Nowadays, you wouldn't think that tablets are uncommon. Sure, some people would never bother getting one. But there's enough interest that brands want to make them. For example, brands like Honor with its Honor Pad X9.
The company's latest tablet was launched here last month, offering Malaysians an Android tablet on the more affordable side. It has modest specs but a sleek design, so the value is quite good. But is it good enough for RM1099, and should you get one for yourself? Well, maybe this review will help you decide.
At a glance, you'd think the Honor Pad X9 is a premium tablet; it certainly looks the part. The device comes with an elegant, grey-coloured body that feels smooth to the touch. Of course, the body is made of plastic. That's why it can be priced at RM1099 but still look good. However, the plastic body does make it more prone to collecting scratches if you're not careful.
11.5-inch screen on the front
Rear cameras
Close up of the rear cameras
Besides the body, there are a few things you can immediately see. First, there's an oblong-shaped camera island on the back. Despite its size, it only consists of one 5MP camera. Nothing impressive, but that's fine since the device wasn't meant for photography. It's also too bulky for that, so I never bothered taking any pictures with it. On the flip side, the front camera is the more useful one. Placed along the right side, you can use it like a webcam when the tablet is in landscape orientation.
Next, the power and volume buttons are on the right. They're small but are stiff enough, so there's less chance of pressing them by mistake. There are also six speakers, two each for the top, left, and bottom. That's more than what you'd see on a typical entertainment-focused tablet. Finally, there's also a USB-C port for charging and data.
Right: Volume buttons and power button
Left: SIM tray (supports 4G LTE and microSD)
So, Honor obviously wants you to rely on the speakers here. But what if you wanted to use headphones? Unfortunately, this tablet doesn't have a 3.5mm audio jack or an adapter for wired headphones. That means you'll need a USB-C adapter or stick to wireless earbuds or headphones. It does have a SIM tray with a microSD card slot supporting up to 1TB of extra storage, so you could store plenty of photos, music, and videos.
Speaking of the SIM tray, let's talk about the Honor Pad X9's specs. The phone packs a Snapdragon 685 4G chipset, so you have mobile Internet access wherever you go. Mind you, it doesn't perform differently compared to regular phones or tablets. However, I found that having immediate online access is very convenient for cases when you need to quickly show documents, like a proposal on Google Slides or an article draft on Google Docs.
Top: Two speakers
Bottom: USB-C port and the other set of speakers
Besides that, the tablet has 4GB of RAM plus up to 3GB of extended RAM via the Honor RAM Turbo feature. Too bad it only has 128GB of storage, but that's why I appreciate the inclusion of microSD card support. Other key specs to note are the 11.5-inch IPS display and 7250mAh battery. Oh, and before I forget, every purchase of the Honor Pad X9 comes with a free Bluetooth keyboard. I'll also discuss that below, as it's part of the package.
So, what can you do with the Honor Pad X9? It can more or less do everything you can on a smartphone, such as typing documents, sketching, watching videos, and playing mobile games. In particular, the keyboard helped a lot with productivity tasks. Unfortunately, the included Bluetooth keyboard doesn't feature a trackpad, which would have made tasks like dragging and dropping images from the browser to WPS Office easier. You could get a stylus or Bluetooth mouse, which I happened to have. But none of that is included with the tablet, so keep that in mind.
Top-down view of the smart keyboard's layout
How about performance? For general usage, the Snapdragon 685 4G chipset and 4GB RAM (+3GB extended RAM) were enough for the Honor Pad X9 to handle most applications. There was no lag when using the Google Chrome web browser or apps like Facebook and YouTube, and opening two of them side-by-side in split-screen mode was great when I wanted to do product research. Split-screen might even be good for editing TikTok videos or YouTube Shorts, thanks to the layout of the apps switching more or less to portrait mode.
Where I found the setup most useful was with writing articles. I can have a Google Chrome tab on a subject I'm writing about on a split-screen, and the other screen has the document I'm typing on using WPS Office. The transition of copying text or dropping images from one to another was quite fluid, so the working experience on it was pleasant enough. Having said that, it took a while to get used to working on the relatively tiny keyboard. There was also no place to rest my palms, so it was uncomfortable to type for long hours. But it was adequate for short writing sessions.
The keyboard is nice, but doesn't have a wrist rest or trackpad
Like all tablets, the large screen size makes the Honor Pad X9 a good choice for digital sketching or drawing. I'm no artist, but you could buy a compatible stylus and write, sketch, or draw on this tablet. Honor didn't include one with the Honor Pad X9, so those with artistic inclinations will have to buy one separately. Also, not every stylus would work with this tablet. Or at least the Huawei M-Pencil we had in the office wouldn't work with it.
Next, I tested the tablet's gaming prowess, mainly with Asphalt 9 and Honkai: Star Rail. In Asphalt 9, the tablet could only play it in default video settings instead of high. The good news was that the gameplay was pretty smooth and showed no stutters, which means the chipset can handle this game. It didn't look that bad either. Mind you, this isn't a very demanding game. But it's flashy and colourful, so you can see how the display performs.
Asphalt 9 is playable and looks okay, but don't expect the graphics to dazzle you
The same couldn't be said for more demanding titles like Honkai: Star Rail. Sure, the game is playable and doesn't crash. But you'll have to run it at "Very Low" video settings, 30FPS, and with special effects like Bloom disabled. Despite that, it still has noticeable frame drops in various instances, resulting in stutters like when the game is loading or when too many things happen on screen. If you ask me, there's no way you could enjoy a video game in that condition, so it might as well be unplayable. But this tablet isn't exactly designed for gaming. It's more of a productivity device with some video streaming on the side, and that's fine.
The Honor Pad X9 also had decent battery life. On average, it can usually last a full day if I just browse the Internet and do some work on the side. Of course, the power consumption noticeably increases if you play games. But it would still last roughly a good 6 hours after I spend about an hour playing my usual mobile games. Since that's not really the main purpose of this tablet, it would usually still have plenty of battery left by the end of the day if you use it for stuff like browsing the Internet or writing articles.
Honkai: Star Rail is BARELY playable, but you'll get lots of stutters due to frame drops
As for watching videos, the Honor Pad X9 was comparatively less power-hungry. I could watch an hour or two of movies on Netflix or some YouTube videos, and the battery life would remain healthy. On average, the tablet would drain about 5% of power for every 30 minutes of video. In theory, that means you could watch up to 10 hours of videos (on 720p) before the battery dies. Of course, that doesn't mean you should binge videos on this tablet. But if you ever need to, like when you're boarding a flight and need entertainment, the option is there.
Overall, the Honor Pad X9 has a little bit of everything, which can be good if you're a student or professional looking for a flexible device. If you're looking for a tablet with a decent screen size, good performance, and a keyboard to do some work, then you can't go wrong with this one. At RM1099, it's also a good deal since you get the keyboard for free. The only thing it's not great at is gaming, plus there are some stylus that might not work on it.
Good screen, handy keyboard, and an attractive price point
There are other alternatives if you want something more suitable for gaming. For instance, the Xiaomi Pad 6 launched in July 2023. It has a more powerful Snapdragon 870 chipset, up to 8GB of RAM, a quad-speaker setup, Dolby Vision support, Hi-Res Audio, and more. It can also be paired with the official 2nd-gen Xiaomi Smart Pen, albeit as an optional purchase. For RM1299, it's not a bad deal.
Of course, there are other tablets with superior capabilities and specs. But those would generally cost much more, like the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 series (RM3699 and more), Red Magic Gaming Tablet (~RM2504), and Xiaomi Pad Max (~RM2425). The upcoming Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE could be a viable alternative when it launches later this year.
Tech Specs and Features
Here are the tech specs and features for the Honor Pad X9:
- Dimensions - 267.3 x 6.9 x 167.4 mm (W x D x H)
- Weight - 499g
- Chipset - Qualcomm Snapdragon 685
- RAM - 4GB RAM + 3GB virtual RAM
- Storage - 128GB + up to 1TB via microSD
- Display - 11.5-inch (2000 x 1200, IPS LCD, 5:3 aspect ratio, 120Hz)
- Cameras - 5MP camera (rear, f/2.2), 5MP (front, f/2.2)
- Battery - 7250mAh
- Connectivity - 4G LTE, Bluetooth 5.1, USB-C
- Others - Smart Bluetooth Keyboard included
- Operating System - MagicOS 7.1 (Android 13)
Pros and Cons
Pros - Good screen, Bluetooth keyboard included, speakers are quite good, and it has 4G LTE access
Cons - Can't really game on it. Works for only certain styluses
Summary - A great option if you want an affordable tablet with decent performance and a free keyboard
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