HONOR announced four new mid-range smartphones under its HONOR X-series lineup. I get to try out its upper midrange, the HONOR X9 5G 3 weeks before its global launch last week.

I did a FastView of the device and you can watch it here

HONOR X9 5G Specification

The first thing that catches my eye is the huge Oreo size camera bump and color-shifting satin matte finish back cover. it looks and feels very premium, especially the ultra-narrow bezels display.

Both the volume rocker and power button are positioned on the right and the fingerprint scanner is embedded on the power button. Due to the ultra-narrow bezel on the top, the earpiece has moved to the top body frame.

You will find the single down-firing speaker, USB C, and SIM card tray at the bottom. There’s no microSD card slot for storage expansion.

Overall, the build of this device is pretty solid and doesn’t feel cheap at all, I do adore the back cover and eye-catching camera bump ring.

Display

HONOR X9 5G touted a large 6.82-inch HONOR FullView display with an extremely high 94% screen-to-body ratio, this is thanks to the ultra-narrow size bezels. The refresh rate is adjustable between a standard 60Hz and 120Hz when you need it for gaming or supported apps.

You can personalize the color temperature to soothe your eye. It also has a few features to protect your eyes including, Dark Mode, eBook mode, and Eye Comfort. It even received TuV Rheinland Low Blue Light certification, so you can use it without worry.

It’s a pretty decent panel for gaming and media consumption.

Camera

Camera is the thing, the HONOR X9 5G falls short. It is equipped with a triple rear camera setup; 48-megapixels and two 2-megapixels cameras which I find less useful. There’s no ultrawide lens which is pretty standard for all modern smartphones now.

The wide aperture f/1.8 lens on the 48-megapixel main camera is able to pick up details even in lowlight situations. It also can capture depth shallow field with a close-up object, which leads to the reason why the macro lens is useless. The 2-megapixels macro lens has only a fixed focus and fewer details, the photos look washed and soft like taken from a potato camera.

When coming to night photography, it lacks AI enhancement where the images turned grainy and there’s no Night Mode option in the camera app.

Here are some photos were taken with the HONOR X9 5G

Worth to mention that the HONOR X9 5G only supports 1,080p video recording and no image stabilization, not even EIS.

Performance

Under the hood is the 6nm process processor, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 with 5G capability, paired with 8GB of RAM and 128GB internal storage.

Launching and switching between apps are seamless with no stutters. It can handle modern games like Asphalt 9 and Genshin Impact with no issue in medium graphics settings.

HONOR X9 5G is Google Mobile Services supported and you can downloads apps from Google Play Store but I’m not sure why Netflix is not available where I need to sideload like those days without Google Play Store. I’m sure a software update would resolve this issue very soon.

Here are some benchmark test results with AnTuTu V9 and Geekbench 5

Battery

In real life test, I manage to play 2 hours of Asphalt 9 and 2 hours of movie streaming on Netflix with 43% battery left, which are impressively good. The 4,800mAh battery on the HONOR X9 5G supports 66W HONOR SuperCharge, where you get to top up to 80% in just 30 minutes. So you don’t need to worry forgot to charge your device at night and it can be topped up for a full-day use while preparing yourself for the day.