The HONOR X9c goes official in the Philippines roughly a year after the X9b. The X9b is one of HONOR’s best-selling phones for 2024, which means that the X9c does have big shoes to fill.
As the successor to one of HONOR’s best phones in 2024, what’s new in the X9c? Having reviewed both phones (and also tested their durability), let’s talk about the differences between the X9c and X9b:
Build
Unlike with the X9b where you can choose either a glass or vegan leather back, all colorways of the X9c use a flexible polycarbonate panel that’s more resilient against drops. The X9c also uses an aluminum internal frame, which is why it’s a few grams heavier and has better drop resistance than the X9b.
Outside of improved drop resistance, the biggest change on the X9c is its IP rating, where you get IP65 This makes the X9c more resistant against water jets compared to the X9b that only has an IP54 rating.
Display and speakers
While both phones have a 120hz curved AMOLED panel that’s roughly the same size, the X9c has a pill-shaped cutout since the selfie camera is accompanied by an ambient light sensor. The display on the X9c is also brighter, boasting a peak brightness of 4000nits compared to the 1200nits peak brightness on the X9b.
Another upgrade on the X9c is with the speakers, as HONOR finally equipped them with stereo speakers.
Cameras
On paper, you’re getting the same set of shooters on both the X9b and X9c with a 108-megapixel main camera, 5-megapixel ultrawide camera, and 16-megapixel selfie camera. The X9c ditches the macro camera of the X9b, and adds OIS to the main camera to make it perform better in low light and to allow it to take more stable videos at 4K resolution.
How about the image quality? To be honest, we barely saw any difference between the two, and that’s expected since you’re dealing with practically the same hardware down to the processor. The only difference we notice is the OIS in the main camera being helpful for reducing instances of taking blurry shots at night.
Internals
With all the upgrades the X9c offers, it is similar to the X9b with the processing package. Both phones use a Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 processor that’s paired with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage. There’s a 512GB variant for the X9c, but that’s only offered in Malaysia.
Several people question HONOR’s decision to use the same processor on the X9c, but based on previous tests, the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 is a decent chip for its price point, being able to run demanding games like Genshin Impact at medium graphics without any worries.
Battery
The biggest upgrade on the X9c is the battery, as HONOR used its silicon-carbon tech to stuff in a huge 6600mAh battery that trumps over the already big 5800mAh cell on the X9b. That results in the X9c having longer battery life overall–all while having the same 8mm thickness as the X9b, which is an impressive feat.
To go along with the bigger battery, HONOR also upgraded the charging speeds to 66w–which is significantly faster than the 35w charging supported by the X9b.
Price
Now here’s the best part: with all the upgrades the X9c has to offer, HONOR managed to keep the price at Php 16,999, which is the same price as the X9b at launch. In short, if you chose to skip the X9b for the X9c, you’re getting better value for money with the latter especially if upgrades in durability and battery matter a lot to you.
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