Honor hasn’t launched a new smartphone in India since it launched the Honor 90 back in September 2023, but the brand is now ready to debut a model called Honor X9b. While the launch is slated for February 15, here we are with the first impression of the upcoming Honor X9b to give you an early look at the device.
Honor X9b: In-box contents
The Honor X9b comes in a box that contains a decent amount of accessories but misses out on a vital one. It comes with a USB-A to USB-C cable, manuals, a SIM ejector tool, and a transparent silicone case. You might have noticed that we didn’t mention the charger, and that’s because it doesn’t exist inside the box. Identical to the Honor 90, the Honor X9b doesn’t come with a charger. It has to be confirmed by the brand on the launch day whether they will provide the charger separately at no extra cost or for a fee like other brands do.
Honor X9b: It’s all about the looks and durability
As the heading suggests, the Honor X9b is playing on its looks, and it’s proud of that, too. The handset we got was black in the shade with a huge circular camera module surrounded by two golden rings, out of which the one on the outside has ridged edges, similar to iQOO 12. It can be a little difficult to clean around these edges as they collect dust.
There’s a triple rear camera setup along with a flash, and these cameras are yet to be tested out by us. Aside from that, the handset screams premium with its matte finish back panel, making it a bit slippery. The orange variant has a leather finish. Due to the curved edges on both front and back, the Honor X9b feels like one of the slimmest handsets we have used. It’s also lightweight to hold in the hand for and accounts for a comfortable overall form factor.
Honor is also consistently advertising the durability of its Honor X9b, and to test it out, we threw the device multiple times on the floor with the screen facing down and from the stairs as well, and so far, the device is holding up well. There are some scuffs that we can observe on the frame, but the display, which is usually one of the most fragile parts of a smartphone, doesn’t seem to have any scratches or cracks. It seems like Honor wasn’t lying when it was claiming that the Honor X9b can withstand multiple drops without breaking a sweat.
The 6.78-inch display claims to have 1200 nits brightness, a 1.5K Resolution with a 120Hz refresh rate, and a 100% DCI-P3 wide colour gamut. This display is bright and vivid alongside being durable. The viewing angles also seem impressive while the overall responsiveness is on point.
The model we got had 8GB RAM and 256GB storage. The Honor X9b is powered by the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1, which, in our first impression, was handling the device well for smooth usage. It runs on MagicOS 7.2 which is based on Android 13 and that’s something unacceptable considering most smartphones are now coming out with Android 14. Nevertheless, it came pre-installed with the January 2024 security patch, which was encouraging to observe.
The software seems to have some elements inspired by iOS, such as the volume bar and its animation. However, it feels much more polished than what we saw on Honor 90 and also seems to have fixed some of the quarrels we have had with it.
Overall, we know for sure that the Honor X9b isn’t compromising on one part, and that’s the look it sports. The X9b looks premium and feels so light in the hand. We’ll talk more about software, cameras, haptics, speakers, battery life and performance in general in our full review of the Honor X9b, so stay tuned for that.
