Honor Pad 9 Review: A Great Affordable Slate

Honor’s cut up from ex-parent firm Huawei has reinvigorated the corporate in Europe, significantly benefitting its smartphones and tablets. 

With the ability to entry all Google apps and providers is taken into account essential for Android units within the West – their omission on many Huawei merchandise is the primary motive we will’t advocate them. 

In the meantime, Honor has been excellent at making pill {hardware} for some time now, and that’s no completely different on the Pad 9, its reasonably priced 2024 slate to rival the iPad and different Android choices. 

On paper, it gives an array of premium options for an impressively low sub-£300 value. That largely interprets to good real-world utilization, although a few key shortcomings additionally come to the fore. 

Design & Construct

Premium aluminium and glass design 

No IP ranking 

No fingerprint sensor 

The Honor Pad 9 may be priced like a finances pill, nevertheless it seems and seems like a flagship. We’ve seen this mix of aluminium and glass numerous occasions earlier than, although it’s nonetheless spectacular on such an reasonably priced machine.  

The ‘House Grey’ mannequin I examined has a matte coating on the again, serving to to restrict the build-up of fingerprint smudges and different seen filth. It may be extra of a difficulty with the ‘Cyan Lake’ model, which seems like a vivid turquoise.  

Nonetheless, I’d advocate getting a case or cowl both approach. The machine nonetheless feels a bit slippery in my arms, and I’m usually anxious about it sliding off the desk. 

The distinctive round rear digital camera module (making it look much like the OnePlus Pad) helps a bit, given it stands out quite a bit from the again of the machine. Although that is pointless – rear cameras aren’t that vital on a pill, and the Pad 9 isn’t that skinny (6.96mm) anyway. 

At 555g, it’s heavier than each the Samsung Galaxy Tab A9+ and 2022 iPad (10.9-inch), even when each of these have smaller screens. Don’t fear, it’s nonetheless very comfy to carry for lengthy durations of time. 

Whereas the Pad 9 feels very effectively made, there’s no official IP ranking for mud or waterproofing. It ought to nonetheless be wonderful if briefly caught within the rain, however I wouldn’t advocate something extra excessive. Given how transportable it’s, that’s a little bit of a disgrace but additionally comprehensible on the value.

Clicky energy and quantity controls might be discovered on one facet, although the previous is unnecessarily fiddly. Urgent each buttons collectively merely takes a screenshot, whereas holding down the facility button solely triggers the Google Assistant initially, with round 5 seconds required for energy choices. 

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

The USB-C port is in its common place on the backside, however there’s no fingerprint sensor of any description. Whereas the front-facing digital camera works in a short time for face unlock, it’s a lot much less safe. 

Display screen & Audio system

12.1-inch LCD show 

120Hz refresh charge 

Quad stereo audio system 

The Honor Pad 9 is constructed round a big 12.1-inch, 2.5K (2560×1600) show. It’s solely an IPS LCD panel, however I actually didn’t miss having OLED. 

The display combines glorious element with wealthy, punchy colors, making it ideally suited to watching movies or gaming. Visibility can be excellent; the 628 nits of max brightness I recorded really exceeds Honor’s declare of 500 nits. Because of this, utilizing the machine outside on a vivid sunny day isn’t a difficulty. 

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

The show has a most refresh charge of 120Hz, although the default ‘Dynamic’ mode will routinely modify between it and the usual 60Hz. This offers you glorious fluidity and responsiveness to swipes and gestures with out the large hit to battery life, although you’ll be able to manually set it to 60- or 120Hz in the event you’d choose.

Nonetheless, dropping all the way in which all the way down to 1Hz depends on LTPO, a kind of OLED display. Nonetheless, even with out it, you’re most likely not lacking out on an enormous enchancment in energy consumption. 

The Pad 9 combines that excellent show with quad stereo audio system – two on the prime, two on the backside. They ship punchy, room-filling audio that avoids distortion, even at excessive volumes. Readability is excellent, although a scarcity of bass makes them finest suited to voice-based content material or extra stripped-back music. 

Even so, these are up there with the perfect audio system you’ll discover on an reasonably priced pill. There’s no 3.5mm audio jack, however until you’re in a public place, you received’t want to attach Bluetooth headphones more often than not. 

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

Specs & Efficiency

Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 and 8GB RAM 

256GB of storage 

No 5G choice 

On paper, the Honor Pad 9’s efficiency doesn’t sound like something particular. It’s powered by the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1, a mid-range Qualcomm chipset from 2022.

It combines with 8GB of RAM on the one mannequin obtainable in Europe, although there’s the choice so as to add 8GB of digital RAM. 

Given these common specs, I used to be shocked by simply how good efficiency is on the Pad 9. It speeds by all on a regular basis duties with ease, whether or not it’s net searching and emails or social media and YouTube. Shortly switching between them or utilizing split-screen multitasking isn’t a difficulty, both. 

Navigating round (utilizing both gestures or on-screen buttons) is fluid and responsive, with the 120Hz display coming into its personal. 

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

Nonetheless, I actually didn’t count on the Pad 9 to carry out this effectively whereas gaming. I examined 5 of essentially the most demanding titles obtainable on the Google Play Retailer – Asphalt 9, Name of Responsibility: Cellular, EA Sports activities FC Cellular, PUBG Cellular and Rocket League Sideswipe.  

There have been some dropped frames right here and there, however gameplay remained comparatively easy and controls had been very responsive. I’d haven’t any downside utilizing the Pad 9 as my major cell gaming machine, one thing which may’t be stated for a lot of low-cost tablets. 

Gaming is the one time the place you’ll discover the again of the machine bought fairly heat to the contact. Nonetheless, this didn’t seem to have any impact on efficiency, and by no means turned uncomfortably sizzling.

Honor Pad 9 benchmarks

The one model of the Pad 9 obtainable within the UK and Europe gives 256GB of inside storage. With no help for microSD growth and round 25GB taken up with system recordsdata, you’ll most likely must depend on cloud storage earlier than too lengthy relying in your utilization. That is one thing most individuals are already doing, although. 

Honor hasn’t specified which model of Wi-Fi the Pad 9 makes use of, although we do realize it options Bluetooth 5.1. That’s just about the place the connectivity ends, so that you miss out on each 5G (or any mobile knowledge) and NFC. 

Cameras

13Mp rear digital camera 

8Mp selfie digital camera 

Video as much as 4K at 30fps 

In contrast to on smartphones, the rear cameras on tablets aren’t significantly vital. That’s mirrored on the Pad 9, with Honor together with only one 13Mp shooter on the again. 

And let me simply get this out of the way in which… it’s not excellent.

Pictures are nearly satisfactory in well-lit environments, however are inclined to ship washed-out colors and there’s a constant battle with publicity. Dynamic vary and element are normally fairly good, although.  

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

Nonetheless, that every one goes out of the window when there’s much less lighting obtainable. Photographs usually develop into a blurry mess, with a lot of additional noise and underexposed topics. There’s no long-exposure night time mode in any respect, so you’ll be able to overlook about taking usable photographs as nightfall approaches. 

You do get a portrait mode throughout the digital camera app, nevertheless it doesn’t appear to do a lot. I couldn’t discover any distinction within the quantity of background blur between it and an everyday photograph. 

Apparently, I discovered the rear digital camera to be simplest for close-up photographs. Whereas there’s no macro mode, it tends to do a very good job with distinctive flowers or leaf patterns. 

Fortuitously, the 8Mp front-facing digital camera is far more spectacular – ignore the decrease megapixel rely. Selfies are usually well-exposed and supply a very good quantity of element, but keep away from the widespread tendency for overexposed backgrounds. 

See a variety of my digital camera samples within the gallery under:

Video might be captured in as much as 4K at 30fps, although the default 1080p at 30fps will likely be wonderful for most individuals. Each cameras have respectable element however have a tendency to clean out colors and have problem with publicity.  

A scarcity of OIS (optical picture stabilization) means they’re finest for eventualities the place you retain the machine in a single place, comparable to a video name. 

Battery Life & Charging

8300mAh battery 

35W charging 

Related charger within the field 

Honor has geared up the Pad 9 with an 8300mAh battery. That’s not precisely small, however battery life is disappointing.  

Throughout testing, it lasted 2-3 days between costs, although this was solely with an hour or two of utilization within the evenings. If I had been to make use of it as my primary productiveness machine, it wouldn’t make it by a full day. And pretty much as good because the Pad 9 is for gaming, it will deplete the battery in a short time. 

Our common PCMark battery benchmark check, which simulates real-world utilization at 200 nits of brightness, displays that. A rating of 8 hours and half-hour is under common, although it’s value noting that this was with the refresh charge set to a hard and fast 120Hz. 

By dropping all the way down to 60Hz, turning off location providers and enabling energy saving mode, you may get the Pad 9 to final for much longer on a single cost. Nonetheless, this will likely be at a giant value to the person expertise.  

Sadly, charging through USB-C is frustratingly gradual. The Pad 9 helps speeds as much as 35W, and the mandatory charger is included within the field (albeit with an EU plug in my case).  

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

Nonetheless, it nonetheless solely went from 0-17% in quarter-hour and 32% by the half-hour mark. A full cost took just below two hours – I used to be anticipating higher. 

Finally, the mix of mediocre battery life and comparatively gradual charging makes the Pad 9 a lot much less interesting. 

Software program & Apps

MagicOS 7.2 over Android 13 

No phrase on Android 14 replace 

Not clear what number of years of updates 

For some motive, the Honor Pad 9 isn’t operating the most recent model of Android at launch. As an alternative of Android 14, you’ll need to put up with MagicOS 7.2, which is predicated on Android 13. 

It’s not clear when the machine will likely be up to date, or how lengthy it’ll be supported by Honor. I actually hope it’s an enchancment on 2023’s Pad X9, which is just getting two years of OS updates and three years of safety patches. That actually isn’t adequate for a pill, even an inexpensive one. 

Regardless of these caveats, the precise software program expertise is best than you may count on. Certain, there are too many annoying additional apps (referred to as bloatware) and plenty of third-party apps aren’t optimised for the large display, however these are points that have an effect on many Android tablets. 

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

Total, the software program feels well-suited to the bigger display, with app icons, widgets and fast settings all sized appropriately. Similar to on an iPad, the latter is revealed through a swipe down from the top-right of the display, with notifications accessed from the top-left.

There are additionally some excellent multitasking options, with the choice to open two apps in split-screen mode and have a 3rd excessive as a floating window.  

In the event you personal an Honor telephone or laptop computer, there are a selection of additional ecosystem options, comparable to the power to share calls, notifications and app knowledge between units. Nonetheless, even with out them, MagicOS is one thing I genuinely loved utilizing on the Honor Pad 9. 

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

Value & Availability

Given the whole lot you’re getting right here, the Honor Pad 9 is priced very fairly.  

It prices £299.99 within the UK, direct from Honor. An early chook supply will get you the official Flip Cowl and a pair of Honor Earbuds X6 without cost – simply enter the voucher code ‘APD950’ at checkout. 

Alternatively, the pill is offered from Amazon, the place you may get the keyboard cowl included for a similar value by making use of the on-page coupon. – simply ensure you apply the on-page coupon to keep away from it being £349.99.

Nonetheless, it’ll virtually definitely by no means be offered within the US, so your finest guess is to try to import one in the event you dwell there. 

It sits on the higher finish of what we think about to be a finances pill, with the Samsung Galaxy Tab A9+ and Xiaomi Pad 6 as its primary rivals.

The common iPad from 2021 stays the perfect various on the Apple facet, with different fashions dearer. 

Must you purchase the Honor Pad 9?

The Pad 9 is a transparent success for Honor, providing a flagship pill expertise for a fraction of its common value. 

Its design, show, efficiency and audio system are all higher than you’d count on from such an reasonably priced slate. Even the software program, one thing I’m not normally a fan of on Honor telephones, is respectable right here.  

Nonetheless, there’s uncertainty concerning when it’ll get the most recent model of Android and the way lengthy Honor will present software program help. Even at launch, battery life and charging speeds aren’t pretty much as good as I’d count on them to be. 

Whether or not you purchase this pill will rely on how vital these shortcomings are, however there’s no scarcity of similarly-priced options.  

Specs

Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 chipset  

8GB RAM (as much as 8GB additional digital RAM) 

256GB storage  

12.1-inch 120Hz 2.5K (2560×1600) IPS LCD show  

Quad stereo audio system  

13Mp rear digital camera, f/2.0  

8Mp entrance digital camera, f/2.2  

USB-C  

WiFi (model unspecified) 

Bluetooth 5.1  

8300mAh battery  

Wired charging as much as 35W  

555g 

278.27 x 180.11 x 6.96mm  

Android 13 with MagicOS 7.2