Here’s Another Budget Tablet Worth Considering

Here’s Another Budget Tablet Worth Considering

Review Verdict: While it has its fair share of limitations, HONOR has a good budget tablet offering with the Pad X8a especially for those who prioritize a good display. 

Pros

  • Premium build
  • Great display for its price

Cons

  • Slow charging speeds
  • Quad speakers are not as great

There are a handful number of good tablets you can buy for under Php 10,000, and HONOR has its offering with the Pad X8a. Armed with a price of Php 7,999, HONOR thinks that their offering is good enough against the competition. We tried the Pad X8a for a week to see if it’s up to par with what its rivals have to offer.

HONOR Pad X8a Review Philippines: Design

The Pad X8a’s design is similar to what we saw on the Pad X9 down to thwart camera module design and the shade of grey used for the aluminum unibody. That’s not a bad thing, as it shows that HONOR is consistent with its design language and positions the Pad X8a as a more affordable version. Aside from being slightly smaller, one of the key differences between the Pad X8a and Pad X9 is that you’re only getting a 4-speaker system.

That being said, the button and port layout of the Pad X8a is similar to the Pad X9, so you also get a USB-C port and miss out on the headphone jack. With many great wireless earphones out there, the omission of the headphone jack is not as bad as you think. Just like its more expensive sibling, the Pad X8a offered in the Philippines does not have a SIM slot for LTE connectivity. You do get a MicroSD card slot, so storage should not be a concern with the Pad X8a.

Going to the optional accessories, the Pad X8a gets a folio cover instead of a keyboard cover like the Pad X9, which is what we expected on a budget tablet. Just like other folio covers, the one for the Pad X8a folds up to prop the tablet up in landscape mode.

 

HONOR Pad X8a Review Philippines: Display and Speakers

One of the Pad X8a’s standout features is its display, where you get an 11-inch display with a Full HD resolution and a 90hz refresh rate. The display is usually where most budget tablets tend to compromise, and we’re happy to report that the Pad X8a’s display is just as good as the more expensive Pad X9. Aside from good colors, the Pad X8a offers a great maximum brightness range that makes it usable for outdoor use

While we have praise for its display, we can’t say the same for its speakers. While it does have a quad-speaker array, its soundstage is not as good as other tablets that settle for a dual-speaker system. We think this is more of an audio tuning concern–something that HONOR can address through future software updates.

 

HONOR Pad X8a Review Philippines: Cameras

Like the Pad X9, the Pad X8a also has a 5-megapixel rear camera and 5-megapixel front camera. While you’ll not likely use the Pad X8a to take photos and videos, its camera performance is similar to the Pad X9 especially since both tablets technically use the same processor.

HONOR Pad X8a Review Philippines: Internals and Battery

The Pad X8a is powered by a Snapdragon 680 processor, which is similar to the Snapdragon 685 used on the Pad X9 but with lower clock speeds on the performance cores. Like its more expensive sibling, you also get 4GB RAM and 128GB storage on the Pad X8a. 

While we appreciate that devices using the Snapdragon 680 are now priced at under Php 10k, this budget Qualcomm chip is more known for battery life over performance. You’ll have to manage expectations with the Pad X8a when it comes to multitasking, as its meager RAM and its use of eMMC storage means that app loading times can be slow–and the tablet tends to get slower when you have multiple apps open at once.

The PAd X8a comes with Android 14-based MagicOS 8 out of the box, and has minimal bloatware and proper optimizations for its form factor.

The Pad X8a comes with an 8300mAh battery, which is larger than the one found on the Pad X9. While PCMark’s battery benchmark test failed while we were testing it, real-life use of the Pad X8a got us at least a day’s worth of use before needing to charge it. Unlike the Pad X9, the Pad X8a lacks fast charging. With the included charger, it took almost four hours to fully top up the battery, so you’ll need to take note of that with the Pad X8a.

HONOR Pad X8a Review Philippines: Wrap-up and Conclusions

As HONOR’s most affordable tablet in the Philippines, the Pad X8a ticks most of the basics one is looking for in a budget tablet. While HONOR could have opted for a better processor, the Pad X8a makes up for it with a great display and a premium build.

HONOR Pad X8a Review Philippines: Price

The HONOR Pad X8a is priced at Php 7,999.

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1 Comment

  • eliong , December 14, 2024

    does this support OTG?

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