pack, it won’t cause any major dent in the overall screen-on time, either.
Should you buy the Honor X9d?
The Honor X9d is a mid-range phone that does exactly what it says on the tin - it’s built like a tank, packs a massive 8300mAh battery that will last you two days easy, and won’t break the bank at AED 1299.
Sure, the design is a bit try-hard with all the gold trimmings and faux-leather, the camera is just okay, and the OS stutters here and there, but none of that really matters when you have got a phone that can take a proper beating and still keep going.
If you are clumsy, need battery life that goes on forever, and want something reliable without spending flagship money, the X9d is a solid shout. Just don’t expect it to punch above its weight—it’s all about durability and endurance, not flash.
